This happened just over a week ago. I was driving my car in one of the not so busy streets of Chennai one fateful day, when I got a call from Wesley, my close friend of many years, who was too eager to tell me the outcome of his engagement ceremony to a soft spoken warm hearted girl from a distant town.

I was engrossed talking over the phone, little realising that a cop was tailgating me in close quarters. He soon overtook me, asked me to get down, and pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- Since I had just then filled up gas for my car, I had exhausted my monetary resources by then, and so paying him right then through the nose was way out of the question.

I promptly owned up my mistake and apologised to him. But the cop was relentless. He said he needed my licence. Having scanned through it top to bottom, he said, he would retain it with him until the fine was paid.

Little did i realise that the fine was a fine way of collecting money for private pockets, meant to be shared among conniving cops. He asked me to see him the next day before 6 pm with the money to get back the licence. The next day as i was about to proceed, he rang me up and said, since he's on some other lane, he was not in a position to get the fine that day, and so asked me to come back on another 'auspicious' day, now with an extra Rs.100/-

The next day I took one of my students Muthu along with me to see the drama, and it was a high drama. He had asked us to come to one place, but when we reached there, to our shock, he said, he's now in the fag end of another area altogether.

After about an hour's drive we managed to get in touch with him, and also managed to transact business with the cop, giving him his due. At once came a handwritten slip with the words, received Rs.1200 only towards the offence of using cell phone while driving, and the seal of the local traffic commissioner in faded ink at the bottom.

We returned, happy at having gotten back the licence, and the cop himself happy at having got his due. He was in cloud nine, or the seventh heaven, whatever. Long live the cop, and his loyal sense of duty...!