Right to complain!

   Yesterday was just another day at office.I reached early had meetings, made excel sheets :(, then me and another friend decided to go to the nearby mall for shopping.I did not take the cab drop provided by office and went with her.She is a new driver ,so was cautious and safe driver.We reached the mall, did some footwear shopping, drank some coffee and came out of the parking. As we were exiting the gate and trying the U turn in the front a auto zoomed past us and slightly touched the side of car, and the car touched the auto bumper.It was such minor touch that there was barely any scratch.Since we were doing a U-turn, my friend didn't stop and continued to drive.Now the auto guy jumps out and tries to stop us by flapping his arms and standing in front of the car.So, my friend didn't stop immediately but stopped after sometime.Now a lady comes out of thin air from the opposite direction and starts screaming at us.
    This was strange as there was barely any accident, and we stopped and unknown crowd starts debating over something they didn't witness.Now the auto driver asks us to get out, we didn't as the standby crowd looked passive and rest of them looked like violent(including the lady).Now the auto guy hit the windshield and it cracked! Now is when we started to get angry and fed up.Some more passerby stood to watch and some more started to scream along with auto guy and the lady.Now the equation becomes interesting when a drunk joins in the fight.I was even talking in kannada to show them that i am a local.The car by the way had a Delhi number plate.After sometime it was tough to understand who was screaming what and my friend now started to lose her cool .I was still trying to reason in Kannada, but nothing was happening.Now, they asked us to come out of the car and the lady tried to take the car keys from window.My friend immediately closed the window.The drunk guy kept telling lower your window or i will break it like a chant.I got pissed of and asked him to tell us what is his problem and we can hear him from the closed window.He even tried to get in the back seat to "discuss".Now some passerby's also got in the discussion and just started to randomly talk crap.At this point of time i called "100".Yes, it was the first time i dialed it.Amazingly it connected and lady at the other end responded well.I described the crowd harassment and asked to send someone asap.
     Crowd started getting aggressive, mainly the lady and the drunk.Nobody realized that the auto guy had been absconding from sometime.But the tendency to follow the crowd made people continue to scream and shout.I took some pics from my mobile in case they ran away when police came.The people even told involving police will be very bad and cause problem to us.We didn't care at this point and drunk continued to trying to get in the back seat.I redialed 100 and asked to send someone urgently.Meanwhile the lady got angry when i took her photo, she tried taking ours!!
    Thankfully the police arrived shortly and asked us what has happened, we tried to be coherent and explain.But the pressure and crowd doesn't help one in being coherent.One inspector got in the back seat of the car and asked us to drive to the police station and we did!Meanwhile they took the 3 guys in the police van as well.We reached , my friend parked.I have to admire her driving skills , that being a new driver and all and in such a situation she could park on the skewed footpath the inspector indicated.(Maybe he was testing us :P) .Now we get and they take us to the main inspector or whoever it was.I took control of describing as i know Kannada. I tried explaining and telling everything truthfully.Also, the crowds role in causing nuisance for no reason.I had to tell the threats given by the drunk.Now it was the guys turn, police guy asked same question to everyone.Do you know the auto guy,is it your auto? The guys replies dug their graves, most replies were i was passing by , saw the crowd and blah blah.At this point the police realized that it was unprovoked attack on us and hit the guys with police lathi as one was even showing extra attitude.I can't see violence so had to turn my head.One guy said he thinks the auto overturned and 3 people fell down and couldn't even get up.I laughed uproariously.We just logged a complaint against those people for harassment and hopefully they learnt a lesson to not trouble anyone without knowing facts .We left after that.Few things i pondered over after the incident.
- Never fear if you are not in the wrong.
- Police is not always bad and they are there to help us.
- Be conscious of personal safety and try to be reasonable, losing cool /name calling won't get us anywhere.
- Never underestimate the power of common woman ;)
- Last but not the least "Dialing 100 works!!"