Our trip to the Police Station #BarWoWe

Around this time,2 years ago we had to pay a visit to a police station. It was an adventure on its own. The reason leading to the visit wasn’t much of an adventure, it was more of a nightmare. So what happened was that being a very careful person, I lost my wallet which had some very important documents(very very very important) and some cash (ok, not some, a lot of cash). The better half points out that I could have bought a diamond pendant if I hadn’t lost the purse. Sad, sad.

So we needed to have an official police complaint if we wanted to apply for duplicate documents. For the first time in my life and vi’s, we visited a police station. It was a real fun experience and very unlikely from the ones that you have seen in the movies. We were expecting to meet the sub-inspector but since he had to go out for some reason we were asked to meet the head constable. As I stepped into the compound of the police station, I felt a sense of panic overcome me. I tried to calm myself down, you know I hadn’t done anything wrong than lose my purse full of important stuff. Ok, let’s not get started on that. We can argue about the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ of things later. So as per IPC, I haven’t done any kind of crime. Carelessness is not a crime YET 😐.

As we entered the station, we were asked to sit in a corner and wait. Vihaan during this time was busy checking out the place. He was just over 2 years old then. He has got my curiosity bug so I milk it as much as possible when we go to places where adults wouldn’t be normally given access to. He went to check out the lockups and there were two of them. Inside one of them, they had kept a lot of paperwork and guns. Yeah, the real antique guns that seemed like they have never seen the light of day. But that’s good, isn’t it? Looks like crime rate in our area is very very low. The other lockup was the lean mean one (where they would put you in the lockup :P) and Vi wanted to know what the hole in the middle was for. I told him as quietly as possible that it was to pee. In the background, the husband and father in law were telling us to come back and sit in a place trying to remind us that we are not a sight-seeing trip. As I was slowly trying to guide Vi towards the chairs, he asks me as loud as he possibly could, “Amma, who will pee there???.” Opps!! Talking too loudly will attract police attention and it did. The lady constable came up to me and Vi, and asked what happened, why are you shouting? The little mouse decided to act shy for a while and hid behind me. This entertained the lady and she started asking him questions (in a totally non-police kind of way). She asked him where he lived and he replied France, she asked Francis road?? (a road in our town). I wanted to laugh out load but thought better shut up. Then the son went on to say no, it’s France. She was a bit sceptical, she thought the little one was bluffing. So she asked me where we lived…hehehe…I said we live in France but our native house is nearby. This conversation went on for a while and we managed to register a complaint. In this time, Vi got really friendly with the constable. Next thing I see is him trying to take her cap. I jumped from my chair to stop him, which led to more howling, “Police, toppi venam” meaning that he wants the police’s cap. Slowly trying to distract him, I showed him the lockups again. Then his next demand was the guns. He went to the head constable and asked him if he can have one of the guns. The head constable was trying to keep a straight face. Finally, he said why don’t you look around the whole station and see the place with the ‘aunty’ (the poor lady constable who had just managed to save her cap from the little monster). She being very kind, obliged her superior’s instructions and thus I and Vi had a guided tour of a normal police station. As usual, Vi wanted to know what each and everything was for. He was really surprised to see a kitchen in the police station. I explained that they would make tea and coffee since the police station is open 24/7 and police also feel tired and need to refresh. The constable was amused by this inquisitive 2-year old who seemed to have no fear of anything. Finally, we came out of the police station. At the exact time, a police jeep came and stopped in front of the station, and as expected Vi wanted to get on that too. Luckily the husband and father-in-law came out right on time, else I would have got into a police jeep too (eeps!). Hence ending our trip to the police station

Hence ending our trip to the police station. I learned a few things during that visit. One, humans are the same everywhere. The police are a hard working section of our society who don’t really get all the facilities they should. But even then they were so kind. Second, kids have a special power to bring out the softness in any adult. Their innocence and inquisitiveness is something so precious that disappears somewhere along the road of life. Third, we may have a lot of pre-conceived notions about things and all of them needn’t be true. And people who spend their lives aiding or helping to make the lives of others easier are truly wearing a badge of honour.

***Written in response to the Wordy Wednesday Prompt by Blog-a-rhythm***