Poor Policing

Having finally managed to drift off to sleep despite the unpresidented, unfriendly and borderline murderous stares we received on this leg of the journey, we awoke amiably ready to alight. Our wonderful dispositions were shattered in an instant when we realised Jack's backpack had already disastrously disembarked in the night. Despite being wedged inconspicuously beneath his ground floor bunk, some opportunistic and opprobrious urchin had ushered his belongings from beneath us whilst we slept. I frantically searched the entire length of the train and every bag stored within, taking out my frustration of the events which had unfolded, whilst Jack sought a policeman or conductor to pledge a complaint. We followed a friendly rail worker to the police quarters at Jodphur station, suitably distressed, only to enter in the midst of a rabid and completely unprofessional altercation between the head of the shambolic operation and a tearful female employee. Stunned to silence we sat and waited shyly until we were eventually engaged some minutes later. The immediately impolite inquisition that was instigated snagged on my already paper-thin patience and tolerance, and my retort was governed by shortness. I was a split second before the barborous constable was rising to his feet and going utterly beserk at me. Tension escalated as thick and fast as the oozing ordure that flowed along the streets of Varanasi and perhaps overly pugnacious for the task at hand I was quickly ushered by Jack into a position of silent support as he quickly took the matter in hand.

After being relentlessly marginalised during the unsystematic and sham inquiry, whilst the room of unpleasant officials joked and sniggered amongst themselves in secretive privacy of rushed hushed Hindi, we did our best to remain calm, stick together and ride out the incomprehensible situation. Our report was bizarrely dictated to us in erroneous pigeon English leaving the final spurious account of events inaccurate to the point of laughable. We were forced to sit in abject incarceration for a ridiculous grand total of three hours until an array of equally unhelpful and insolent guards copied the content onto various other flimsy shards of government paper work. It seems that obscure and fallacious reams of reports are favourable over the actual application of any police work and inquiry into the specifics of our situation. With any hope of retribution for our criminal robber disappearing as fast as our faith in the constabulary, we waited to be slapped with one barely legible account of our complaint for insurance purposes. An undesirably irksome introduction to the beautiful tranquility of Jodhpur, but a good opportunity to practice some meditative breathing no doubt!

  The whole fiasco made us feel a bit like this...