What to do When Criminals/Thieves Attack

What to do when Criminals/Thieves Attack?

As promised in my last blog, ” How criminals can loot you? -3 new ways! , I am before you with my research on some other tricks that the goons have been using. Most importantly, I will share some Dos & Don’ts to deal with such situations. But before that let's peep into some more ways in which you can be tricked by these hooligans:

a) Replacing real gold with artificial gold:

This is a very common incident in the Indian hinterland. And the victims are generally the innocent housewives.  A trickster (male or female, usually female) would come to the house in a sunny afternoon, when there is no male member in the house. S/he will offer to polish the Gold ornaments and make it shine like diamonds; while doing so s/he will replace the original gold with the fake one.  You might be thinking how does the trickster know in advance what gold items will be offered for polishing? Actually, there are some Gold ornaments which are very popular, and every other woman has that, e.g. a plain gold chain. So they hide such items beforehand and within a wink of your eyes replace original with the fake one.

b)Credit Card swipe at Petrol Pumps:

If you use credit/debit card at Petrol Pumps then beware next time. The attendant, who takes your card to swipe, may play with it just before the actual swipe. These scoundrels are using a small device, a skimmer, when they swipe the card on it all the details of your card gets captured in it, and they use these details to make a duplicate card. And as you guessed it right, they shop whatever they wish in one go and destroy the card forever. Wow! What a game! 

c) ATM Skimming

The same device, the one used in above case, is beautifully installed on the ATM entry or on the main machine itself. Naturally, one mistakes it as a part of process in withdrawing the money and swipes it, again all the details are leaked and the crooks can play with your money.

d)Lost child

You may spot an innocent child standing in a lonely place and crying for her parents. As a good human being you would be inclined to help her, but please beware. There have been some incidents where people have tried to drop the child at the address told by her, but when they reach the destination they become the victim to the plot designed by rogues.

e) Offering "Prasad” ( a kind of edibles offered after  God’s worship)

This is amongst the most common trick used by crooks in India. What happens - a well-to-do looking person traveling with you in a train or bus befriends you, after a couple of hours you become very-very comfortable with him/her. Then sometimes later he offers you something to eat, generally “Prasad”, and if you are an Indian, you know how difficult it is to say NO to “Prasad.”  Again as you would have guessed it, the “Prasad” is mixed with some sleep inducing chemical, and within minutes you become unconscious. And I need not explain what happens next.

So, we know so much about these trickster, but all said and done the Murphy’s law still applies, “if something  has to go wrong , it will” , Therefore,  I want to share my views on what to do and more importantly what not do, If you fall in such a situation. Especially the ones mentioned in “How criminals can loot you?-3 new ways!” 

Presumption:  You have become a victim of a plot and have been attacked by a set of offenders who aim at looting your valuables. Bear in mind, the following   Dos & Don’ts may not be applicable at all if the situation is different.

Dos & Don’ts:

  ·           
     1) First things first.

    Which you would do even if I don’t mention it here: REMEMBER YOUR GOD. It really                       helps;    the power of UNKNOWN is quite powerful

      2)Take a deep breath:

     Try to relax your senses, because the chance of walking out safely from a mishap is directly proportional to your ability to keep yourself cool in such circumstances. Don’t panic, more so because you already know that panicking will only make situations worse for you.

           3)Memorize a mobile no.

 I have a question. Do you remember the mobile no. of your best friend or spouse? If your answer is “no”, then please Know it from now onwards. Because, immediately after the attack you would like to talk to somebody who can make you feel secure. Isn’t it? But what would you do if criminals have seized your mobile? So, better memorize a number, which you can dial from some other mobile/telephone. Even during the attack if you get a chance to look at a number just before they snatch the mobile from you, please do so.

·         4)Never ever mention that you know any of them:

The attackers may become killers if they come to know that you know them even by a fraction of milligram . So just be quiet. Even if the person is your twin-brother don’t recognize him.

·         5) Don’t protest. 

 Remember your life is infinitely more valuable than the most precious diamond in the world. So, don’t protest, give the rogues whatever they want. I may sound “coward”, but I have heard of many “braves” who tried to play hero but are not even left alive to be called so. Look, you can always fight such people even after they have looted you. They have just started it; you can finish it off by getting them behind bars.

·         6) Think how you can help police to catch them later.

Keep your eyes and ears open, but don’t portray the same to the robbers. Try to listen to their conversation, if you can get some names, GREAT! See if you can memorize their Vehicle number, at least the last four digits. And also try to memorize the face of minimum one of them, preferably the leader. It will be handy in getting their sketch done to assist police.

  
7)Don’t keep quiet

You were quiet when it was required and that helped you walk away from the incident. Now, tell the world about the incident, blog it, e-mail it, SMS it, just spread the news.  I am doing the same right now, enriching you from my experience and knowledge. You really need to make others ALERT and indirectly help them to be prepared and cautious.  In India, many times we just don’t report the incident thinking, nothing is going to happen after all. But this is like running away from our responsibility. And, if we don’t do our duties, who will? ALWAYS INFORM THE POLICE.

