This has nothing to do with the bungling done in recent past by our celebrated diplomats abroad. No I am referring to the day to day diplomacy, which we street smart Indians employee, with much better elegance than our appointed diplomats.
I have been driving my bike around in Delhi for abt 6 months now. Those who drive will agree with me that when you are at a new place identifying red lights are most difficult. Especially in our country when half the time they don’t even work. Thus jumping the red light is the most common transgression committed by a driver in India. Hence I must be pardoned for getting caught violating this simple law 3times already. The first two times it happened around CP (Connought Place) which for me has become the most confusing round-about in the world. I had no idea where the red lights were and was actually more concerned about finding my way tat I became easy prey for the scary Delhi Police. On both these occasions I escaped paying a simple fine.
The third time I got caught was on my regular route, during my journey back to home from office. From a distance I saw that the green light had started blinking. It turned yellow by the time I crossed the zebra lines. As my bike doesn’t have a reverse gear and seeing cars which have reverse gears still proceeding I also decided to take the plunge. As I just passed the crossing the lights turned red and there waiting with open arms were the cops. Naturally I was the only driver to be pulled up. The reason I was the last to cross after the light became yellow. My argument that shouldn’t the first person be pulled up cause he tempted the others to follow suit apparently fell on deaf ears. They checked my license and other papers while I continued my argument about the light being still yellow doesn’t mean you should stop etc. Finally fed up with my arguments, and possibly after hearing quite a lot of English words being interspersed with my still fragile Hindi, they asked what I was doing. The response I got when I told my companies name is something that I have seen many times in various places of North India - respect.
Till then I was the one calling them sir but all of a sudden the power formulae changed. The officer who caught me had a relative in the outskirts of delhi who required a gas connection. Seeing an opportunity in me he changed his stand bringing in the street smart diplomacy I was talking about. I assured him I will do all I can after he took my number and confirmed I dint give him a fake one by giving a missed call immediately. I went scot-free but my joy was soon overcome with the prospect of explaining to my boss about helping out some random person living in some far flung area.
Fortunately it’s been some months now and I am yet to receive any calls from the person. So hopefully his gas issues got resolved without my intervention. But it does make you wonder whether the IFS officers need to be trained on how to be street smart by these experienced diplomats.
I have been driving my bike around in Delhi for abt 6 months now. Those who drive will agree with me that when you are at a new place identifying red lights are most difficult. Especially in our country when half the time they don’t even work. Thus jumping the red light is the most common transgression committed by a driver in India. Hence I must be pardoned for getting caught violating this simple law 3times already. The first two times it happened around CP (Connought Place) which for me has become the most confusing round-about in the world. I had no idea where the red lights were and was actually more concerned about finding my way tat I became easy prey for the scary Delhi Police. On both these occasions I escaped paying a simple fine.
The third time I got caught was on my regular route, during my journey back to home from office. From a distance I saw that the green light had started blinking. It turned yellow by the time I crossed the zebra lines. As my bike doesn’t have a reverse gear and seeing cars which have reverse gears still proceeding I also decided to take the plunge. As I just passed the crossing the lights turned red and there waiting with open arms were the cops. Naturally I was the only driver to be pulled up. The reason I was the last to cross after the light became yellow. My argument that shouldn’t the first person be pulled up cause he tempted the others to follow suit apparently fell on deaf ears. They checked my license and other papers while I continued my argument about the light being still yellow doesn’t mean you should stop etc. Finally fed up with my arguments, and possibly after hearing quite a lot of English words being interspersed with my still fragile Hindi, they asked what I was doing. The response I got when I told my companies name is something that I have seen many times in various places of North India - respect.
Till then I was the one calling them sir but all of a sudden the power formulae changed. The officer who caught me had a relative in the outskirts of delhi who required a gas connection. Seeing an opportunity in me he changed his stand bringing in the street smart diplomacy I was talking about. I assured him I will do all I can after he took my number and confirmed I dint give him a fake one by giving a missed call immediately. I went scot-free but my joy was soon overcome with the prospect of explaining to my boss about helping out some random person living in some far flung area.
Fortunately it’s been some months now and I am yet to receive any calls from the person. So hopefully his gas issues got resolved without my intervention. But it does make you wonder whether the IFS officers need to be trained on how to be street smart by these experienced diplomats.
