Fighter

2011-03-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Waiting at bus stop near India gate she was mugged off her mobile phone.

Basic set, about Rupees 5000 was not perhaps worth a chase and she needed to reach home quick today. Mummy Papa had only yesterday arrived from Kolkata to be with her for few days. It was Papa who bought her a one room flat at corner of now sprawling Dwarka. She had earlier hopped couple of small dwellings taken on rent ever since she took her first job with a media house at Connaught Place.

Living in this beastly, metropolis, for a small town girl, could be shuddery thought at least for Papa, who had brought up his angelic daughter under watchful protection even in sleepy town of Kharagpur where he and his wife both taught at same school where the daughter studied.

Last summer when Ma and Pa visited Delhi she was still at one room rented place. The room built at top of two story bungalow opening to the terrace, was perhaps illegally built. So are thousands such rooms in Delhi for precisely this purpose only, renting out to single working youngsters. There was tap but rarely water dripped out of that. She had to go down every morning several times to bring buckets full of water all the way up. This was too much to expect his darling daughter doing it. For them, she was a little elf needing soft gloves, so he liquidated all his savings to buy her a small flat of her own in Delhi. Now she was safe…

Since she had also learnt couple of strong lessons of upright principals and of standing for what she believes is right, the rowdy mugger was not to be let off just because phone was not worth the inconvenience of going after him. The supposedly petty inconvenience eventually turned out to be hassle for full one year she was to learn soon. But she tells this tale of her braveness with innocent pride in her eyes.

Calling Police Mobile Petrol, then making hell of an issue of her getting humiliated by the thief who snatched her cell phone despite this being a busy, heavily guarded premises, made cops feel filled with guilt of not conducting genuinely with their responsibility the way they should have. The tantrums she threw ensured that they could not dare ask her how much worth the phone was and got straight to the job of rounding off known anti-socials of the area and coaxing informants.

The thief was soon caught not because he was some well known anti-social but because he was a first timer and did not even know that one must not make call from same mobile so soon. He called his sister and police succeeded in nabbing him the third day.

She was called to police station at 1230 on working day. Needless to say that was not the only time she was forced to take work off and appear at police station. It happened three days in first week.

It was frustrating. Tired, she was offered a way out by cops to take her mobile away and let them settle privately with the thief. No records would be prepared of course. But that was not what Papa taught her and what her small town honest sensibilities permitted her. She wanted a case be prepared and punishment be meted out as per law. So it was. Cops did not want again a scene created by this crusader woman. The thief was sent to Tihar Jail and she was put under punishment of visiting court every fortnight.

She even went to jail twice for identification parade where she was asked to recognize the thief out of 20 other criminals lined up in corridor behind jail office. A mock drill, required as per procedure. She could point the thief out both times with no effort.

The court visits were more to collect postponement notices then to attend hearing. But judge did once ask her how much had phone cost her. She must have skipped office ten times before she was given relief of not attending the hearing and her phone was also returned to her by court. Police officer in-charge of the case phoned her about a year later to inform her that thief had been given sentence for one year, the period he has already spent during trial. She lost credits in office and also promotion.

This obstinate darling of so many hearts, beside her papa, never stopped behaving unlike we all do. She could be still seen quarreling with bus conductor for 25 paise change, even slapped a roadside hero in full public view after dragging him out of autorickshaw .

But she is still not in peace because of many who think differently of her.

She is different. Her tantrums, the ego, pride of always being upright and self dependent, the small town innocence, genuineness of honest eyes, loving deeply but never expressing, caring and quarreling, she is awesomely adorable.

Spinning my yarns

Fighter