Street "Activism" ..

This is Mar. In India, it means many things and one of the most important things among them is "end of financial year".

End of financial also means - "Harassment by traffic police on the road, desperately trying to meet some numbers for the FY and for themselves too in the process".

Me and bus load of my colleagues were going on a off day today to a near by resort. Right outside the city limits, a traffic cop stopped us. For no apparent reason. There is no light to cross there. Its a place where doing any mistake is challenging.

Of course the poor driver and the helper went down. There was a higher ranking officer inside the White Gov. SUV who did not even get down and show his face. One assistant was standing out who did the "stopping" and directing to the higher up. The higher officer, looked at the papers - at his own pace. 10 mins gone. Some more negotiations, 15 mins gone. No clarity on what he is looking for and when he would let the people inside the bus (which is rented) go.

I tried to get down to talk to him. But the bus assistant stopped - Once !

Then 2 more minutes later, I asked the entire team, 50 of them to just get down and start walking on the highway without arguing, telling anything with a smile as if we had always planned to get to our destination by foot. One after another all came down with their stuff and kept walking. Back in my head, I was sure the cop will let the bus go after seeing this as he would have a lot of confusion on what happening. Just as we finished 50 meters of walking, the bus was released :)