“Thief!! Thief!!” This was the first shout I heard from my neighbor in her early 60s. It was not just a shout. An evident hue and cry about the sweat and labor looted by a shameless human being.
It was the wee hours of dawn and I could notice a man in his thirties running while his hands were holding some objects close to his chest. It was so clear that he was trying his best to make sure that he had a bounty as large as possible.
By this time the lady was not just shouting but was running towards the road. I know this woman. She is my neighbor. There is a shameless human stealing somebody’s hard earned wealth.
I rush towards the road. A 10 hour shift and the following 90 minute journey by train had its effects on me. A slight pain in the spine due to hours of sitting continuously and inflammation in my eyes just reflected the tough day that had passed.
In a split second, I decide that there was no point in running behind a man with an intent to save his life and his bounty with the physical condition I was in. I picked up the gravel on the roadside and tried to grab as much as I can and started pelting them on that guy. Good. It worked. Obviously, when both he and I could run five steps a second, my stones travelled 25. Thank heavens! I was able to think.
The man didn’t expect the stone shower and put some of the loot down and took off again. Now it was clear that he was losing some ground. Almost all of my last few throws hit the target and one of them had him bleeding. Very soon he vanished into the darker area of the road. No way to spot him. No street lights. Hell… Is this what I pay taxes for? To provide a hideout for a dirty scoundrel? ***t man..
When I turned back, I saw the woman. She was sobbing, but not as badly as she started out earlier. Now there was a sense of anger and trust me, she would have killed him if he had come to light. Two auto rickshaw guys joined us in the scene. Kind fellas…. They parked their autos in such a way that the headlight pointed towards the dark and started the auto. Now there was light. Wow. We recovered the mixie he had taken. The pelting and running had its effect. But he ran with a lighter, smaller and more precious stuff.
A gold plated ladle. The woman had got it as a gift from her late brother, to mark the first birthday of her kid. What a pity! Now that was gone. We had to inform the cops about the situation. In the meantime, the auto rickshaw guys and I did our own search. With some help from the localites on the other side of the road, we spotted the guy and almost surrounded. The only question was about the culprit being armed. We had no clue if he was armed and if yes, to what extent?
So we called the cops again and they took the hard way out by evacuating the two neighboring houses. Finally, the guy gave up without any resistance whatsoever to the cops. He knew that surrendering to the cops meant that he would not die at least, which could have been the case if he was caught by the public. Getting beaten up by 25-30 people and still joking around happens only in Vadivelu comedy.
3 hours later, I get a call from the police constable to meet the Sub Inspector of Police. I have never been to our local station as we have a police beat one km away. So it took me almost half an hour to reach the station. First question after the formalities was this – Did you guys face each other? I denied. When he was brought out of hiding, I was one among a hundred people watching. Here at the station, he was already behind the bars and hence he cannot see me. The Sub Inspector advised me to keep this low key and not to speak about this to anyone in the area as it might turn out to be problematic for me. That was a smart move. When the guy was brought out to be taken to the main cell, he passed through me, the police constable asked me to give way and we saw eye-to-eye. No reaction. He obviously didn’t know me. Good.
By now, the station in-charge had become good friend with me and mocked me that my appearance and action hold no resemblance. I accepted the compliment and asked him why nothing is being done about the street light. This is when I got a perfectly stereotype answer, that befits any department in the Government- “Thambi(younger brother), I really understand it. Even we(police) are suffering due to this as not all have 4 wheelers to go on patrol. But it is the Public Works Dept. that has to work on it.”
Come on guys. When are we ever going to own the mistakes and rectify them. Probably, never. Passing the buck has got into our blood. The woman was very thankful to me. I just told her that she was the first line of defence and the rest can only minimize the impact and not anything more. The sub Inspector sent a cop to drop her at her place and came with me to see me off at the railway station for my office.
I started another day of work, a longer one than yesterday. But today it was feeling better. The day was well spent. I could see a meaning in it.
One piece of advice/suggestion/opinion: Your safety strictly is in your hands. But let that not stop you from helping others. If a thief can mask himself with a kerchief and steal with anonymity, you can do the same and thwart a theft.
Ubuntu has gone one step further. Instead of just asking you to install a fresh copy of Linux, you can also install Ubuntu just like you would install any software inside windows itself. When you feel you dont need (which you wont) just uninstall it. I am just awestruck. Last but not the least, you get a satisfaction of contributing to the noble cause, free software for everyone.
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