The world is full of good and bad people. Let’s be prepared to meet the worst of them and  hope to meet the best of them, like we met today.

Always wishing for your health and safety. Take care!

     

How criminals can loot you ? - 3 new ways !

How  criminals can loot you ? - 3 new ways !

These are changing times, everything is changing rapidly. Within no time we have switched to LED from CRT, to Mobile from Telephone, and to guys from gals(hehehehe). (Don’t think too much I am married to a girl)  

They say, “Change is the only constant thing”. Indeed. Well, to keep up with the changes our Bunty and Bubbly(B&B) (read plunderers) have also changed, they are ready with their new gadgets and have come up with award winning innovations and ideas to rob you, to loot you and may be even kill you.

I am aware of three brand new tricks which are in fashion now a days. No, I am not the inventor . I just came to know about these real life incidences from my close friends, and one of them just had a narrow escape. The purpose of this article is to make you alert so that you are not the next one!!!

Trap No 1.  “ Anda fenko tamasha dekho” (An eggy trick)

The goons are up with this latest trap. Imagine you are travelling in your car on a serene beautiful highway and suddenly an egg hits your front wind-screen, what would you naturally do? Firstly, you would be stunned, “arrre ye **** kaha se gir pada”( from where the hell it has struck ), then probably either you would stop and look around, and try to clean the eggy stuff from your screen. But maybe you are smart and would not stop your car, thinking it to be a trap to plunder you. So, you will just slow-down and start your wiper to clean the mess on your front glass, isnt’it? And that is what B&B are waiting for. No sooner you try to wipe the screen the sticky liquid would spread and stick on your screen and it would become very difficult for you to see ahead, especially if it’s night. Unwillingly you would stop. And the game is over.

A gang of people would attack and loot you. You are helpless!!!

Trap No. 2 “Chota rasta Mota Nuksan” (Shortcut can be dangerous)

This happened very recently with some of the TCS employees in Chennai. It was 1^st of September, one of the few happy days in the life of a salaried person; their accounts were credited with the monthly salary. They were 5 in number, 2 boys and 3 girls. It was office time, 9 am or so; they had hired a share auto to go to the office. As usual the roads were jam packed, the driver thus suggested to take an alternate root and save some time. They all agreed, I guess, as it was a share auto, there would have been some other passengers as well, but they were probably a part of the whole ploy. The auto went for other 4-5Kms and abruptly stopped in a filthy village. A gang of attackers were already waiting for the poor victims. They snatched their valuable items, mobiles, watches, money etc. And then what do you think; they let them go? NO, they took their ATM cards, sent a person to the nearest ATM and only when he was able to withdraw the money from their accounts they were allowed to move. Just think how would you feel had it happened with you, your spouse or with your best friend? You can just think of the agony they would have gone through!!

Trap 3:  “Bachane gaye bachcha to khaoge gachcha”   (saving a kid can cost you dear)

 

This is the case where my friend was involved. Santhraj was driving on a desolate road, he unexpectedly saw a baby car seat lying unattended on the road side, and to his surprise there was a baby  or may be a dummy lying in it. His heart was moved and wanted to stop and help the child, but being my friend for last 3 months , he’s become smart (heehhhe), therefore he didn’t stop there, rather, he straight-away went to a police personnel and told the whole story. It was then that the police informed him about one such gang which is using this trick to stop the people and then loot, rape and sometimes even kill the victim. Thanks God ! Santha escaped!!! However, there are many people, especially women, who have been victimized through this trap!!

You might be thinking, if these are 3 new ways then what are those old tricks to trap people? Just don’t worry, in my next blog I will try to cover them and also share with you the ways in which you can avoid such traps, and God forbid , if you fall in such a trap what you should do?

Please share your valuable comments, may be your small suggestion can save somebody’s life. 

We can afford to forget Gandhi but not his message!!!

We can afford to forget Gandhi but not his message!!!

 When I picked the 2^nd Oct Times Of India, Chennai Edition , I was expecting the front page to have something about Gandhi Jayanti, but there was nothing on the first page. Only the second and the third page had some ads from a Government Department and a bank, to my surprise the Editorial page had no article about Gandhiji, the father of the nation was just confined to the sacred space. Initially I was a bit dazed at the overlook of Gandhi on his Jayanti.

I just waited that may be some of my friends would send an SMS saying Happy Gandhi Jayanti, but the whole day passed ,finally I sent some messages but none replied. Finally I thought my facebook and orkut accounts will have something about him...but that was just a thought, there was not a single message.  There was nothing much on the TV channels either, only Sony PIX was showing ‘Gandhi’, and I watched that.

It seems talking about Gandhi is out of fashion now. And it is in harmony with our society, when people are forgetting their biological father, how can they be expected to remember the symbolic father? It now needs a Munna Bhai to get people reminded of the epitome of non-violence, M K Gandhi.

Gandhi was a perfect marriage of a Politician and a Yogi. He did what none had thought was possible, he won battles after battles without even raising his hand and ultimately won freedom for India.

