When we were young many(many many) years ago..well, I am talking on behalf of all 30 and 40 somethings here... about 20 years back...we used to play a thrilling game called 'Chor Police'. Oh! How we used to love being the Chor because then we could stay hidden without being caught and wait (or rather not wait)for the moment when someone would discover our new hiding place which only you or your team knew about, till then. The thrill we used to get, to know that we were undiscovered through the whole evening when your friends playing police used to frustratingly search high and low and even beyond the boundaries of the compound (yes, we did 'step over the line' sometimes) looking for the 'chors' that is us, but to no avail.
Staying put for hours together in that secret place half sweating and half wanting to pee badly...would still not deter us from leaving that 'comfort zone'...in spite of the fact that we were these bunch of hyperactive and adrenaline charged kids.
No one would love to 'don the cap' of the police as it was so uninteresting and a boring chore... searching, sniffing for trails, lurking, inquiring for clues and when discovered, chasing the nimble chors across the dusty playgrounds, hopping over small and big muddy water holes attempting to get their hands at catching the slippery chors...but alas no such luck. The sweaty palms of the police some how could never catch hold of the sweatier backs of the chors. Because being a chor always had the distinct advantage of 'one running as if to save his dear life' like how a prey does while the police were just running 'to earn that big badge'..not as desperate I would think. Playing the chor in a nutshell, was more exciting to me as a kid than being the respected but boring police.
Cut to 25 years later......the wordchor and also in the real sense has become such a ignominious word in our lexicon that it has completely lost the innocent sheen around it as in 'chor police' of yesteryears.
Now of course we are all grown up and grown out of 'chor police' days and have well realized that its not good to play the 'chor' anymore. So when we hear about these stories in newspapers and TV and sometimes from close acquaintances about they being at the receiving end of some good for nothing petty thieves or conniving home burglars or some such remaining ilk...it makes you livid, makes your blood curdle and make you wish you had at least one fighting chance with any of these rascals and you would knock the hell out of them. But knocking out was a good option only if you knew one of those Jackie Chan moves or Mithunda's dance kicks of Disco Dancer. Otherwise for the majority of us who did not grow on the staple diet of Bruce lee movies....only 1 option was available...that is using a can of pepper spray, blinding them out and kicking them in that 1 place which would make them remember their 'nani' for their next 7 births. But where do you get Pepper cans...somebody please tell me!
I always used to dream (or rather nightmare)about it.....this sequence of the Chor stealing something from me, on this cold, lonely and dark road and I helplessly trying to scream out 'Help' or 'Catch Thief' but somehow the words never seemed to come out...always! As if the throat had suddenly gone dry and parched just when I needed it most. And then I used to wake me up scared and sweating. After realizing that it was just a dream...with a huge relief would go back to my sleep. I am sure many of us have experienced this dream one time or another...in their life time so far.
Ok....even of this story and my filmy dream. Let me not play the chor police drama with you anymore. So what am I trying to say here is...what if.... what if this sequence from your dream (or nightmare in this case) actually becomes a reality and you are faced with a situation where you really are part of a chor police like situation. What do you actually do?
This is where the actual story begins.
One fine Saturday evening, hubby and me after our long walk in the greens of Aarey Milk colony area, headed towards the Hanuman temple like we always did. Me in my newly acquired pair of Adidas sports shoes was all gung-ho in spite of my tired feet. Sometimes, wearing something new for the first time gives you that extra energy and you get all pumped up...i feel. Its another thing that you end up with your feet in hot water tub when you reach home...but that's another point, let me not digress.
Coming back to the story...both of us, all tired and sweating from the walk reached the temple just in time before the evening Aarti started. I had recently come to know about my FIL's shoes getting stolen from outside another temple just a few days back, so I was in two minds about leaving my brand new shoes worth over 3k behind unattended. I thought maybe my hubby should go in first and then I would enter the temple after he came out. But then I said no, this is a safer area and no one had heard about shoes getting stolen, not from this temple at least.
So we decided to go in together. My hubby went inside and while I was removing my shoes slowly, I could sense a pair of eyes staring at me and my squeaky new shoes in a very obnoxious way. My sixth sense realized that all was not safe here. So I removed my shoes even more slowly and moved just a little bit towards the temple while still keeping a watch from the corner of my eye on those prying eyes. It must have been less than half a minute that I turned my back to face the god and after few moments when I suddenly turned behind, as if on instinct to take a look at my shoes they were not there. That's when I saw this man in his 30's, that is owner of the prying eyes, conveniently slipping on his feet into my shoes and making a quick dash towards the exit.
