Today on my way to office, while crossing from Thane to Mumbai I noticed heavy police build-up on the Mumbai side of the toll naka. Mumbai Police & Rapid Action Team was camped there in full force. Mumbai Police personnel were randomly (with logic of their own) flagging bikers for checking.
Surprising to me, I was flagged and asked to slow down for checking. It was my heavy helmet and probably dark sun glasses. Checked my license and asked for vehicle documents. I noticed all around me at least 8-10 bikers were being frisked for documents, bag content, vehicle content. I alighted from my bike to open the document compartment under my seat. I noticed the police man was staring intensely at my Company ID Badge.
While I was working to get the documents, police man asks me 'TATA madhye kamala ka ?' (Are you working for TATAs). He checked my Company ID, once more time and said 'Paper nako, ja' (Papers not required, you can go). Document check, bag check was all skipped. Without a second thought the police man resumed his duty of scanning further incoming traffic.
Incident can be interpreted in multiple ways, but it was an positive experience which I thought I should share with some of you.
Hey Amol, this may seem positive but I see carelessness. Somebody looking as sincere as you do posing a id from Tata can easily skip through and cause damage. Things are pretty loose in India, we do need to thight it up even if that means some unconvenience to us locals.
ReplyDeleteexactly my thoughts Deven. I am not sure if we have stringent back-ground checks before hiring too. In India usually back-ground check is limited to verifying the past employment only. If the rules are to be applied they must be applied to all equally. Of course, police may have assessed your body language. In my opinion, the questions are just to make you talk and listen to any symptoms of nervousness.
ReplyDeleteHey Deven, Are you Deven from UK ? Just a comment, Though this note was composed by me for the first part of the article 'pride in my company', I agree, 2nd point is =lly important. Not sure what everyone's experience has been, but in my past experience I have actually witnessed 3 BGC evictions, one of them being non-employment, non-academic. So I think India is giving due rational to BGC and we are improving ...
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