Close call

Last night, we had an accident with a truck. Very, very, very fortunately nothing happened to any of us. The car is in pretty bad shape though.

Soon after the accident, I had dialled '100' to make a complaint. (I had taken down the number of the truck.) I asked for a complaint number to follow up, but the person at the other end said that the complaint can only be followed up at a police station. He advised me to go to the nearest police station and lodge a complaint there as well. This way, when they flash the number of the vehicle across town and the truck is apprehended, the complaint is already lodged at the police station and the truck driver can get booked immediately. There were quite a few gaps in my mind as to how this would work. Like, what if I was generally calling in to make a false complaint regarding a vehicle? Then it gets to be our word against the truck driver's. And the person didn't ask me details of my car either. Wasn't that required?

Possible conversation between apprehended truck driver and police:

‘We got a complaint that you hit a car…’

‘What car?’

And where do we go from there?

Of course, I don't know anything about how things operate once a complaint is made over the phone. I have previously made 3 such calls, and barring the time I had reported a dead body in the middle of the road, I never got a call back or anything.

I guess the best way to find out would be to go to a police station and ask the cops. However, I suddenly have excruciating pain in my right knee so I can't move all that much. And funny...my right knee hurts more when I use my left leg rather than the right one. I do hope it gets better soon without me having to visit a doctor.

To get back to the accident; I insisted that we go to the police station. But Papa thought otherwise. He said that it wasn’t a good idea to go to the station at night with two ladies in the car. It’s not safe, he said. Now, while I am not terribly trusting of the police, I do think one shouldn’t be intimidated of approaching a branch of the law. Especially, when you have done nothing wrong. They are, after all, there to help.

I do know this sounds easier said than done.

From personal experience, I find it a horrible irony that the police will go about rounding couples at Bandstand for ‘indecent’ behavior. But if you complain about a guy having molested you in a train, they turn a blind eye with ‘Such things happen in crowded places.’ Or worse, they ask you to go over the incident, again and again, in humiliating detail. And as for the women cops…I wonder if they have to be so densitized to be recruited into the police force.


I feel the safest when I know I can deal with something by myself. If need be, I can tackle a couple of goons or run for cover or control my breathing if I am shut inside a trunk. I feel safe when I know I am capable of breaking a couple of noses. But with this busted knee, I am feeling really vulnerable. And the only other place that preys on vulnerability more than a police station is a doctor’s office.

I hope I don’t have to go there.