Independent India

India celebrates 150 years to its first fight for independence, and 60 years of independence.In last one week, things which happened around me, make me feel, that nothing has changed, except that earlier Powerful British exploited weak Indians and now, Powerful Indians exploit average, middle class Indians. Last week I had to visit a bank nearby, i took my bike n parked it on the pavement besides a tree. To my surprise, when I came out of bank, after a rough 2.5 hours, where bank officers enjoyed most of the time in tea/coffee breaks and chit chatting to each other, my bike was missing. I was very coolly told by the bank guard that the traffic department had taken my bike for parking in “No Parking”. No Parking besides a tree? On pavement of a bank?

I went to the local police station and the traffic in charge, instead of charging me for wrong parking, asked for all sought of papers, NOC, PUC, TAX, Insurance, DL, blah blah, blah… and after he showed no signs for consideration, I asked him what I must have asked to save a lot of time… “How much”? He gladly said 500, I refused, and finally he let me off for 400.My only crime, I am using a bike of KL (Kerala) registration in KA (Karnataka).

Only two days later, I was robbed in broad day light on a busy main street of Bangalore, BTM II nd stage, Udipi Gardens. He took nothing less than Rs 13,990/-, price of my 1.5 month old Nokia N70 mobile phone. In a state of huge shock, I went to nearby police station, where the constable ridiculed me for my “carelessness” and the sub inspector refused to take the FIR. Finally I got to meet the inspector, after a lot of “interrogation”, which almost made me feel like a criminal myself, he agreed to take the complaint, but refused to take the FIR. In an independent India, an engineer of a reputed firm like Wipro Technologies fails to register a FIR, which by the way is “right” of any citizen of “free” India. I can only imagine what a poor, uneducated, or say a rural Indian might be going through to file a FIR. It only explains to me how cases like Nithari go unnoticed for years.

But the tale of free India is not over yet, I go to Nokia priority dealer to get my mobile blocked, who in turn suggests me not to waste time on all this, as police will not give you an fir, and even if you have an FIR we cannot block a GSM phone, Untill the service provider (Hutch in my case) provides me with a letter stating that after FIR the mobile has been found in use, and further blocked by the company. I went to Hutch care shop, where I was enlightened about the fact that this can be done by a service provider, only if they would have paid there tax on time, which by the way only BSNL does. So even after I try hard to get justice for myself, I have been rendered helpless, speechless and desolated in all this happening only to say………… Mera Bharat Mahan! Jai Hind!!