Delhi Police. With You. For You. Always.
It happened one Friday afternoon last month, around 4 pm on June 21....It was my b'day and we were driving to Jaipur for a short family holiday over the weekend. We had planned to pick up our daughter from her office in upscale DLF Cyber City at 3-30 pm but we managed to leave home only at 3:20 pm. So we were already running late and maneuvering the car through the unruly weekend traffic left my husband regretting his decision to drive instead of taking a train. Reaching Jaipur late in the night would mean no b'day celebration for me.
We crossed the popular Sarojini Nagar market and were cruising through Yashwant Place-Bhikaiji Cama Road when we saw a horde of people gathered around a Meru cab and another damaged sedan parked some twenty feet away. The sedan had apparently braked suddenly when the traffic signal turned red. Meru cab driver who might have been speeding to cross at yellow signal, banged into the sedan damaging it as well as his own car.
As we passed by the Meru in the adjoining lane, we noticed a small flame inside the car's upturned bonnet..!
The drivers and all others gathered there were apparently too busy arguing who the culprit was, and had not noticed the fire under the damaged bonnet. A blast in the engine could result in a major disaster!
Within seconds we had crossed the green signal and there was no way we could turn back to warn the quarreling drivers and the curious onlookers. The next u-turn was a couple of miles ahead. Anxious and worried about them, we decided to heed the suggestion of my son and call Delhi Police for help. I dialed 100 and told the operator precise location of the accident and the reason why I had called. She asked me if the car was on fire, where I was...told her that it was a small fire which we feared could any moment turn fatal and that we were driving towards Gurgaon. I requested her to send help immediately to avert a major accident and casualties. We hoped the nearest PCR van would be rushed to the spot and the needful done within minutes.
A few minutes later, the phone rang...'very quick response,' I commented. Yes, it was a Delhi Police personnel but asking for the location, the extent of fire, casualties, injured etc.......very calmly I gave all the information again and requested them to hurry. A couple of minutes later, the phone rang again....fire dept. now with the same questions. Very patiently, I repeated myself. Within the next fifteen-twenty minutes, I must have repeated the same sentences at least ten more times........to what result I still do not know!
Did Delhi Police manage to find their way and reach them in time? Did they bother enough? Did we make a mistake by relying on them? Should we have taken matters in our own hands and turned back to warn them? Or was it just a small fire and we had over reacted?-but we had reacted instinctively and genuinely wanted to help. What if we ignored it and went our way? What if...........?
Questions still nagging my mind.........any answers?
We crossed the popular Sarojini Nagar market and were cruising through Yashwant Place-Bhikaiji Cama Road when we saw a horde of people gathered around a Meru cab and another damaged sedan parked some twenty feet away. The sedan had apparently braked suddenly when the traffic signal turned red. Meru cab driver who might have been speeding to cross at yellow signal, banged into the sedan damaging it as well as his own car.
As we passed by the Meru in the adjoining lane, we noticed a small flame inside the car's upturned bonnet..!
The drivers and all others gathered there were apparently too busy arguing who the culprit was, and had not noticed the fire under the damaged bonnet. A blast in the engine could result in a major disaster!
Within seconds we had crossed the green signal and there was no way we could turn back to warn the quarreling drivers and the curious onlookers. The next u-turn was a couple of miles ahead. Anxious and worried about them, we decided to heed the suggestion of my son and call Delhi Police for help. I dialed 100 and told the operator precise location of the accident and the reason why I had called. She asked me if the car was on fire, where I was...told her that it was a small fire which we feared could any moment turn fatal and that we were driving towards Gurgaon. I requested her to send help immediately to avert a major accident and casualties. We hoped the nearest PCR van would be rushed to the spot and the needful done within minutes.
A few minutes later, the phone rang...'very quick response,' I commented. Yes, it was a Delhi Police personnel but asking for the location, the extent of fire, casualties, injured etc.......very calmly I gave all the information again and requested them to hurry. A couple of minutes later, the phone rang again....fire dept. now with the same questions. Very patiently, I repeated myself. Within the next fifteen-twenty minutes, I must have repeated the same sentences at least ten more times........to what result I still do not know!
Did Delhi Police manage to find their way and reach them in time? Did they bother enough? Did we make a mistake by relying on them? Should we have taken matters in our own hands and turned back to warn them? Or was it just a small fire and we had over reacted?-but we had reacted instinctively and genuinely wanted to help. What if we ignored it and went our way? What if...........?
Questions still nagging my mind.........any answers?
I also have a similar story, although the fire was put off in that story of mine.
ReplyDeletemy passport had a spelling mistake(mother's name: anit instead anita)
so here i am in the passport office after 1.5 year, asking them to change it, paying them a new passport fee.
What i was fearing was that they might ask me y am i so late in reporting this. But this is what i got:
they : your passport can't be renewed
moi : but my good lady(all in my mind)what seems to be the problem
they: monsieur(i wish) your pages are not exhausted, your passport expiry date is still not over
moi: so can i use it this way
they: of course not, can't you see your mother's name is wrong.
moi: i'm sorry but i think i missed something, i can't use it and i can't even get a new one, is this the idea.
so I fight my way after putting some sense in them.
the APO (supposed to be wiser and smart) asks me:
APO: Does your mother possess a passport
moi : no sir, she is not blessed with one yet
APO: then we can't change your mother's name
moi: so all these 10th an college and other certificates have no value, they are all lying.
her voter id has no value, and that pan card is just for showcasing.
hallelujah.
hmmm.....this really is the state of affairs in most of the govt offices. i remember when my daughter had applied for her passport, her online status read that her application form was left incomplete, we went to the passport office in DC office, east Delhi. from there we were directed to passport office in Bhikaiji Cama Place. there we were asked to fill a new form. as we did not have one of the requisite document copies, we had to go there the next day. we filled the form in exactly the same way as we had filled earlier, but when the concerned official had a look at the form he asked us why we had left a few columns blank. we told him that we had put a dash because the columns were not applicable to her. then we were asked to put a 'cross' sign in all such columns. so this was what had made her application form 'incomplete'! we did as we were told and lo! the form was accepted....the passport was delivered within the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDelete