It was just another day..
10:30 am reached office
1:30 pm had lunch
4:30 pm coffee break
7:30 pm left office
But that was it.. what followed was just something out of a movie.
Hrishi, my colleague was sitting behing my bike and we were cruising comfortably on the inner ring road ( for non bangaloreans , its the life line for travellers between Koramangala to Airport Road). As usual, the roads were jam packed ( Gosh ! i wish we had elevated roads) . I was waiting at the signal and waiting to hit my friend's place to have some cooked Food. As the traffic slowly moved, suddenly from no-where an indica Cab decided to take a left turn and Bham ! there was a collision. When time stopped, i could see that i was with my friend on the road with the bike just waiting to fall on us.
To make matters worse, this cab guy came rushing towards us .. shouting in Kannanda ( certainly the offensive one ) and pushed our bike down. That was it. The Nuclear Reactor had achieved the "threshold mixture" . I had taken it much enough. Suddenly all those moments that i had faced as a non-bangalorean splashed in front of me. the time when in the innovative Multiplex the guards charged upon us, but we gave up. the time when innumerable auto guys had taken advantage of us.. the time when my friend was threatened in an PCO to not take "panga" with the locals. I knew this was the time i would give back all that i have got. it had to be this "cab driver".
I was no longer bothered about my bike lying on the middle of the road( it might have created a traffic jam as long as 2 km for 10 mins). This time he came charging at me and i gave him the one "wack" which would have made him remind his "forefathers" . But it seems he was getting nostalgic.. he wanted more of it.. so i gave it to him, with the purest devotion. He seemed to be liking it. so i had to suffice him with a few more. Basically he was no match for the Giant i was.
After a good free "5 minutes" action for the crowd, suddenly people from no where emerged. It seems it was a disgrace for the cab drivers and auto drivers that one of their people got hit in the middle of the road. So a few auto drivers asked me the question .." how come u beat a common man ? We are the"public" . i replied .. "I am an indian. I am also the public. I pay my taxes . And i have the right to stand for my rights. ( Ok i know i crossed the line).It seemed they all wanted to pounce on me. But as i said. it was my day. i had reached my "threshold" value enough to fission. It was my Day, every Dog has its day. The auto guys threatened me with dire consequnces if i did not pay the cab guy for the Damage ( which was absent from both the vehicles.) . I said whatever i had to give him.... i have given it ( and i liked it too ) . And anyone who wanted it , could come for more. By this time, about 10 of my friends had come there ( thats why i said.. thank GOD i was near Koramangala)and now i knew nothing could happen to me. After all UNITED we STAND :P
The traffice police came after a good 20 minutes. I could feel they had nothing to do with the traffic nuisance we were,or for that matter any rules had been bended or for that matter who was responsible for the incident. All i could smell was that they felt this was an oppurtunity to make some money. They told me i would have to come to the Traffic Police Station and file a report. I said i am fine with anything. No, i was not going to give them a single Coin, not even a smile .
I was taken to the ACP of traffic police and made to sit. The traffic constable narrated the whole incident to him in kannada , by whatever i could sense , he said it was my fault and the bike hit the car from the back . I interrupted him in the middle and asked him to speak in English. But he did not. I mean what the hell ! Does this State not take policemen who know english?
OR is it there also.. " Jai karnataka Jai Kannada Jai Policemen".
Finally after keeping me in the Traffic police station for about an Hour, they let me go. FYI the cab guy did not turn up at the station.
A lot of people ( inculding my conscience) might say what i did was wrong. But what about the innumerable times we "middle class" people who pay our taxes, abide by rules, live a peaceful life have been put to test by these so called " Public" of india - auto drivers, cab drivers . Why should i take that shit ...
And above all why should i take the shit if i am not from Karnataka and if i dont know kannada...
No i will not. Not after yesterday. I am sure many of you who read this will agree with me....
23 comments:
totally agree... don't know when will i cross the threshold... maybe when i become a giant like u:)...
u rock dude!!
I was very much part of the whole gala and wud say that Arjun shud have shown some constraint(I know he is not good at it). But the question is that how long would we take it? Time for payback has arrived.
Nice read...Totally agree...You did the right thing...though I wonder what happened to the cab driver in the end.
Arjun, i need to add few thoughts to ur blog.. At the outset , I apprecaite your act.. It's the perfect thing u gave them back..I've gone through an exactly or evn a worse situation at Devegowda petrol bunk signal and was helpless..Though i was a localite n knew kannada well, had to go through the same rut n had to listen to similar crap.. This experience is not to do anything with knowing or not knowing Kannada . The worse was ,i knew all the abusive words he used and was feeling helpless.A biker hitmy stand still car in teh signal whihe he was trying to overtake from left that too when the signal was red...Another time while i had parked my car at airport , the cab driver hit my car's windshield in my absence don't know for what reason... These cab drivers and Auto drivers need een worse treatment.. i get all horrible bizzare ideas when i think of them..Bangalore needs a wind of change..
I thank all my friends Rajul,Kalra, Vijay, manish,Hrishi and the others all who supported me and saved me from being pulped.
Well this is what happened with the Cab driver.