I swung and ran towards him and started screaming chor..chor all at the same time. (women are good at multi-tasking, you see)Thank you god, my throat also did not disappoint when I needed it most. All of a sudden, the entire temple sprang into an action movie mode from the devotional mode it was in, a few moments back. Me in my socks ran after him all the way down the road almost like I did when we used to play chor police. The scene was straight out of a movie..me running after him yelling chor chor and he running desperately like a prey who did not want to get caught. After about 400 meters, get caught he did as he ran straight into a bunch of teenagers walking towards our direction. With my top of the lung screaming, they realised that what was running towards them was a hare caught in a headlight scared for life.
And then...the usual scene followed where the mob decided to have a free hand at the rogue and hurled the choicest abuses at him. In the mean time I had noticed that this thief while he was denying he had done any wrong, was not wearing my shoes. I got suddenly petrified as the prized prey after whom I ran like never before...(at least not after I ran in the running race on school sports day in my 7th standard)...was not prized any more.
Where were my shoes????
That's when after much collaring, the drunken rogue confessed that he had left them by the temple after realizing that he could not run fast enough with someone like me behind his back. I quickly ran back to the temple and heaved a sigh of relief on seeing my gleaming pair all unattended but still lying safely by the road and calling out to their momma.
All this while when the drama was unfolding outside the temple, which was a matter of just five minutes, my hubby had realized that I was no where inside the temple premises and got worried as to where I disappeared out of the blue. He also heard a flurry of commotion outside the temple so he stepped out hoping to find me. Not knowing that I was reason for the commotion my hubby after seeing me right in the middle of the collected crowd, walked up to me very innocently asked me where I was all this while. I could not help but smile and said to myself 'Living my chor police dream and enjoying it too!!! God had finally given me my fighting chance with a chor and how exhilarating it was.
Just for your information, what happened after this drama was that with the help of local people we sent the thief to the police station and got him locked up. I don't know if it would mean that he will change his ways but I surely did not want to let him off...after all we already had 1 pair of shoes (my FIl'S shoes) out there, up for sale for peanuts by one such drunkard thief.
So what's the Moral of the Story
'Sometimes you don't need a pair of Adidas or NIKE shoes to help you run faster, even a pair of socks would do'
Staying put for hours together in that secret place half sweating and half wanting to pee badly...would still not deter us from leaving that 'comfort zone'...in spite of the fact that we were these bunch of hyperactive and adrenaline charged kids.
No one would love to 'don the cap' of the police as it was so uninteresting and a boring chore... searching, sniffing for trails, lurking, inquiring for clues and when discovered, chasing the nimble chors across the dusty playgrounds, hopping over small and big muddy water holes attempting to get their hands at catching the slippery chors...but alas no such luck. The sweaty palms of the police some how could never catch hold of the sweatier backs of the chors. Because being a chor always had the distinct advantage of 'one running as if to save his dear life' like how a prey does while the police were just running 'to earn that big badge'..not as desperate I would think. Playing the chor in a nutshell, was more exciting to me as a kid than being the respected but boring police.
Cut to 25 years later......the wordchor and also in the real sense has become such a ignominious word in our lexicon that it has completely lost the innocent sheen around it as in 'chor police' of yesteryears.
Now of course we are all grown up and grown out of 'chor police' days and have well realized that its not good to play the 'chor' anymore. So when we hear about these stories in newspapers and TV and sometimes from close acquaintances about they being at the receiving end of some good for nothing petty thieves or conniving home burglars or some such remaining ilk...it makes you livid, makes your blood curdle and make you wish you had at least one fighting chance with any of these rascals and you would knock the hell out of them. But knocking out was a good option only if you knew one of those Jackie Chan moves or Mithunda's dance kicks of Disco Dancer. Otherwise for the majority of us who did not grow on the staple diet of Bruce lee movies....only 1 option was available...that is using a can of pepper spray, blinding them out and kicking them in that 1 place which would make them remember their 'nani' for their next 7 births. But where do you get Pepper cans...somebody please tell me!
