Today I was traveling to one of our field offices for a trial that we are working on. Unfortunately, I live on the north side of the city, and the buses drop me off in the southern portion. It's a one hour ride in an auto-rickshaw, after three hours on the bus coming back, so today I decided to only take the auto-rickshaw halfway, and grab dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. They didn't start serving until 7pm (it was a little past 6, so I went to a nearby Starbucks to have a hot chocolate).
I left the Vietnamese restaurant at 7:45, so it was reasonably dark, but still plenty of people on the streets, so I felt comfortable walking the last three miles home. It was 8:20 when I reached the railway crossing at Baiyapanahalli. It was only my second time walking this route, but I knew where I was going, so I walked at a deliberate pace. However, it's pretty dark near the railroad crossing. After I was across the railroad tracks, three teenage boys approached me and told me that I was walking the wrong direction. I told them that I knew where I was going. They tried to get me to take a "shortcut" which looked pretty sketchy, so I shrugged them off.
Then one of them grabbed my bag, another one reached into my pocket and a third one demanded my mobile phone. I've been mugged before, and this did not seem like a dangerous situation. Just some kids who wanted to be bullies. I shoved them off of me and kept walking (I knew that it was better lit and more crowded about 100 meters ahead). They didn't follow me.
I had another 30 minutes before I got home, so I got to stew in my anger for a little bit while I remained on high alert. But as I walked, people were nothing but friendly. Although I'm sure that I was scowling, plenty of people offered me kind smiles and greetings as I walked along. I passed a police station and thought about asking them to talk to those kids, but I didn't expect that they would do anything about it, so I left it alone. I just decided to shrug it off and avoid that area after sunset.
I left the Vietnamese restaurant at 7:45, so it was reasonably dark, but still plenty of people on the streets, so I felt comfortable walking the last three miles home. It was 8:20 when I reached the railway crossing at Baiyapanahalli. It was only my second time walking this route, but I knew where I was going, so I walked at a deliberate pace. However, it's pretty dark near the railroad crossing. After I was across the railroad tracks, three teenage boys approached me and told me that I was walking the wrong direction. I told them that I knew where I was going. They tried to get me to take a "shortcut" which looked pretty sketchy, so I shrugged them off.
Then one of them grabbed my bag, another one reached into my pocket and a third one demanded my mobile phone. I've been mugged before, and this did not seem like a dangerous situation. Just some kids who wanted to be bullies. I shoved them off of me and kept walking (I knew that it was better lit and more crowded about 100 meters ahead). They didn't follow me.
I had another 30 minutes before I got home, so I got to stew in my anger for a little bit while I remained on high alert. But as I walked, people were nothing but friendly. Although I'm sure that I was scowling, plenty of people offered me kind smiles and greetings as I walked along. I passed a police station and thought about asking them to talk to those kids, but I didn't expect that they would do anything about it, so I left it alone. I just decided to shrug it off and avoid that area after sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment