Refresh @ 10 - VII

CRIME is one beat that I never got to do full time. But the sporadic experiences – mainly when the crime reporters were on leave – have still managed to leave some imprint that completes the journalistic experience. From the gruesome ones of seeing ashen remains of a mother along with her three children (suicide) to a sobbing NRI son next to his dead septuagenarian mother, strangulated by him in a fit of depression, to more sensational shoot out murder on one of city’s busy roads, the intermittent exposure gave enough glimpse of the gruesome.

But of particular recall is one sitting with a portly senior Inspector when I was still a cub reporter. If I correctly remember, the Inspector was Bhagirathsinh Jadeja of the Sayajigunj police station. It was a hot summer afternoon and I caught him slouching in his chair with his feet firmly on his desk a la Amitabh Bachchan. Only that Jadeja was more like a burly bear, and close to retirement. Not that it mattered to him. He continued with his siesta mood even as we hit a conversation on crime scene, his feet still on the desk (without shoes though). Perhaps retirement bearing heavily on his mind, he mentioned something like how increasingly police was finding itself sidelined with this new gadget that was spreading fast. He was talking of mobile phones. (Mind you it was 2002 and mobile telephony was yet to become as mundane a technology as it is today.)

Jadeja was talking about how prostitution was becoming a business directly between the service providers (professional sex workers) and their clients over the cell phone. Essentially it was moving from spots – called red light areas – in the city to the privacy of hotel rooms, farm houses, and even homes with everything getting fixed over the cell. Jadeja’s gripe was that he and his men were completely helpless now to curb the menace. Or, more likely, his grouse was that getting the cut from those involved in the flesh trade was becoming difficult now. Either ways, it could well be called an interesting example of how technology impacts a business!

Just as I rose to leave, the Inspector got a call – yes, on his cell – and sprang from his slouch. “Sir, sir, sir…sir, sir, sir…” was the one way conversation before he hung up. For a moment I thought something big had happened. But Jadeja eased back into his chair again, rang the bell and called his orderly. “Ek kaam karo…ye saamne Green City se Ek Biryani, Do Rogan Josh pack karva ke zara Commissioner Saheb ke ghar de aao…” I of course made a story of “the technology and its impact” only, and later got chided by Jadeja for writing with quotes about a casual conversation that was meant to be off the record. But no harm done.