Police Interrogation on Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani

It has been due for a very long time now. Let me pen it down before the memories ingrained in my brain cells get erased. People who haven't read the first two parts about my Kolkatta trip may like to read about it here and here

Police Interrogation on Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani:

The famous Victoria Memorial was located at 15 minutes walk able distance from the guesthouse where I stayed. So one morning, I woke up as early as 6’o clock, had my bath, drank a glass of milk and strapping the SONY 5.1 MP digital camera around my waist, I was off to the palace. Now I had to walk through this street called Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani to get to the Victoria Memorial. It was a street that housed the American as well as the British Consulate and for the same reasons, was heavily guarded. At any given time the number of police in uniform outnumbered the civilians walking past the street.

But due to the early hours, both the civilians and the cops were very few in number. As I walked through the street, I noticed a “Yellow cab” standing alone under a tree. I immediately pulled out my camera and clicked a snap of it. A few feet down the lane I came across a very tall building. The top of the building bore the words “TATA STEEL”. I was fascinated by its height and immediately lay low on the road and shot the snap in such an angle that the building appeared larger than usual. Satisfied with my efforts, I started walking, when the sight of the Suspended new Howrah bridge caught my attention. It was clearly visible against the white background of the clear skies. As you might have guessed I clicked a snap of it too and kept walking.

The next two hours I spent recording the beauty of the Victoria palace on the camera. Going by the assumption that you would have already seen my snaps of the palace, I take the liberty of not penning down about the same. It was during my return to the guesthouse that I was grilled. Grilled by Kolkatta police.

With the camera strapped around my waist, I walked with the gait of a freelance photographer. I whistled a soft tune and kept walking down the lanes of Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani, when I felt a hand tapping my shoulders. I turned back and found a cop standing. He pointed to a cop sitting in a commanding position, a little farther away, and said something in Hindi. I understood. I walked towards that sitting Cop. He looked at me from top to bottom with an air of disdain. When his eyes performed the routine again, they stopped at my waist.

“Wo, kya hai?” he growled.

Startled, I replied, “It’s a digital camera”

He hurled more sentences in Hindi when I requested him to speak in English.

“Show me the snaps,” he ordered.

I switched on the camera and gave it to him.

He went through all the snaps that I had captured of the Victoria. As his fingers kept scanning the snaps, they stopped at the snap of the Lone yellow Cab.

“What is this?” he asked.

“A Taxi” I replied

He looked at me in a way that made my throat go dry.
“Why did you shoot this?”

“Err..because, one doesn’t get to see such yellow colored taxis in Chennai, So…” I managed a weak grin.

He looked at the snap of the Tata Steel building.

“You don’t have buildings in Chennai” he asked.

“Err..yes..No..Not really, but this one was somewhat unique. You know..Like..I liked it”

He saw the snap of the suspended bridge and looked up at me and said “Delete all the three snaps”

“But..but.er..what...why?” I was baffled.

“Delete them”

“There were no boards saying that Photography was banned in this street”

“Its Unofficial. Delete them”

Gritting my teeth, I deleted the snaps in front of his eyes.

He took back the camera from me when I protested, “You have seen all the snaps that I have shot”

Without paying any heed, he started seeing the photos that Shankar Narayanan (my friend and the owner of the camera) had shot.

Now, if Shankar’s colleagues have the look of hardcore criminals writ large on their faces what can I do about it? Nothing much than to try to explain the moron in uniform that I had nothing to do with them. Viewing them with deep suspicion he continued seeing the rest of the snaps. In the meantime my mind was busy wondering what all snaps the camera contained.

“Buddy. My project snaps are there in it. Delete them. I have already transferred them to my laptop” Shankar had said when I went to borrow the camera from him in Chennai.

“No probs da. I will do that when I run out of memory. Till then let it remain” I had enounced.

I came back to the present on hearing the Cop’s Voice “ What the hell is this???”

I looked at the snap. A huge iron rod, metal cutting equipments, cylinders, pressure gauges and couple of colored wires starred back at me from the display of the camera.

MOMMY!!! I knew what the cop might have thought about it. It looked like a workshop for all unscrupulous activities one can associate with a terrorist. Oh God! Why didn’t I delete Shankar’s project snaps when he asked me to do so?

“What the hell is this???”

“Sir, Shankar’s project”

“What?”

I forwarded a few snaps and pointed to a fat guy standing with a stupid grin on his face. “Sir, he is Shankar. He is my friend. He works in a company. Company gave him a project. Shankar has a camera. I don’t have a camera. Shankar is my friend…Sir..Shankar has a company..erre..no….”

“What rubbish” he snarled.

I felt like crying. Mommy!!!! I am not a terrorist.

At this point, I pulled out my company ID card and showed it to him and explained in detail how I had come all the way from Chennai on an official visit to Kolkatta borrowing Shankar’s Camera. He looked at me without batting an eyelid. When I finished, he pointed to the steel chair next to him and asked me to sit down.

Felling a bit relieved, I sat down when he asked, “Tell me the truth. Why did you shoot the snaps of the car and the building? Planning to put all those bombs (Shankar’s project) in the car and drive them down to the building and blow it up?”

Wow!!! That was superb. Though this fellow was accusing me of doing terrible things the fact that he thought that I was capable of doing such things made me feel great. Just too great.

“Hey! No! No! No! I didn’t think of anything like that. Let me go. I have to go to the office. There are people waiting for my arrival. Let me go. Let me go”

“Shut up. I am Kolkatta police”

“Okay. Done”

“You said you are from south India right?”

“Yes”

“LTTE?”

“No. L&T”

It was at this point a smile played on his lips for the first time. He looked at his colleagues who were watching my ordeal with great glee all this while.

He handed back my camera and went into a monologue “Look my friend. I believe you. But I kindly advise you not to roam around Kolkatta unnecessarily and most importantly don’t shoot pictures at public places. Kolkatta police would harass you. We look at everyone like he is a potential terrorist. You know terrorists don’t come in dirty clothes, wearing scarfs, eye patches. They are very professional looking young guys…” he weighed the silence for a long time and then broke it with “…like you”

At this moment, a guy came there carrying cups of piping hot tea in little mud pots and a Marie biscuits. The cop asked me to help myself. While I sat there drinking the tea, he continued, “This Street was bombed two years back by a suicide attacker. For the past few weeks we have been getting news that terrorists are roaming around all the Metros. They may strike any time.” he looked at me with a grave smile.

I looked at him with a sense of pity and then trying to divert the topic asked him out of the blue “Where does Sauvrav Ganguly live?”

“Why? Planning to bomb his house?” he laughed.

I just smiled.

“He doesn’t live here. It’s an area 8 kilometers from here. By the way, do you like Rahul Dravid or Sauvrav Ganguly?”

“Of course..Rahooooo….” I stopped.

“What?”

“Of course …Ganguly” I smiled brightly

“And why is that?”

“Because I am in Kolkatta”

This was received by loud laughter.

I got up and shook hands with the cop who had harassed me for 35 minutes.
“I am Hari prasad”

“I am M.S Pandey”

“Glad to meet you Sir. Shall I leave now”

“Sure. But remember not to shoot snaps. Unnecessarily”

Smiling at him, I turned back, strapped the digital camera around my waist and started walking down the lanes of Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani…whistling a soft tune

The policeman’s over alertness seemed a bit odd at that time, but after the recent Mumbai Blasts I clearly understand what he did and why he did…

I salute you Mangal Pandey…er..M.S..Pandey…



P.S: This is my 50th post!! Thank you buddies, for your support!