Monday, April 21, 2008

Running from the law

I really hate Indian cops. They’re not all bad, but a lot of them are super sleazy. Take Saturday night for example. I’m trying to make a yellow light, and one of the traffic cops at this giant intersection flags me to stop. I normally wouldn’t (nobody does after all….), but I was in a law-abiding mood, so I did. As soon as I did, the bastard waves me into a line of cars to be fined. He intentionally stopped me over a pedestrian cross-walk, which is a finable offence. I got in the line, and a sub-inspector asked me to get out my registration papers and license. While I searched for the papers (which I almost certainly didn’t have), I handed him my Minnesota licensed, and lied, saying it was an international license. He was a little brighter than the average cop, and so he asked, “Where does it say international?” I was impressed; normally, they just stare at the card quizzically and then hand it back. In a last ditch effort, I pointed at the biggest word I could find on the card (“recreational”) and said that was the “international” marking. I guessed correctly that he couldn’t read English, and he handed my license back to me. He was still going to fine me (or more likely, try to get a bribe) though, and I was quite pissed about it. They actually try to scope out people who look like suckers (e.g. me), and then do just what they had done to me, basically a scam. No longer in a law-abiding mood, I pretended to rustle through a pile of papers while the sub-inspector wandered over to his supervisor. As soon as he was far enough, I floored the accelerator, and gunned it out of there. Thankfully, I broke my rear license plate the week before, so he couldn’t get my number as I sped off. After three months here, I have assimilated a very Indian affinity for bending, if not breaking the law.

I hate the cops, but I love this country ;)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahhahahhha.. just funny.

Pawan Dhir said...

hahahaha... awesome Ars!
Reading this was the highlight of my day in front of the computer here...
thanks!
-Pawan