Tale of a kind cop

Yesterday, I got off my bus at the IP metro station. It was 7:15 in the evening. Since it was our wedding Anniversary, I had to get home fast.

I was already late by a couple of hours.

I’d decided to catch an auto. I hailed one. I expected him to fleece me of a good 30/40 rupees of what should actually be the fare. Anyway, got into one, told him I’m in a great deal of hurry. Right then a traffic policeman came and told him forcefully to charge the fare as per the meter reading.

I was mildly surprised. We went about a 500 meters, when the driver put the brakes to the auto rickshaw. He began arguing with me, as to why I should catch an auto from the opposite side of the road and how he has to take a u turn to take me to Mukherjee Nagar.

One thing that a Delhi girl knows is to not argue with anyone too late in the day and especially so if the stretch is a deserted place.

I got off that auto, as I expected this to happen anyway. I yelled the worst curse word I know, once I was out of his earshot, to ensure that I don’t fall into any more trouble.

I walked back to the auto-stand off sorts, right under the IP metro station. I ran into the same traffic policeman. I told him about the incident. I did not expect what came next.

He hailed another auto, scribbled the registration number of the auto and a phone number on a piece of paper. He told me to call on the cell phone number in case of an emergency. He warned the driver to not pull any kind of trick on me. The driver didn’t seem scared or anything of this lanky policeman.

I say thanks to everyone – to the guy who serves me food in the cafeteria, the pantry boy when he brings my tea, to the vegetable vendor etc. I just sat in the auto but did not thank this exception of a guy standing in front of me.

I’ll always regret that. But this is hindsight.

My thoughts on that auto ride were of a different nature.

Once he started, I expected that he’d miss the U-turn and take the longer route. Through the entire route I expected him to tell me to get off his auto. I got home safe and for the first time I came to know that IP metro station is 15km away from my door step! I paid him 5 rupees on top of the fare. I didn’t have to do that. I think I did that because it my anniversary.

Once home, I was thinking that I was feeling so deeply thankful to this guy for simply doing his job. That’s how every cop should behave. But sadly, in Delhi these kinds of incidents are exceptions and not a norm. All the same, I wish to thank this guy from the bottom of my heart. For making me little lesser a cynic than I am about the city I belong to.