Looks:...3 stories

Looks can be deceptive. Or are they?

I was at the Delhi airport last month to see off my parents. As I waited outside for them to clear the security, I was approached by two people.

The first one looked like he was from Punjab and onto Canada. He came and asked me where he could get the RTPCR test done. Though a little perplexed at his question, I turned around and directed his attention to a couple of police personnel standing nearby and asked him to check with them.

A little later even as I was lost in the ongoings at the airport I was tapped on my shoulder and a well to do business executive nearing his 60s asked me if the photo of his Adhaar Card on his mobile phone would do for entry into the airport as he had forgotten his original at home.

Perplexed and amused as I was this time, I asked him to check with the CISF personnel at the entry gate. He went away in a hurry.

That’s when I started wondering why they had asked me?!

Then it struck me: it possibly had to do with the colour of my jacket and the way I was standing near the barrier in front of the entry gate with my arms crossed across my chest and watching the people enter the gate.

They didn’t bother to look at the colour of my trousers.

Now I became curious: whether anyone else is also going to mistake me for a policeman?

But life has an interesting way of bringing you down from fantasy land.

Now let me take you back to another incident that took place 21 years ago. I had just finished co-facilitating a two day training programme at the Jabalpur Central Jail and on Monday the 12th of February 2001, I boarded a passenger train from Jabalpur to Rewa to visit the Satna and Rewa jails.

I had dutifully bought my ticket and I was amused that the ticket checker asked for everyone’s ticket in that compartment except for mine. By the way I was sitting in the side seat near the exit.

Finally on his way back, I ventured to show him my ticket and with a smile he waved me off saying: “Aap ka toh Pata hai” as if to say: no worries.

It was only a few weeks later when I looked at the photo that was taken that evening outside the Satna jail along with the Superintendent Dr. Suhel Ahmed and his officers that I realised the possible reason why I wasn’t asked for my ticket: I was wearing sandal coloured shirt and trousers along with a light brown jacket with black shoes!

Now let’s come back to December 2021.

I had just come off the Bandra-Worli sea link bridge on my way to Mumbai Central. At a red light, a white TATA Sumo came to stop next to my Uber and my eye caught the looks of a person sitting in the middle section. He looked like a policeman in plain clothes. The close hair cut and the facial expression were my indicators. And yet I wanted to be sure.

As the lights turned green and both the vehicles stated moving along I noticed the dust on the bonnet of the vehicle and then I noticed the hair cut and facial expression of the driver and the adjacent passenger. There was no doubt that they were policemen in plain clothes.

Having interacted a lot with prison and police staff in the early part of my carrier, having conducted sessions for them later, you get a pattern that stands out.

Funnily enough I had thought of rolling down my window and asking them at the next red light. But I didn’t need to.

There was a moment when my Uber happened to slow down enough for me to catch the glimpse of a handcuff on the dashboard.

That sealed it. Or should I say locked it?!

You can take a school principal out of a school or a police person out of their uniform but you can’t take out their learned and sub-conscious instincts.

They will stand out in a crowd. And that’s a give away for police personnel who try to operate in plain clothes.

Not that those three personnel in that TATA Sumo on 11th December seemed to bother.

Even as they drove off to their destination and my Uber turned towards Agripada, scenes from the Nana Patekar movie Ab Tak Chappan flashed through my mind.

So much so for our looks and associations.

Looks can be deceptive but not always. Your trained instincts can be a give away.