Bindaas in Bangalore

Well I’m finally off. I fly out of Delhi tomorrow evening. After weeks.. no…months of debate the choices have been made and the tickets finally booked. Of course work being the way it is has left me with no time to update this here blog so I must blatantly plagiarize blog material from the ever-effervescent “Priya”. Presented here is this e-mail she sent about her recent run-in with an undesired element of urban America. Have fun reading…I know I did!

Poochie and her "very very dark" adventure...as forwarded to me!

Hi - how are you doing. I had a very exciting run in the other day - with a mugger. Didn’t want to talk on the office phone about it as I have been going on and on about it and am sure everyone is fed up of it.. so here goes.

I was walking back home after seeing a play at around 11 at night. The metro station was 15 mins from the house and I was alone, as Rama had gone out for dinner and I decided to check out a play. But I was on the phone to Rama when suddenly I hear this voice saying Give me your Cell Phone. And felt something in my back. So - and Rama is hearing all this on her side of the conversation - I said… What? Are u mad? So he said I have a gun, give me yr phone. Now it didn’t feel like a gun at all (be proud of me. I know a gun when I see one! ) so he said I am telling u its a gun and I apparently (Rama told me this later, I don’t recall) told him that why are you lying to me. Its not a gun and I am not giving you the phone (it was not my phone actually. I had borrowed my friend's US mobile and so...)

He - was a youngish guy, 18-19 years, black - kept insisting I cut my conversation so I told Rama on the phone that look… this guy says he has a gun so why don’t u call the police and tell them this.. and then I walked faster and pretended I was talking to a guy and said Steve come out of the house. I am turning into our lane and this guy is stalking me.. call the cops and come out. And I turned into the first lane I saw and ran. After which I lost him and called Rama again and told her that it ok he is gone but then I was lost and didn’t know where our house is (We were staying in this empty apartment that belongs to Rama's ex boss from Delhi and its actually empty with just our beds in the basement so she didn’t know who to call)

Then luckily, I saw a car coming so I flagged it down and it was a youngish guy - called Scot in his late thirties and I told him pl help me there is this guy chasing me.. He immediately said get into my car. And he called the cops and we drove around and saw the guy again. So we chased him in the car and he ran into this yard where this woman was walking her dog if you please with a wine glass in her hand. And he mumbled something to her too about a CD player and scared her so she jumped into our car too but we lost him after that. Then the cops came - 4 squad cars, within minutes. And this woman was more hysterical than me so they kept looking at me at this picture of stoic and calm. And then they made me go back to where the incident had occurred - I totally confused them with directions - but they were totally patient and treating me like some special victim, like are you ok? Can u talk... etc.

Then the district detective drove me home and said he wanted to take my statement so I called him into the house and he saw this empty house and was wondering what we were doing there -- he wanted a table to write on and there was no table so we took him to the kitchen counter! Then he said I am sorry this happened in our country so I said no - its better here than in India. There the cops would have blamed the victim, like why are u walking so late, why are u dressed like this etc (For the record I was decently attired) then he told me that in a way its good u didn’t give him the phone as he wanted to cut yr connection with the outside world before he did anything - or asked for money and other stuff.. The streets were all deserted.

And this is funny - he told us that it’s good to run, as they never chase as apparently they wear baggy shorts, which fall to their knees when they run so they cannot run. I thought he was joking but I told this other black woman this and she said that’s right.
So, that’s a tip!

Then he wanted my contact numbers so I said after next week I am in Delhi and said - the area code is 91 so u dial, 91-112643.. And he groaned as the police code is also 911 in the US and he said u have no idea how many Indians call the cop station thinking they are dialing some family in India.

And I wanted to tell him the guy is Black but forgot the politically correct word (negro/nigger/black), got confused and they are so careful out there, so I told him, the mugger was dark. So he said ok. Dark. Then I said no very dark.. He said ok very dark then I said, as in very-very dark??? So he laughed and said, as in black?!

So that's my story.