Weird Ways of Pune Police

Last night at 1:30 AM I was stopped by the police, while I was asking some address to a watchman on the Koregaon Park Road. Yours truly, had decided to do "Haroon-al-Rashid" on town of Pune. To the best of one's knowledge, this is an absolutely legal activity. The problem though, in this great democratic country, is a law by name of "special police act" which gives them right ot stop any citizen and question him/her, which an erring office-holder misuses once in a while.

The inefficient and corrupt policeman in this case, wanted to know why I was there at that hour. Upon being explained that I was there to enjoy the weather, he wanted to know why I could not do it for all of three years of my residence in Pune. And if I was going to be posted outside Pune next month, why I could not check the same Pune weather on the internet!! (At this point in time, yours truly was truly ipressed thinknig this man was aware of rssweather.com, Yahoo! Widgets or Forcastfox plug-in for Firefox browser )

He also had problems with the fact the the rickshawalla was Dhankavdi based and had taken a fare from Kothrud to Karve Road!!! Finally, the defeated cad had his enquiry about my education. Yours truly, a proud engineer promptly dished out the name of premium Indian institute that he had attended years ago. The uneducated rogue loudly wondered if all this education was worth it!!!

I really think this stupidity should be stopped. The same police duo was hassling a lot of men and women who were returning home after a party at ABC farms, possibly. (This was the checkpoint, your truly and his rickshawalla had missed and therefore enquired their whereabouts with a watchman on the road).

I am sure the same rougue would have tolerated rudeness no part of a drunken son of a government official. It is a shame that law-abiding citizens like yours truly are hassled at the hands of nincompoops described above even after 60 years of independence (give or take a year) It was clear to me, this guy simply wanted some money out of me.

When I bade the two government rogues "good night" the uneducated thug snapped "what good night? we have to work all night"

On the way back, The rickshawwalla was fairly upset and said we could have beaten the police. Yours truly impressed upon the driver that it wasn't the most sensible thing to do

Interestingly, I have been out on Mumbai streets late night and have never been stopped by special police who are smart enough to differentiate between, "the educated fun-loving people" of this country and the miscreants.

Shame on you Pune Police for hassling the educated. Keep your frustrations in check or there will be a legal backlash.