Skilled to cheat and rob

I had read an article in the newspaper about soft skill training being imparted to the Pune police; little did I know that I would be experiencing the difference so soon. I left for the Pune station; the rains were pouring down mercilessly on me and may others. At the rani lakshmi bai chowk i saw a signal in green and having been stuck in the traffic for long enough i had accelerated but unfortunately I couldn’t get through. I stopped just ahead of the signal and noticing that the signal was red I started backtracking. Well I heard a whistle where one of the traffic policemen asked me to stop where I am (as if I could go somewhere??). I did. He came to me and asked for my license and P.U.C which I showed and then demanded me to handover it to him. I asked him the reason but he refused to tell and snatched the key from my bike and asked me to report to the sahib standing at the corner.
Well guess what? I was charged by him for crossing the signal at the red light. I told him that I hadn’t. Had I done it I wouldn’t have been talking to me now. He smiled (remember soft skills!!!) and said that I have ALSO been for waiting at a pedestrian crossing. I explained that I was backtracking it was one of his officers who stopped me. He said he did understand the situation and said
“ Hame order aaya hain ki din main 200 pawti phadne ka” ( with a smile again)
Well I paid him his hundred bucks and he let me go even if the signal was red (Value for money you know). Guess our department has been given targets and stuff like that but Is some one monitoring the way these ppl are working???

Thank god for the lost Test match!!!

It’s the 11th of August 2008. I am sure this is a day a few of us would remember for a long long time. Well this is a day where our country stood up in applause for Abhinav Bindra. An unknown person staying and practicing in the docs for years and years could be passed out as any other guy till now. Well now here is the turning point of his life. I am still not sure to call it a turning point because this country can be very cruel to Olympians, they are dusted and forgotten very soon.
There is one thing which definitely favors him is his timing. As we all know that the Indian cricket team was playing a test match today( I am sure no one knew Bindra was). Had the cricketing team been in a better position or probably won it then Bindra would be just a small window in a four window TV screen on a news channel where three of the windows would have shown either Sachin, Laxman, Bhajji or Kumble. Today he is the centre of attention but the cricket soap opera would start tomorrow and each and every ball bowled, every run scored would be bisected and studied and I am sure Bindra would not figure anywhere in this list till Indian government decide to honor him with something.( That would probably be announced at the end of the Beijing games) For us to grow then we will need another Bindra like performance for the Indians to forget cricket for another day. Since the test is over and the Indians would resume to their daily routine, it’s the best time to strike and do it for the country which is craving for more non cricketing sports heroes. . It isn’t impossible but it’s still very optimistic to ask for another medal and the only realistic(is it?) hope comes from the old warhorses Lee-Hesh. I have my fingers crossed, and till then…..

…..Thanks to the lost test. Thanks to the Sri lankans, thanks to Muralidharan and Mendis and finally thanks to Bindra for making it happen.