How constraints are good for you

On Sunday met up with Rekhi's in Freedom Park, a beautiful newly constructed garden out of the the old Bangalore Jail . To just show him the way back home, I escorted him part of the way to Cubbon Park. On the way back, we crossed Vidhana Soudha and took a U turn for going to Cubbon Park. Turns out that U turn was prohibited at that spot.

Well it was a Sunday evening light traffic and no harm done to any body , I took the forbidden U turn. Now Rekhi is a very rule bound person and would not violate any law, however probably he has decided to relax a little and followed me and took the U.  As luck would have it, there was a police constable who flagged both our vehichles down.

He asked us for our D/L and saw that my D/L was prepared in Chennai, Rekhi's was probably made in  Delhi and the constable asked if we were out of station and I said I was from Delhi and so was Rekhi.

I was prepared to pay a fine of Rs. 100/- or so but the constable started talking about a Rs. 500/- buck fine. If I had been on my own, it wouldn't have mattered, but getting a friend to waste money on a traffic fine because of my fault was very embarrassing. Left to myself, I would have bribed the guy 100 or 200 Rs. and gone my way but with Rekhi there, bribing was just out of the question . So both of us would pay the fine, whatever the amount.

So any way I got talking to him and said I was a consultant to the State Government and this sign prohibiting no-entry was not there earlier. Also I just casually mentioned names of a few Senior police officers who I knew, merely with the intention of paying a reasonable fine Rs. 100/-, 200/- or so and not Rs. 500/-. Obviously asking a senior police official to intervene to avoid even a cumulative Rs. 1000/- fine was also out of the question.

Well at some point of my talking , the constable said OK, don't bother, don't do it the next time and he sent us on our way without any fine. I  was so relieved; No more violating any traffic rules , ( except for parking under no parking signs, we will take some chances ) though the city gives you many opportunities for the same.

A picture of the beautiful freedom park 

Some bloggers who have done a good job of describing freedom park
http://www.bangalorebeats.com/bangaloreblog/index.php/freedom-park-bangalore/

http://www.mybangalore.com/article/freedom-park-in-bangalore.html

Freedom park is designed by a young Architect couple, Mathew and Ghosh, who were selected through a competition.