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| Inset: Vicky Mahanta and the text message he had received from Bengaluru Police |
So, after living for almost 16 years in Bangalore, hopping from rented house to rented house, finally got a chance to shift to my own apartment on Nov 30, 2018. It is a great deal, as well as, an emotional moment for an Assamese to have his own flat in a metro city other than his hometown. But something happened which changed the shifting day to an eventful one for me to remember always.
I called the packers and movers company LOT Trucks to help me out with goods shifting. After the packing and loading of the items, while the truck was moving away, it hit slightly and scratched a parked car at my lane. Now the scene begins. The car owner's wife who was nearby immediately started shouting and raised a ruckus. She angrily asked the truck driver to put the ignition to stop and called her husband who was probably at work. Apart from being a silent spectator there was very little I could do. As I had outsourced my packing and moving job to a company, it is now their and their driver's duty to deal with the situation. Although I was losing precious time of mine, I was pretty sure that things will soon settle down after the car owner comes. Of course, as it was bit negligent driving by the truck driver, he has to pay some amount for the damages and soon we will get moving.
Little later the car owner arrived and started shouting and abusing the driver. He demanded Rs 13,000 for the small scratch (it was not a major damage, but definitely a scratch which was visible). And as I had anticipated, the truck driver definitely did not agree to the demand to pay Rs 13k. Although he was willing to pay around Rs 2000 or Rs 3000. Similarly the car owner didn't agree as well.
Arguments continued, neighbours arrived and began supporting the car owner (the kind people who would support any kind of mob activities. Rather solving the problem, these neighbors started acting like goons and heated up the situation. More than an hour passed and the situation was still the same. Both side arguing, and me a silent spectator slowly loosing my cool. After 2 hours of argument, I stepped in and told both the parties that either they compromise or I'd dial 100 to call the cops. The arguments and shouts stopped for some time and few people nodded in agreement. Most of the people did not think that I would actually call the police.
And I did dial 100, the Bengaluru Police Control Room, explained about my situation and gave my phone number. Within no time, I got a text message stating that Hoysala 177 will arrive in 3 minutes. And they did. Three police officers came to my rescue. I once again explained about the situation and how I was losing time. They checked everything. Called a nearby mechanic who checked the scratch and gave them an estimate of Rs 1500. The officers made the driver pay Rs 1500 to the car owner and helped us leave the place in peace. Oh ya, those instigating neighbors disappeared as soon as they saw the police jeep. After I reached home, I got a call from the police control room asking me if my complain was attended to and whether it got resolved. I said YES happily and thanked them from my heart.
This incident is only one of many incidents happening daily in an around Bengaluru. The efficiency of the Bengaluru City Police only proves that they are arguably India's most tech savvy police force. I do hope that in the coming days all of the police forces in all the cities in India become equally tech savvy and efficient. A big thank you to Bangalore City Police.
Vicky Mahanta is a Network Engineer at Emarson Computers in Bangalore, Karnataka. Hailing from Guwahati, Assam, he has also been a drummer for more than 25 years and have been performing live with different bands and musicians all across India.
