Don't breathe!

Imagine you are out of the house on some work or just. Your aged parents are at home alone. Unbeknownst to you burly policemen and excise duty officers ring your doorbell and pushing aside your mother, who is in her late 70's, barge into the house refusing to say why they're there; refusing to show a search warrant; refusing to show identity cards. They then proceed to upturn the whole house looking for "evidence"! What evidence your mother asks? That your daughter is "manufacturing" alcohol and selling it in chocolates! So your mother protests and she is reminded by a burly mustachioed female cop that they are only keeping quiet because she is old... otherwise she has no idea what the police can do!

This dear friends is not fiction or even the start of a concept for a feature film! This is reality! And this has happened to a very close friend in the past 48 hours!

I am not disputing the written laws at all... I honestly am very ignorant of most of them. I am hurt and angry at the uncouth behaviour and crudity of nature of people so called in "power"! This means today anyone who has jurisdiction or extra judicial authority can barge into your home throwing some archaic law at you and arrest you for something that you honestly thought was an innocent act!

My questions: what would the "overzealous wanting to do their job officers" have done if  either of the two parents had a medical emergency out of sheer shock of the events unfolding? Would they have taken responsibility of their actions or termed it as an unfortunate event and pleaded dedication to job?

The outrage that I feel at the actions of the government in this case is inexplicable. I want to do something... I want to sue someone! I want to start a movement to protect us! I want to .... I want to ... I want to ....

But what? And how? The sword hanging over is do not antagonise the powers that be or they could harm the person concerned to a degree that is irreparable.

Its no more about going out for a meal or partying at night and whose father what goes... its about all of us citizens of Bombay (yes Bombay not Mumbai) being declared Guilty unlit you prove yourself Innocent! So if I want to have a quiet Italian meal by myself with just a good book in a restaurant... I fear being arrested for soliciting. And if some of us women just want to have a girls' night out... oh man... are we asking for it! Because no woman in government's world goes out without a ghunghat and "family" men unless she is a whore! The fact that most times I have to scream at my "family men" to wear full length pants is another topic!

So, there we have it... you my dear fellow Bombayite have been declared criminal irrespective of how you choose to live!

Oh... last word... please don't get a cough and cold this monsoon... the cough syrup the doctor prescribes for you, could get you arrested for drinking alcohol in public...!