You are in the radar of someone, every moment…..

It was a usual misty morning, and sunrays were drilling their way through the white blanket covering the beautiful city of Bangalore. It was a treat to the eyes, and even more joyous to watch it in the warmth of a woolen blanket. But I didn’t have the luxury of enjoying it for long, office was beckoning. Within no time I rushed through the formalities and was ready to push myself to office. I never expected such a wonderful morning will hand out some really embarrassing moments to me.

I was waiting in a junction, which used to have suffocating traffic. It will take quarter of an hour to jostle through the ocean of vehicles converged in that junction. There are lots of smart drivers who rule the Indian roads, who don’t even bother to follow basic road manners, not even caring for the counterparts, dictating their own rules. Courtesy of these goons, there is no scarcity of traffic bottlenecks in our cities. No points in digressing over this issue, as more and more smart drivers are churning out to keep it fertile. So, while waiting in that traffic signal, an unsought guest knocked my door window. I saw two hefty animated figures on top of a two wheeler roaring at me. I slide down the window and enquired the reason behind it. He was not ready to answer me and asked me to take the car to a byroad. I didn’t bother to lend my ears to him and got down from the car. Now the traffic policeman got angry on me for interrupting the traffic and I was forced to take the car to a byroad.  

It had no clue about some truly embarrassing moments which was in store for me when I stepped down from the car. The two gigantic, dark and fat honchos rushed at me and started uttering something in Kannada. I didn’t understood what they said, but definitely they were not singing something melodious.  I enquired the reason behind the drama in Hindi, and was amazed to learn from them that my car had hit their motorbike on the way and both fell down. I was pretty sure that such a thing had not happened and denied the argument. On this they became over animated and pretended to beat me. They showed me some age old scratches in their vehicle, that too at the top of the petrol tank. I sensed something suspicious and argued with them. But they became agitated on this and warned me of causing damage to me and my vehicle. I was really frightened and tried to invite attention of the neighborhood. But the place being a rural area and me being taken to a deserted area, the people remained motionless spectators.

Even though shudders going down my spine, I tried to gather all the strength in the world and counter attack the culprits. After some heated arguments and the drama of pretending to hit me enacted numerous times, the honchos took a new weapon out of their arsenal. They told me that the bike belonged to a local don and if I am not settling down the issue by paying 8k to them, the don himself will incarnate at the spot and set me and my car on fire. Now that the gathered strength also started fizzling out, I asked them to take the bike to a service station, and analyze the damage. Soon I realized that their intention is not to repair the bike, but to loot the money.Thankfuly it was a month end my wallet had only 500 bucks. On seeing this they got irritated and whispered something in Tamil which meant - “These mallus are always very astute and witty”. They had identified me as a mallu as my car carried Kerala registration.

The drama was not giving any signs of dropping the curtains, as they put forward an alternate way to procure money. They insisted me to take them to ATM and fetch money. Howzzaat! My mind dressed up like Sylvester Stallone and beat them up till their last breath. Unfortunately my body was unable to execute it and what will be the outcome then? We three are in front of an ATM, by walk and made sure that my car remains away from the crowd. I took this extreme step knowing that my account balance was a two digit number. The receipt was shown to the ‘Goondas’, who authenticated it from the security, whom I had to take with me inside ATM to show the account balance. I tried calling some of my friend’s, but no one was in the proximity. I was expecting some damage to me and my car after this incident, but believe me all these anti social elements will only pretend to harm us, will never have the courage to execute it. Of course there are lots of exceptions! May be, as this incident happened in daylight I am still in good shape, otherwise might have broken my bones or bid good bye forever. So as the curtain falls on this drama, the honchos gracefully accepted those 500 bucks and fled away. I know that I didn’t commit any mistake, but I was much relived, even if I had to flush out hard earned money.

I was completely exhausted and remained so for the next couple of days, until I got a mail from my employer circulated by the police department. It was an informatory message issued by the Karnataka police in the interest of civilian safety. On reading that story, I was extremely shocked - It was about this drama enacted on me, and 500 bucks loss seemed to be a very miniscule one. There were people who have lost up to 25k. The gang’s modus operandi is to identify the vehicles carrying non Karnataka number plates, pounce on them and corner them in a deserted area. Then only I realized that the same script was executed in several places to loot money and hand out injuries. After reading that mail, I felt extremely lucky to survive scot free without any physical damage.

But still I feel very much ashamed and humiliated whenever that picture flashes in my mind, unable to do anything and surrendering meekly to those hooligans. Now when I saw some honchos being beaten up in big screen, I substitute myself as the protagonist with the beneficiary faces resembling those dark hefty creatures who looted me. I still hope of giving it back to them someday……..

As and when I was about to post this, another informatory message landed on my inbox…..Read on and be very careful. There is someone behind you….every minute…every second……

“Hi Friend(s),

This is happening now in Bangalore or it can happen anywhere!
While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, one IT employee saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it.  For whatever reason, he did not stop, even though he had all kinds of thoughts running through his head.  But when he got to destination, he called the  Police and they were going to check it out. But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check....
"There are several things to be aware of ... gangs and thieves are now plotting different ways to get a person (mostly women)to stop their vehicle and get out of the car.

"There is a gang initiation reported by the local Police  where  gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in
it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the abandoned baby.
" Note that the location of this car seat is usually beside a wooded or grassy (field) area and the person  -- woman  -- will be dragged into the woods, beaten and raped, and usually left for dead.  If it's a man, they're usually beaten and robbed and maybe left for dead, too.

DO NOT STOP FOR ANY  REASON!!!
AND REPORT WHAT YOU SAW, BUT DON'T EVEN SLOW DOWN.

"IF YOU  ARE DRIVING AT NIGHT AND EGGS ARE THROWN AT YOUR WINDSCREEN, DO NOT STOP TO CHECK THE CAR ,   DO NOT OPERATE THE WIPER  AND DO NOT SPRAY ANY WATER BECAUSE EGGS MIXED WITH WATER BECOME MILKY AND BLOCK YOUR VISION UP TO 92.5%,  AND  YOU ARE THEN FORCED TO STOP BESIDE THE ROAD AND BECOME A VICTIM OF THESE CRIMINALS.
THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE USED BY GANGS, SO PLEASE INFORM YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.
THESE ARE DESPERATE TIMES AND THESE ARE UNSAVOURY INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL TAKE DESPERATE MEASURES TO GET WHAT THEY WANT."

Please talk to your loved ones about this. This is a new tactic used.  Please be safe.”