I remember coming across a prize blooper on an Australian TV channel. The presenter falsely pronounced “police force” as “police farce”, and then in an attempt to correct it ended up saying “foolish farce”! Then, with a weak apologetic smile attempting to correct the faux pas, the presented said “foolish force”. Our force can never be called that, if anything else.
On a transfer to a remote location, I came across a strange but humorous incident regarding the force. A grocer, being the only one in the place, ran a lucrative business. He never gave goods on credit but went against his principles for the force. He bent over backwards to please them. The burly constable was picked out for his special favours. The constable may have had a big family to support for he never took anything less than 10kg packs from the grocer. Fearful of displeasing the guardians of the land the grocer made feeble requests for payment of the outstanding amount that the constable had run. The continued absence of the constable for some time made the grocer happy and then the constable made his appearance again. This time it was not for the usual 10kg packs but sacks full of groceries of each kind. The grocer mentioned the amount the man owed him while loading the sacks onto the van that the constable had fetched. The constable, with the insolent air born of authority, promised to pay the entire amount the next day. This time his absence was even longer. Fresh enquiries were made and then the truth dawned. The constable had loaded his belongings, sacks and all and moved off to another remote location on a transfer.
Is it the sacks that make them such heavyweights to contend with? An individual with a lean and athletic build is hard to find in the force.Their mental prowess does not match their physical abilities. A friend vouchsafes that during a fitness test he had seen an overweight fellow covering the running trail piggybacking on a milkman’s rickety bicycle!
My father was sympathetic to the force. He believed the men in khaki always had a tough time. There was some truth in the statement. An incident when a crowd beat up a policeman in Agra for some alleged misconduct immediately comes to mind. The force was pressed into service in the area where my father lived. Their presence was to reassure the folks in the locality. My father often chatted with the cop placed on duty near our house and his sympathies grew by the day. He decided to provide the man on duty a stool for his aching feet, as he stood guard the entire day. My mother’s protests fell on deaf ears. He decided on the stool on which the water filter was placed. The filter was placed on a chair and the stool dutifully carried to the policeman.
My father was happy and the fellow grateful for the small but kind gesture. But within a very short time, one fine day to his utter surprise my father found that the man had vanished and so had the stool!