Another Encounter

Picture this - I left work around 4.45 pm on friday to go pick Manish from the airport. His flight was at 6 pm and I thought it would take about an hours or more to reach there. To my surprise I reached there pretty early, at about 5.15 pm. In the next 45 minutes, I had several encounters with these uniformed men - Traffic Police, CISF, Cops, and Aiport security folks. Shame on me but I just got lazy and seeing the traffic inside the airport, decided against the paid parking of 120 rs and the other parking of rs 60 which was way ahead. I decided to park my car right in front of the arrivals for my convenience, where it read "Tow Away Zone". How did I know it would be the most inconvenient thing to do at that hour there. First, there was a mad rush for "Asharamji" darshan. I never knew Indians were such crazy fans of these gurus to almost allow stampede around them. Thank god for my laziness, I was not outside the car.

The first uniformed guy - dressed in all black, someone from aiport security told me "madam, yahan se jaiye, yahan pe aap ek second bhi nahi ruk sakte." I told him politey that I was there for last 10 minutes. He said "kyun aap paise deke parking nahi karengi?" I was amused at his answer and said " paise tou de doongi lekin yahan se wahan tak nahi jaoongi". He did not quite understand my statement and went by asking me to go away from that place.

I decided to just be there.

Enter the Traffic Police guy in white shirt and blue trousers - elderly man - "Madam, aap yahan kaise hain? Ye hot spot hai, aap yahan park nahi kar sakti". My reply "Bhaiya, please 10 minute main chale jaoongi. Flight land kar chuki hai, wo aate hi honge". Guess, the greed took over him (Which I did not realize until later) and he very politely told me to park the car a little ahead and said that I can be rest assured no body will troible me. I was surprised at his kindness and thanked my lucky stars. It was only until later, when he would not move from there did I realize that he wanted money. He told me that he would let the tow away van know my number so that they won't pick on my car. I offered him 60 bucks, but he managed to get 100 out of me. I was happy because I did not want to go to that mad rush of the parking lot.

I was parked there, confidently after I gave him the money. Minutes passed by and soon he was gone from my sight. Entry of a cop this time - old and cute gentleman, who was watching me from a distance and wondering why I was there, parked and at ease. Finally, when he could no longer keep to himself, he knocked my window "madam, chaliye yahan se". I told him "Bhaiya, paise de diye hain". He asked " kitne der aur rahengi yahan pe" and I said "10 minute aur bus". I was beggining to get jittery now since that TP guy was nowhere in sight and I had been there for almost half an hour now. Manish's phoen was switched off.

Entry of another cop - after the usual rounds and my usual expalianation, he said I would have to go. He was accompanied by the security gaurds who were intially there when I paid the TP guy. I told him I would not pay up twice now and specially when my husband was just about to come out any moment..the security gaurd started acting smart by saying that he had warned me initally about the place that no one could park there. I got so mad and told the police guy that this security gaurd was also around when I paid the Tp guy. Wo dono aapas main bhid gaye..police wala telling him "ki tum logo ki wajah se aadhi problem hai is desh main..ab main madam ko kya bolu, wo tou paise de chuki hain'...anyway, he was a sincere guy and probably he thought it best to go away from there. By now I was fed up and just wanted to go. I just had heaved a sigh of relief anin my thoughts when I thought I faintly heard something familiar "kaali baleno - turant yahan se jayen warna tow ho jayegi aapki gadi".. I looked around to see the tow away vehicle guy announcing in the mike " kali baleno 4982 wali madam...". I had no option but to start the engine and start moving from there, I hated the thought of taking a complete round and coming back there. He started his siren thing and told me he would take the car. I don't know for whatever reasons, but I just waited there. Maybe I got irritated by his siren thingie...but I decided to stay put and backed my car and came back to the same place where I was. Just then my TP guy appeared put of nowhere, told something to the tow away guy and came and apologized and said " usko samjha diya hai, aap yahin rahiye".

Manish, in the meanwhile, came running towards the car when he saw the TP guy and tow away guys announcing the car number - only to find me laughing away to glory. I handed over the car keys to him and after greeting him, just told him that offering to pick him up from the airport was not a good idea and that he better not expect me to be there ever again. He laughed at my ordeal and said he was surprised how did I manage to stay put there for such a long time. I did not have to tell him the complete ordeal...some things to yourself!!! Cheers.