The Crowded 1st class and a policeman

Since there have been some serious reports in this blog so far, its time for something light and I have decided to do an observation of mine with regard to an incident that happened today.

A man in his late 40's with a cover full of case papers. Clad in a khaki uniform with a name badge on his chest gets on to the 1st class compartment of a train starting from near high court of madras. These features are of a police inspector who after a long day of duty, is probably heading back to his shack. This man sat next to me. The train, given the time was crowded and there were a few senior citizens who could not find a seat. The seats here in the first class compartment are meant to seat 3, but it can be quite comfortable with 4 as well, provided if people adjust. 

It so happened that the police inspector noticed a senior citizen standing and offered a seat next to him and i did not mind giving some space as well. Before offering a seat to the senior citizen, there were a couple of young boys sitting right opposite to us who were asked to free some space in their seat to accommodate one other passenger. 

Rather than just the gesture of offering a seat to a passenger, the attitude with which he interacted with people and without even exhibiting remorse nature of arrogance made me write this article.

Passenger Arrogance

People may find this attitude of policeman to be an arrogant and commanding one, but i saw it in a different way. I felt that the people had totally forgotten about respecting elders, especially seniors and needed someone to force them show the respect. I would call it enforcement of respect. Many youth today lack respect and sympathy towards co-passengers in any public transport, hence to bring into order, such external 'enforcement' was necessary, in this case from a policeman. Since if it had been an advice by just another civilian, it would have gone unheeded. 

Most of the youth passengers today are arrogant as such, who care about nothing unless it pertains them. Such attitude might have risen because of the way they are brought up. Apart from their peer groups, the parents of the youth are to be blamed. These parents, in their attempt to please their children, have made anything and everything accessible to them that has instilled such an arrogant nature into today's youth. Also the friend's and other social circle of the young ones have turned out to manipulate the thoughts of the youth and make them in a way selfish and least bothered about the others around them.

Uncomfortable passengers

The other passengers are also as arrogant as the youth, if not always but in times where it involves police. The public do not have a very good impression on the police force and are in a way phobic to them, even to the name "Police". There was this one fellow passenger who had literally laughed at the gesture of the inspector to offer seat to a passenger. Personally, I find the passenger's attitude to be offensive. No matter what shall be the attitude or arrogant nature of police, it is not right to make fun of a man pure at heart who has the courtesy to show some respect to a fellow passenger while our cynical passenger was glued to the seat and did not even budge an inch. Many other passengers as I could sense were particularly not comfortable with the presence of a policeman in the compartment, in spite of the police inspector having a casual word or two with people around and exhibiting a friendly attitude.

A soft corner

"Even the hardest of rocks have a soft corner", is what i believe and it suits aptly to what happened in the train today. This may not be something of a very important news or a social issue, but it is my reflection on how people tend to behave when it comes down to interactions with bureaucrats called police. Despite the toughness that the police show in their attitude after for long dealing with criminals, they do have some soft corners and it is not everyday one sees this. Though he might be a very tough officer, he had a very basic humane nature that we all lacked back in the train. And this makes me overlook his arrogant attitude(if any) as a policeman. Even as i write this article i could vividly picture the police inspector asking me in a very courteous manner to make some space for a passenger. I could still remember the case sheet of an 'anticipatory bail' he was having with him. As i got up to get down at my station, I had a chateau of respect built for this officer in late 40's who exhibited an essence of human nature that we seem to be losing nowadays.