He was supposedly drving cab of some company. 5 mins into the fight,some exscutive of the company who was in the Cab , came out and told this driver to leave this fight and go( he categorically told him, it was your fault,why are u fighting now ?)
but the Cabbie was more concerned about the "blows" he had got. so he didnt bother. Last seen he was begging the executive not to complain as he would lose his job.
I hope he doesnt lose his job. Otherwise i guess he got what he deserved [:)]
Hi Arjun, I agree with agree with your thoughts and action. However, I do not agree that knowing Kannada would be any better.
We may pay taxes to the goverenment, but the cab owners pay "taxes" directly to police. You know what I mean. Whenever there is such an incident the police always supports them. This is not only Karnataka, anywhare in India. Its the money that talks.
I congrajulate you for having given the cab driver what he deserved. I myself wanted to do it lot of times.
But please dont blame Kannadigas or Karnataka for the unfornate inicident. It could happen anywhere in India. One should have minimun courtesy to respect the land and its people which has given one employment and education.
I have mixed feelings on reading this one.
I agree with what you did. Sometimes a person is pushed into a corner so much that he revolts. But, you are putting the blame in the wrong place.
As a person who has seen a huge influx of UP Bhaiyas and Manglorean Shettys into Mumbai drive the Marathi population out of the city, I don't feel it is bad that people here prefer to talk in Kannada. In fact, I am ashamed of the fact that after 7 years in this state, I still don't know kannada properly.
The problem is with the rascals that these cabbies and auto wallas are. And they are rascals everywhere. Is Delhi any different? Personally, I will prefer the south to the north anyday man.
Normally the biggest bastards are the Police. And needless to say, Bangalore police are f**** assholes.
Yada yada hi dharmasya, glanirbhavati Bharatah, Abhiyutthanam dharmasya, tadatmanam srijamyaham! Paritranaya sadhunam,
vinashaya cha dushkritam, Dharmasamsthapanarthaya,
sambhabami yuge yuge!!
Lord Krishna to Arjuna
(Shrimat Bhagavat Geeta)
Whenever and wherever there is decline of dharma (righteousness) and ascendance of adharma (unrighteousness), at that time I manifest Myself in visible form. For the protection of the righteous and destruction of the wicked, and for the sake of establishing dharma again, I incarnate Myself on earth ages after ages.
Congratulations dude...!! Krishna did wrk thru his favourite disciple.. 'Arjun' !!!
Couldn’t have agreed with you more....im glad u took the stand and instinctively revolted. There was so much I had to write....and I thought I had to dedicate a blog to u...and here it goes....”who is the post powerful?”
I do agree with most of the comments and as rightfully mentioned it is not that you don't Kannada.It is the attitude of those people towards a youngster who earn more money than him.
Anyways, do take care!
Please be safe... u matter to a lot of people...take care
If the mistake wasn't urs, u r perfectly justified in what you did with the cabbie. But i do not agree with your attitude towards karnataka and kannadigas in general (at least from what you wrote). The same incident could have happened to you anywhere in india. I'm sure there are people who'll exploit gullible south indians in north india too. But that doesn't mean that all north indians are bad.
It is only your lack of interest and laziness that has kept you from learning Kannada even though you have spent close to 7 years (i guess even more if you consider your stint at LRIS). I am a Kannadiga myself and i feel we are one of the most accomodating people in south india.
Also, accusing the police for their knowledge (or the lack of it) of English is not right. I believe the situation is similar in north india and also in parts of Europe and the Gulf).
Life is frustrating at times and such incidents happen to everyone but you need to vent out your frustrations in more constructive ways (like writing more blogs similar to the one abt mid life crisis and girlfriends).
Well varadraj,
As one of my good friend says, two wrongs dont make a right ! Are u justifying the inadequacies of this city by telling it happens elsewhere. IF that was the case , why do we need Justice, Police, law, rules, rights in this country.
Certainly i might have over done things, but i certainly would not justify ure thoughts
Cool, dude! I always thought of you as very energetic, but I always thought of you as cool (read calm and poised) too...Never knew you could be so cool too!
Well done Arjun!! These indisciplined cab & auto drivers deserve it. They dont require any mercy.
I hope he looses his job and it serves a lesson to other cab drivers too.
The corrupt bangalore police also needs a good thrashing. They are not law-keepers. They are the scoundrels directly responsible for such incidents.
hey arjun,
Here's a really delayed response
(coz i didn't visit ur blog since a long time). I never justified the actions of the cabbie or the police. It's only that i didn't like your attitude towards the kannada speaking people in general (esp the comment "OR is it there also.. Jai karnataka Jai Kannada Jai Policemen").
The police force if i'm not wrong comes under the state government and if they give preference to people speaking kannada, i feel they are justified coz there are a lot more people speaking kannada here than english!! A lot of people in this country (and in many others also) are not as lucky as us to have learnt to write and speak in english, so let's just consider ourselves lucky.
If you know that you're being exploited because you don't know kannada (i'm again not justifying the exploitation), then don't you think you should put some effort to learn the language for your own good (at least basic conversational kannada that one speaks to the auto/bus/cab guys)?
I appreciate you arjun for the stand you took..
this is same in hyderabad too.. feel cabs should be abolished and every company should instead of outsourcing have their own tranport dept with some literate and decent drivers..
Its not a matter of kannada or tamil or telugu.. its just the indifference attitude of pple towards others and the unity of illirtate maroons
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