I always used to dream (or rather nightmare)about it.....this sequence of the Chor stealing something from me, on this cold, lonely and dark road and I helplessly trying to scream out 'Help' or 'Catch Thief' but somehow the words never seemed to come out...always! As if the throat had suddenly gone dry and parched just when I needed it most. And then I used to wake me up scared and sweating. After realizing that it was just a dream...with a huge relief would go back to my sleep. I am sure many of us have experienced this dream one time or another...in their life time so far.
Ok....even of this story and my filmy dream. Let me not play the chor police drama with you anymore. So what am I trying to say here is...what if.... what if this sequence from your dream (or nightmare in this case) actually becomes a reality and you are faced with a situation where you really are part of a chor police like situation. What do you actually do?
This is where the actual story begins.
One fine Saturday evening, hubby and me after our long walk in the greens of Aarey Milk colony area, headed towards the Hanuman temple like we always did. Me in my newly acquired pair of Adidas sports shoes was all gung-ho in spite of my tired feet. Sometimes, wearing something new for the first time gives you that extra energy and you get all pumped up...i feel. Its another thing that you end up with your feet in hot water tub when you reach home...but that's another point, let me not digress.
Coming back to the story...both of us, all tired and sweating from the walk reached the temple just in time before the evening Aarti started. I had recently come to know about my FIL's shoes getting stolen from outside another temple just a few days back, so I was in two minds about leaving my brand new shoes worth over 3k behind unattended. I thought maybe my hubby should go in first and then I would enter the temple after he came out. But then I said no, this is a safer area and no one had heard about shoes getting stolen, not from this temple at least.
So we decided to go in together. My hubby went inside and while I was removing my shoes slowly, I could sense a pair of eyes staring at me and my squeaky new shoes in a very obnoxious way. My sixth sense realized that all was not safe here. So I removed my shoes even more slowly and moved just a little bit towards the temple while still keeping a watch from the corner of my eye on those prying eyes. It must have been less than half a minute that I turned my back to face the god and after few moments when I suddenly turned behind, as if on instinct to take a look at my shoes they were not there. That's when I saw this man in his 30's, that is owner of the prying eyes, conveniently slipping on his feet into my shoes and making a quick dash towards the exit.
I swung and ran towards him and started screaming chor..chor all at the same time. (women are good at multi-tasking, you see)Thank you god, my throat also did not disappoint when I needed it most. All of a sudden, the entire temple sprang into an action movie mode from the devotional mode it was in, a few moments back. Me in my socks ran after him all the way down the road almost like I did when we used to play chor police. The scene was straight out of a movie..me running after him yelling chor chor and he running desperately like a prey who did not want to get caught. After about 400 meters, get caught he did as he ran straight into a bunch of teenagers walking towards our direction. With my top of the lung screaming, they realised that what was running towards them was a hare caught in a headlight scared for life.
And then...the usual scene followed where the mob decided to have a free hand at the rogue and hurled the choicest abuses at him. In the mean time I had noticed that this thief while he was denying he had done any wrong, was not wearing my shoes. I got suddenly petrified as the prized prey after whom I ran like never before...(at least not after I ran in the running race on school sports day in my 7th standard)...was not prized any more.
Where were my shoes????
That's when after much collaring, the drunken rogue confessed that he had left them by the temple after realizing that he could not run fast enough with someone like me behind his back. I quickly ran back to the temple and heaved a sigh of relief on seeing my gleaming pair all unattended but still lying safely by the road and calling out to their momma.
All this while when the drama was unfolding outside the temple, which was a matter of just five minutes, my hubby had realized that I was no where inside the temple premises and got worried as to where I disappeared out of the blue. He also heard a flurry of commotion outside the temple so he stepped out hoping to find me. Not knowing that I was reason for the commotion my hubby after seeing me right in the middle of the collected crowd, walked up to me very innocently asked me where I was all this while. I could not help but smile and said to myself 'Living my chor police dream and enjoying it too!!! God had finally given me my fighting chance with a chor and how exhilarating it was.
Just for your information, what happened after this drama was that with the help of local people we sent the thief to the police station and got him locked up. I don't know if it would mean that he will change his ways but I surely did not want to let him off...after all we already had 1 pair of shoes (my FIl'S shoes) out there, up for sale for peanuts by one such drunkard thief.
So what's the Moral of the Story
'Sometimes you don't need a pair of Adidas or NIKE shoes to help you run faster, even a pair of socks would do'
