As Indians, we have a tendency to berate ourselves and undermine our good points. We think that our country is not travel worthy and not a safe haven to be in, but I have a very different take on this as my experience abroad gave me a reality check.
Last month on 20th May, I was travelling to UK and happened to be in Oxford Street in London For some shopping and sightseeing. I entered one of its famous departmental stores and within a few minutes of shopping, I realised that somebody was tugging at my purse. When I turned around to look, I was surprised to see that the zip of my purse was open and the money was missing. It was extremely shocking and I didn’t know what to do . I approached the sales girls over there. They expressed their total inability in being able to help me. They asked me to speak to their Security Officer.I was taken to the security officer by one Indian boy, because nobody else was even interested in helping me in that store. That boy requested that we do not mention his name in any way as it might spell trouble for him.
The staff at the store told me that this was a very common occurrence in the departmental stores there. When I requested the security officer to check the CCTV footage to be able to trace the criminal , the response was in negative. He said that they were not authorised to do so and asked me to report the incident to the police . I felt that with every passing minute, the criminal was running away. But I didn’t see any sense of either urgency or concern there. They took these incidents for granted.
He was sarcastic enough to ask if there were no robberies in my country. I had to retort that we do have these incidents, but our police is definitely more responsible and proactive.
After a prolonged effort ,when I finally managed to contact a police personnel on phone, he bluntly refused any help. He further added that I should consider my money to be lost and refused to come to watch the CCTV footage. His answer was that the system was overburdened and he would not be coming to check the CCTV footage or help in its recovery. When I insisted for help, he said quite viciously “Are you on fire, or is there a murder being committed ? “
This was a complete shocker for me because the least I expected was that they would come and be sympathetic to my case and attempt to track the person. It seemed as if they were revelling at my loss.
He tried to follow some set procedure by asking me questions like “Are you comfortable talking in English, do you need any emotional help?” Funnily this was after five minutes of conversation in English and any refusal to help.
When I told him that I needed my money as I was flying out of the country after two days, he asked me to go to my Embassy. I told him I didn’t have money to go to the embassy either, he decided to ignore me. In fact, the Chief Security Officer had the guts to tell me,”Madam, are there no thefts in your country?”Now this was a very rude comment to make, so my befitting response was,”I have never denied about the occurrence of thefts or robberies in my country, but my police will never asks me if I’m on fire and they won’t say “Are you being murdered ?” I’ve never heard them say that we won’t look for your money, consider it as lost. They may not be able to recover the money, but they’re not so indifferent and rude.
This was an eye-opener for me. The usual belief spread around the world is that the West is a safer place to be. I think it’s just a myth. It’s possible that it was racism at play. Had my name been a western name or had I been of a different skin colour, probably more justice would have been done. I’m not sure but this is very clear that life over there is also not very safe and at the same time the police is far from being helpful,instead ,to the contrary, they were very dismissive and negative in their approach.
So with this takeaway, I feel that in India,at least my voice is heard.
If a reversal of situation had happened in India, had a white skinned person faced a similar situation here, our
police would have swung into action. We would have lavished more attention on them than merited. Possibly, it would have hit the headlines because we make more hue and cry about foreigners safety in our country.
Eventually, I returned wiser, more enlightened and with more respect for my country than ever before. Now I will seriously think before I criticise my own systems which are more overburdened than theirs. I also don’t expect them to treat me in such a cavalier manner.
Let it be an eye-opener for all our students, visitors etc travelling there.
I earnestly request you to take more pride in your country. We provide a lot to them by the way of foreign exchange due to our students studying there and tourists spending money over there. Our economy has already overtaken theirs. So hold your head high and demand justice whenever you come across such a thing. None holds the right to walk all over you.
