Saturday, June 28, 2008

Up close & Personal with the Dutch POLITIE

My quest for assimilating in this country continues.

So last friday a dutch colleague says that a friend (who by the way is a hot air hostess) is going to run for a 10km run for raising some funds and whether we want to go for cheering her up. Now, the guy normally with whom I hang around was of course all eager...(he had met that woman earlier). Since I did not have any plans for anything anyways and thinking about the not-so-attractive option of spending a friday evening doing nothing I agreed. More than anything this was a chance to meet some local people and probably explore building those dutch connections I have been long thinking about. So the proposer researched and downloaded all the info on how to reach the place-complete with map, bus schedules etc. Trusting her blindly we just took the print outs and embarked on this journey (you would understand a little later why am I calling this a journey- be patient).

So we get off the last stop at a place at 9 pm which though beautiful looked like pretty much in middle of nowhere. Dont get me wrong there were houses, buildings around (signs of civilization) but the human angle was very much missing. No signs of any race or runners-hmm we do some walking around and literally stop some cyclists to enquire, but nobody has a clue! It is quite apparent that the run is not the "talk of the town" or we are way off mark the destination.

We are acutely aware that time is running out fast and soon it will be over (the run I mean) we start running in a direction we randomly select. So there we are 2 people in formal suits with bags on their back running without any idea whatseover of where we were headed to in the twilights zone. Probably sub-consciously this was our way of participating in some kind of run at least. :) We couldnt even call a taxi because we do not have any idea what we are going to tell the driver as to where to take us. As per the print out we were at our destination but not really.

After running for I suppose 1 km we see this guy and girl cop team cycling towards us. Running the risk of getting arrested for behaving suspiciously (what will you call running in formal clothes at dusk on a lonely stretch?), frantically we wave them to stop and between catching our breaths manage to ask them about some run happening somewhere! Come to think of it how absurd it would have sounded-this stupid run could have been happening anywhere in Amsterdam. Corny as it may sound the guy cop says, "Run eh? Cant help you- dont have a clue- in any case I dont like running!" I think to myself, "Dude, how the hell are you maintaining that bod of yours?" Anyways, we had luck on our side- (yeah the eternal optimist-thats me). There was a police station in sight and we just headed there. This is where the cultural gap changes into a grand canyon!

We walk in and it looks like a bloody hotel reception- maybe not a 5-star at least a 4-star! Believe you me, the entire set seemed to have popped out of eye candy pop video. All the police personnel- young in 20s -cute looking and smiling faces! So one of them comes to us and we rattle of our predicament- he smiles and says;" Let me call my colleagues in other part of the city to find out" (I swear the hotel industry can learn a few things from the police here on customer care and service orientation- considering our encounters in restaurants & hotels here have been less than delightful). So this officer (oh my!) comes back to us after barely a minute or so and tells us exactly where this run is -which of course as we had already realized is not nearby. The 2nd best part comes next "Do you want me to call a taxi for you?"- he offers. We are like "yes please" and then the best part, after calling for the taxi he tells us while we are waiting for the taxi why dont we help ourselves with tea, coffee etc from the machine.

Long after taking the taxi we kept on comparing this exp. with the exp. of police and going to a police station in India. Why there has to be so much of a difference? Why in India we have to cringe at the mere thought of going to police while here it was such a delightful exp. that probably I would want to hang out in my friendly neighbourhood police station whenevr I am getting bored. I can picture myself going in and asking ;" Where is the most happening party thi week?" and they telling me "Give us a moment and I will check with my colleagues". Ha!

If you are thinking I have forgotten about the actual event of the evening which is meeting those people- no I have not but then I am reserving that for the next time.