The Webbie

It was bad. Really BAD. One feels the same as I did, when all that happens to one on a particular day goes against him/her.

I first broke a gift I’d bought for someone, followed by an incident that asked me to forget about my MP3 player.

I’d never ever thought that I would be losing my MP3 player in such a manner.

Yaar player kharaab ho jaye to bhi dil pe itni nahi lagti jitni iske baad lagi

I’d taken a local from Dadar, which was fairly crowded, and was standing on the gate, really enjoying the music that my Transcend was churning. Immediately after the train left Santacruz and got into the dark zone, something hit my hand and I could see my player flying away from me with my own eyes but could do nothing about it.

The person standing in front of me suggested me to lodge a police complaint. OK, I thought, I’ll go to Santacruz and do something. I got down at Vile Parle and the same guy who’d suggested me to complaint got down with me. He told me that there were two people whom he saw. I was surprised to hear that and we first went to the police on Vile Parle station, who redirected us to the Bandra railway police station.

This was the harshest part - the police in Bandra.
These guys cared a heck and they asked me stupid crap like why is engineering 4 years long, how come your left hand was outside, etc. They shooed away the gentleman who’d accompanied me leaving his friend waiting. They even went to the extent of saying that I’d not lost my player & we were just pretending and also checked my bag.

Eventually, they didn’t even write an official complaint. They just took my name, address & telephone no. on a piece of paper and told me that they would contact me, if required, or if they got my player(which I doubt whether they’ll even think about tracing).

This was my first such experience, and same for the guy who helped me out. Do you think any one of us is ever going to expect anything better from the police the next time we face something similar?

Since this is what one gets by approaching people who have been supposedly appointed to protect the common man, do you think people should be approaching them for help, because they put you in more trouble by making you feel like a petty criminal, rather than sorting things out for you.

Thanks Tanveer, for all the help that you extended.

BarCamps are really interactive events that amazingly let you share as well as learn a lot with each other.

Having attended three BarCamps which extended my knowledge and were thoroughly enjoyable, letting me meet so many new people and technologies, I am very disappointed that I will not be able to make it to Pune this Saturday on the 7th of July, 2007.

Anywayz, if you have never attended a BarCamp, I bet this one is going to really mesmerise you because it has already got around 175 registrations, which ensures a very active interaction among all attendees. It has thus been divided into two tracks, and if you can prepare in these two days, you may even want to get there and present a session on some Interesting Topic. Still wondering?? Get on to http://barcamp.org/BarCampPune3