Scene : A police station somewhere in Gurgaon. It is late in the evening. Two policemen, the last ones on duty, are talking over a glass of warm lassi.
The Old timer – Arey, aaj kal kaam kitna badh gaya hai. Too much is happening in Gurgaon. Complaints,complaints all the time. I have stopped picking up the phone only.It used to be so different ten –fifteen years ago.
Newbie cop– Kyun sirjee ? What was different?
Old timer : We never used to get so many complaints. It was very peaceful. There were not so many buildings, shops, cars, women, nothing but buffaloes and fields and quiet little villages. These days there is so much crime-either it is some rape case, eve teasing ,chain snatching,carjacking, aur na jaane kya kya..
Newbie cop- But what can be done sirjee?
Old timer- Most of these problems happen at night. Pehle toh, we must ban women from being out after 8 p.m. They have a saying in my village- If jalebi khuli rakhee, then zaroor ayegi makhee. The womenfolk should be at home cooking dinner for their husbands at that time instead of stepping out of the house. Better be safe in kitchen than sorry on the roads
Newbie cop- Sacchi baat hai. But yesterday we got a complaint from a lady whose chain was snatched in broad daylight. She was walking from metro station to office.
Old timer- Main poochta hoon -what is the need to go to office? My wife is not working outside the house- she has been quite happy milking the buffaloes and making cowdung cakes for the last twenty years. We must ban women from going to office.
Newbie- I heard thousands of women are employed by these BPOs . They come and go at all times of day and night.
Old timer- It is all because of these BPOs that these women are getting into trouble. Their taxi drivers are the ones who are causing so much trouble. Once you remove the places of work, then women will not go there at all. Before these companies came, we had no such problems. We must ban all the BPOs.
Newbie- There was this one women who was working in a pub….
Old timer- Yeh pub-shub kya hai? Is a desi sharaab ka theka not good enough for these people? There is a saying in my village- even if it is bucket mein bhara, nothing’s better than our gaon’s tharraa. We must ban all pubs, bars and hotels. Then no woman will be able to go out and have drinks.
Newbie cop- But what to do, sirjee? The ladies go for shopping or eating or watching movies. We got another complaint from a lady that some goondas stopped her car while she was driving to the mall. They tried to grab her purse and pull her out of the car.
Old timer- These malls are to blame. Is the monthly village haat not good enough? Instead, ladies are wanting to go to beauty parlor, to fancy shops to buy chote chote kapde and bade bade handbag? Why tempt the ladies to go and spend their husbands money ? There is a famous saying in my village- ‘Bhains ko dikhaoge ghaas, toh woh ayeega tumhare paas. No shops, no temptation, no trouble. We must get these malls closed and ban any new ones. Then the women will safely sit at home. Newbie- What an idea sirjee! You are a genius. With no malls, no pubs, no offices, there won’t be too many people left in Gurgaon either.
Old timer – Exactly. Maybe then we can have a peaceful time. It will be just like it was in the old days- only buffaloes and fields and quiet little villages.
