9-1-1

“Hello Dindoshi police station..”

“Hello, I am ranjith calling from powai”

“Ok. What can I do for you?”

“Sir, some of my friends went to Karnala fort, near Panvel and now they are not able to find a way to get out of there, they are totally lost in the jungle. Can you help “

“Hello. We are somewhat away from the location that you told. This is Dindoshi police station, you are in Powai and they are lost in Panvel, and the either Powai or Panvel is not under our area, so I can’t help. You try to call 100 and register the complaint there”

“Sir, I have already tried on 100 but no one is picking up the phone, as I am not having any nearby police station number and this is the only number I have. So if you can’t help them please get me any nearby police station number so that I can call them and ask for help.”

“I don’t have any phone number of other police stations”

“Sir, please try to understand the situation, sir any contact number for nearby……”

Before I finish it was disconnected in the other end. I was making the call to police station in a Sunday eve to ask help for rescue my friends who were totally lost mid in the jungle while their weekend trekking trip. But who was supposed to help me was not even ready to hear complete from me.

I resumed searching contact number of any other police station nearby, meanwhile I got a helpline number of Mumbai police. I dialed the same…

‘Welcome to Mumbai police helpline, you are not selected the language yet. Please enter 1 for Marathi, 2 for Hindi and 3 for English ‘

When I pressed 3, it resumed…

‘Press 1 for information on road map, 2 to inform us about traffic jam, press 3 to inform us about an accident……’

Oh... itz Mumbai traffic police, I won’t get a help from them, they will already be buzy with solving the traffic jams in and around the city on this buzy Sunday eve…

I disconnected the phone and returned to the internet explorer on my laptop screen. Finally got a contact number for panvel station I dialed it...

“Hello, Taloja police station”

“Hello Sir, myself ranjith, calling from Powai. Some of my friends who went for a trekking near Karnala fort has lost their way and right now in mid of the jungle. Can you help them to get out of there “

“Ok, how come you know that they are lost their way?”

“Sir, they called me and asked to pass information to any nearby police station as they haven’t any contact numbers of nearby stations. Their Mobile phones are working and I can provide you the numbers so that you people can contact them directly and locate them. Or can I give your number to them? “

“Actually I am not able to locate the place what you said, we are already away from the Panvel section. Still we will try our best to help them, you give this number to them and meanwhile we will also try to contact them. And I will provide you some contact numbers of police stations nearby panvel. You gave those numbers also to them”

“Sir these are my friends contact numbers. Please do something to help them”

“Sure. We will do the needful and tell your friends that don’t panic and we are coming”

“Ok sir, thank you very much”

“Welcome”

I was totally impressesed by the way he spoke and handled the situation. He was also in the same situation as the Dindoshi police was. He was also away from the location and can’t even understand where the Karnala fort and all is. Still has an attitude to help. This was very much needed if you are a public servant who is supposed to help the public.

Later I called my friends and gave the contact numbers of nearby police stations. Surprisingly, he said that, the person from Taloja Police station already contacted them and they are on the way….. !

PS: within 3 hours, the police was able to find the trekking group and returned them to Panvel…

the silver screen

Every Friday, I am having an interesting job to finish in my To-Do list. Checking out for the new Malayalam movie releases in the town especially in the multiplexes, So that I can plan for it in the weekend. Because of either less number of Hindi and English movie releases or more Malayalam movies coming out, every weekend I have a new movie to watch.

I was thinking of the scenario 20 yrs back. When I was on 1^st or 2^nd standard. My parents took me to the theatre for a movie. It was “vaishali” the bharathan flick which was running on packed houses at that time. But I was not able to finish the movie, because in the first scene itself I started crying out loudly on seeing a snake in the screen. My mom took me out of the cinema hall and later to home. After that while going for movies I was asked to give a promise that I won’t cry or abandon the movie in the middle. So when a horror scene comes I will just close my eyes and place my fingers on ears to plug out myself from the scene.

It took another 8 Years to change the scenario. Up to that my watching movies were limited to the ones coming on Doordarsan on Sunday evenings. While I was in 8^th standard, I and one of my friends planned to go for a movie. After long time I was back to cinema hall. I can count it as the “first movie” that I saw from a cinema hall. A memorable one.

Later the history repeated, in my +2 days, I joined for entrance coaching in a remote location, where my classes are on morning sessions only. So every Sunday we headed to the nearby cinema halls to watch movies. As it was away from home no one can trace me. The freedom of invisibility…

The scene was quite different in college days. I never missed a released Malayalam Movie. either we watch them in the releasing week from the A class theater or if its not sustaining that much time there, catch from the nearby C class theater in the next week. We were not dared to walk for even 8-10 Km to reach hostel after 2^nd show. In the time of movie award nominations in news papers we usually count the number of movies in last year that we “missed“. The number never gone above 10 out of 50 or 60 movies released in a year.

I still remember the first movie from a multiplex. It was “Zinda” from, PVR, New Delhi, and followed by “Rang De Basanti” from the same while our B.Tech project days. Even though while in UD we depend on the pre-dvd rip, net and DC++ downloads of new movies, I never missed the cinema hall experience. Frequently we go out for the Malayalam and Hindi movies in the nearby single screen. After 20 years, even today also I really got excited on going for a movie and at the same level, worry that whether I will get a ticket in the rush…

PS : So Movie for this week, “Palerimanikyam, oru pathira kolapaathakathinte katha”, starring Mammootti, Directed by Ranjith on 5^th Dec, 20.00 IST, Big Cinemas in R city mall. Ghatkoper….. Would you like to join me …??