Today I had a weird experience from a group of uneducated(not the academic qualifications) policemen who were controlling the traffic at Shangumugham. I was on the road on the left side of the mermaid statue and I was heading towards the direction of Indian Coffee House, and then I wanted to turn right. And there was this huge traffic but there was no restriction in the direction in which I wanted to go to. So I was going to turn right, and the policeman standing allowed me to turn, but suddendly a so called higher ranked officer(SI probably) came there and asked me to turn left, I said there is ample space and that won't cause a traffic jam, and I was 'pleading' and it made his task easier, he suddenly started shouting and asked me to turn left and go to the airport side and take a 'U' turn in front of the airport or else to take the car aside right over there.
So I was wondering if these crap 'idiots' are put there to make the traffic flow smoothly or to simply express their power over the common man causing more trouble. So I said fine I will take the left road, because I actually didnt want a fight with these stupid people. They can actually go to any extent. And I went to airport side and half way I saw some space where I could take 'U' turn and there was another policeman standing there, and with his permission and without interupting the flow of traffic I made a 'U' turn. The thing is that if I had not gone to the airport side I could have saved few things:
1) Time
2) Fuel
That would indirectly smoothen the traffic to airport side with one car less. And finally back to the old spot, I saw this man shouting at others. And I had to be in the traffic for more time.
So the fact is that, not everyone can be blamed. But few are there who simply forget what their basic duty is. So in short even in the time of this 'Jana Maithri Police' [http://www.minister-home.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28] few policemen are stubborn and they really need some sort of couselling or training.
I would also like to share another experience.
Once when me and my wife were travelling by car in Kodaikanal (Tamil Nadu, India), we were going uphill a narrow road and there was police checking. Unlike in Kerala where we find groups of policemen(8-12) standing at a single spot as if ready to attack the common man(they literally jump infront of two wheelers to stop them and have even killed people in the name of helmet checking), here we found only 2 always ready to help. He asked me to blow to the alcohol detector and when he found I was not drunk he told me the problem that a guy created that morning after consuming alchohol and driving. He also checked my vehicle documents and my driving license, but I had only copies of the vehicle documents and when I told them that I have the original back in the cottage where I am staying, they were perfectly alright with that (and if it was in Kerala the police would probably have fined me). Then he told me that I have to go uphill and take another route downhill as it is oneway. So I agreed and after covering certain tourist spots, I kept going uphill and I found out that I had to travel a long distance by the route mentioned by the policemen. And I wasn't even sure about the route. So I came back, and at the same check post the same policeman asked me to stop. And he wanted to know why I came back even when I was told not to, and I must mention that he was very polite. I told him that I was unsure about the route and also that I was low on fuel. So he said fine go ahead. What else could he say, he was there to help me and not to bug me.
So these people are very friendly. We were in Kodaikanal for around a month(August 2008) and we didnt meet a single policeman who misbehaved. And while returning to Kerala the first group of policemen just after we crossed the border were just interested to see if I have put my seat belts which I had removed when I stopped. But as my wife was still wearing the seat belt they had to believe me.
There should be serious thinking on educating the police in Kerala.
