Mamus don’t challan girls, and that’s fine
Sardars don’t want Santa-Banta jokes, cops don’t want to be called ‘thulla’, and after they threatened to drag Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to court, I guess you can’t even call them Mamu or Pandu anymore.
Mamu is a favoured slang for the cop in Delhi and the northern states. Pandu is common in western India. While ‘thulla’ may be a derogatory word, I don’t see anything wrong with Mamu or Pandu. But who will convince the cop if he catches you and you say: “What’s the problem, Mamu?” You may have committed no traffic offence but the cheeky fellow may get his goat.
The humour and civility of Kashmir’s policemen can be seen at the Mughal Gardens of Shalimar and Nishat. They double up as enthusiastic guides voluntarily, regaling tourists with the tales associated with the place. Recent Eid, a cop stopped a friend at a traffic checkpoint. The documents were in place but the cop wasn’t disheartened. “Theek hai Jenab. Challan nahin. Par Eidi do
(Okay, Sir, no challan, but give me some token money for Eid),” he said. How do you decline a demand made with such cheer? So the cop got his Eidi.
The Mamu isn’t always boorish and surly. Some years ago in Srinagar, the traffic cop caught me for some offence and looked at my driving licence. “Aap Karnataka se ho? Aapka challan nahin karenge. Aap hamare mehmaan ho (Are you from Karnataka? We won’t penalise you. You are our guest),” he told me with a smile. The response amused me, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’m a Kashmiri.
And why risk a challan by stating the truth? I, too, smiled and drove off.
Women drivers in Srinagar have no fear of being challaned. One can see the almost comical response of traffic cops after they stop a woman. Even if she violated a rule, the cops are almost always too shy to pursue the case, and let her off with a soft reprimand. The hilarious part comes when the cop flags her down and she loses her temper over some misunderstanding. The poor guy can’t handle it and tells her promptly to drive away.
Girls have it equally lucky in Chandigarh, which is strict in enforcing traffic rules. The cops there are quick to pull over vehicles with the Punjab, Haryana, or Himachal Pradesh registration-number plates. Either you pay them on the spot or they shunt you to the Traffic Police Lines, where you realise the real cost of your offence. No such trouble for women drivers. A national daily reported that their simple magic words — “Sir, please!” — are enough to disarm any cop. The softened fellow can only give her a ‘strict, last warning’: “Madam ji, dobara galat drive mat karna (Ma’am, please don’t drive wrongly again).”
Not that this lenient treatment of women offends me. I advocate that girls and women follow the road rules for everyone’s safety. But not challaning them for minor offences is fine. What’s life without some chivalry?
ONE CAN SEE THE ALMOST COMICAL RESPONSE OF TRAFFIC COPS AFTER THEY STOP A WOMAN