Thats one hell of a day.

Today I was talking to one of my friends about the few embarrassing moments in our life. That is when I felt I should record this moment somewhere. Its all about my experience with a checking inspector, a few months ago in Chennai..

It was one fine evening when I started from office. I got into 19B bus. I bought a ticket to get down at Thiruvanmiyur from where I should head to Adaiyar. Luckily, I got a window seat. I was enjoying the weather which was cloudy and it was like it will rain anytime. Lovely weather. Music in my ears.Thousands of thoughts in my mind. Everything was good until a girl got into the bus after few stops I got in. She was loaded with luggage. I guessed she was going to catch a train to leave to her hometown.

She sat next to me and was trying to accommodate her luggage around us. I offered to help her. She handed me over few bags which I had in my lap. She got ready to get down at Kandanchavady which is few stops before SRP tools. Again I helped her get her luggage out and she got down successfully. During this process of her getting down and me helping I missed my bus ticket, which I didn't know until the checking inspector asked me the ticket in SRP. I told him I got one. He didn't listen and asked me to get down. I sought conductor's response. He was in my his own world pretending to ignore the scene.

I tried to explain. They were not ready to buy whatever I said. There began the worst part. They asked me 500 Rs. I said I don't have 500 Rs. He asked me to show my purse to him. I refused and when he forced me, I fought him back not to show any of my belongings. I was reprimanded of creating a scene in public. I had no other choice other than throwing my bag on their faces. They searched my purse and saw my ATM card and asked me to get money from the near by ATM. They tried to get my phone for security which I refused to give them. Later they agreed to follow me to the ATM.

I was so in rage and I didn't want to give my hard earned money to these stupids. I wonder what got into me. I walked fast and hid myself inside the building next to the ATM. They waited for a while. Then they started searching me around the building and asked the people who work there about me.

I ran to the top floor. I talked with the receptionist asking her if I can use their restroom. Seeing me restless, I was denied and told there is one in third floor. I sat there in the steps peeping through the window to see them. They were still there in front of the building, their eyes wandering to find me. People who  passed me started sensing something was wrong. I saw the maid who was inquired by those inspectors, climbing the stairs to third floor. I ran into the restroom hiding myself in one of the toilets. Those moments were so horrible, I was so scared and was sweating like a pig. I sat there for a while calming myself down. Every second passed like an year.

After half an hour or so, I came out of the restroom. The window showed nothing but the passing buses and vehicles. I breathed a sigh of relief. Made few changes in my looks, like I removed my specs, left my hair loose, had a shawl over my head. Made myself look normal and left the building. 

By the time, it had started drizzling. It made me feel even better. I was hoping to run without being caught by them. Guess it was already written as a bad day for me. :) As soon as I crossed the gate of that building, those monsters just appeared from behind the Lorry that was standing near the gate. They were hiding behind the vehicle just waiting for me to come out myself. My heart pounded at its highest possible rate. It was so embarrassing to get caught again. I was hiding and caught again. I just couldnt believe that it was happening.   I was called bad names as expected. I was declared that I am from a bad family and had no virtues. I felt like a real accused now.

I was asked lot of details of my whereabouts and my work. They snatched my bag. Went through every details of all my belongings. Damn, I really had a hand in hand fight with them refusing to co operate. It started pouring by then. I was left with no choice other than to get the money from ATM and pay. After talk of shoutings from both the side, I fetched the money and paid them and left  the scene. I just walked all the way back to Adaiyar, crying all though. I just couldn't digest the fact that I had to give them my hard earned 500 Rs for the mistake which I never did. Believe it or not, though I work in a IT firm, 500 Rs is a big amount for me those days. 

Still if I think of the moment, I used to wonder what gave me so much courage to hide inside a building when they were watching me from outside. May be the fact that I didn't do the mistake. But I could have proved that I am not wrong in some legal ways. But I hardly knew any.  That is when I thought, we should know our rights and what we are capable of. 

Even today, I couldn't digest how they snatched money from money just wearing a government Uniform. It was more like a robbery. We used to call it as "Vali pari kollai" in Tamizh. A similar one but in a more decent way. 

Anyhow, this incident made me feel very embarrassed for how I hid myself instead of fighting back and at the same time made me bold enough to face such incidents in future. Lessons, hard learned!!!