A Story of the Bangalore City Policeman
~ A Photographic Experience ~
(Kodak Film, not Digital)!
It was back in the rocking 1980's. My wife and I, with our 3 small children were on a vacation in the city of Bangalore, India. It was pleasant afternoon. We were browsing around in the shopping area along Mahatma Gandhi Road in the heart of the city. As usual I was in my usual quest and mood for taking photographs. Panning around with my camera I happened to see a smartly dressed traffic policeman across the street in the view-finder. Precisely at that instance the cop must have noticed that my camera was pointed in his direction from that angle. Somehow having caught my attention, he motioned out to me across the street to see him. I crossed the street along with my wife and kids. "Hello Officer", I said. Immediately after that my wife pleaded: "Sorry Officer, we didn't do anything wrong, did we?" As for me, I thought the cop was going to rip the film out from my camera. Without saying anything at all, and keeping a stiff upper lip at the same time, he put his hand in his shirt pocket . And while he did so, I thought he was about to issue me a ticket or a fine or something of that nature. It turned out that he handed me a visiting card instead saying: "I think you are a good photographer." He even let me take a full close up of him. "Please send my pictures that you have taken to the address on this card." he added. Promising that we surely would, with a sigh of relief, we headed to the nearest restaurant for a cold beer followed by lunch. Back in Goa after our enjoyable vacation in South India, I had the films processed and printed. Conscientiously, and true to my word I sent the policeman his photographs with a short note about our experience, my name and address. To this I received a reply from him in the mail thanking me and saying: "You are really a very good photographer. I've received the photographs. Thank you."