When asked what message he’d like to give to the world, he said, “My Life is my message”, in my opinion we have a few very important learning from his life:

1.       Practice before you preach

          Once a woman brought her son, who used to eat too much gur (a kind of sweet), to Gandhiji,       requesting him to scold the boy and get him rid of this habit , Gandhiji thought for a while and told to bring the boy after 1 week. And when the woman came back after a week, he made the boy understand to leave this habit. In that one week Gandhi himself got rid of the habit of eating too much gur.  It requires a little self-control. Before we advise anything, we just need to think, are we doing the same or not?

2.       Always speak the truth

This is very difficult. That’s why even after 60 years of his death no one like him has come into the picture. And remember he was a lawyer, who spoke nothing but the truth. Amazing, isn’t it?

But what we can do is become 95-99% Gandhi in this aspect and speak the truth most of the times if not always!!! Off course we cannot disagree with our wife/girlfriend that she’s the most beautiful woman in the society.

3.       Practice Non-Violence:

Looks easy but it is not. Non-violence doesn’t only mean that you have to be non-violent in your action but also in your thoughts. This habit can be inculcated by keeping an eye on our actions and thoughts and improving each day.

4         You need not be extraordinary to do extraordinary things:

Gandhiji was just an average or below average person on most of the parameters which we regard as success traits. He was meekly built, had a soft voice and was just average in studies. He had nothing extraordinary as such. But then he was a man of conviction and character, having a strong will power and self belief. And we all know his contribution to the world.

Please visit the below link to know more about this great man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi

Hindus & Muslims won't fight for long !!!!

The world may be but an Indian wouldn’t be surprised at the movement of police forces across the nation on the occasion of Ayodhya verdict. Why? Because he’s seen the blood profusely flowing in communal riots time and again. And when I say “communal riots” it means the conflict between the Hindus and the Muslims.

Let’s have a look at the proportion of these religions in Indian population(see the adjacent chart)

HINDU(80%) MUSLIM(13%) CHRISTIAN(2%) and SIKH(2%) , Buddhists+Jains+Others(3%)

 If we look at the proportions we can easily see that we have over 6 Hindus for 1 Muslim.

And naturally the majority of people with authority(Police officers, Ministers, etc) are Hindus. Had it been some other nation chances were that the majority would have engulfed the minority and there would have no question of conflicts. But thank GOD this is INDIA, where 80 crores Hindus would gladly crown a Muslim President, where Bollywood is ruled by the Khans and where people of any religion  can live without any fear of communal slaughter. I am proud to be an INDIAN. I am proud to be a Hindu.

Why do we have communal riots?

You must have seen the clips of riots on your TV. Didn’t you notice the kind of people involved? I am sure you won’t find a Doctor, an Engineer and other such people in the crowd. They are mostly poor, unemployed and functionally illiterate people. These people just act as a fuel in the fire of communal riot. Such people are easily provoked by the miscreants and are ready to slaughter in name of religion.

I can come up with 100 reasons as to why communal riots happen in India, but I just want to state the reason which I think is the most prominent of all the reasons. And that is our upbringing. I remember how I was told not to make Muslim friends and countless reasons were cited to support the argument.

.And my family is a highly educated one, if you go by degrees and certificates. (Thanks to my education, I have a few very good Muslims friends) Similar things happen in Muslim households. The hatred thus infused and supported by masses takes the form of riots at the slightest of opportunities.

I think as our economy will grow, standards of living will improve, literacy will go high and people would be busy in other meaningful pursuits and gradually with the passage of time such problems will wither away. I am sure our great grandchildren would laugh that their forefathers fought on such pity issues.

Common Wealth Games- let's support it!

We don’t need BHAGATs we need SAHARAs!

So, here we have one more article disparaging CWG; “Let’s play: Drug Olympics” (TOI, Sept 11). As always Bhagat entertains with his fictional fantasies. But CWG is not fiction it’s a nail-biting reality. It’s an event which is going to happen and I support it whole-heartedly.

There is a saying, “ Go out looking for one thing, and that's all you'll ever find” , so if one wants to condemn CWG s/he will have myriad reasons to denounce the games  and similarly if one wants to commend  it , one will still have as many points to do so, similarly as we have Times View/Counterview.

 I do agree that there are umpteen problems hovering CWG; but I don’t agree that it is the right time to discuss all this. I respect Mr Subrato Roy Sahara, who appealed the same through his message in print media.

 I want to ask; where were these people when India won the bid to host the games in 2003, why didn’t they start poking the government, may be a year ago to finish the work off? We hear all this brouhaha just before the games are going to be held, why so? The problem is that we have all gone corrupt. We think this is the right time to express against CWG because then we will be able to catch the eye-balls. Who is going to hear us later; let’s criticize it today?

Mr. Bhagat, I too feel that punishing the corrupt is imperative but why in such a hurry; before the games? And if you justify it by saying that it will set an example before the kids then you are totally mistaken, the roots of corruption are not here. It is there when the child is told to hide his age to get a free entry in a cinema hall; it is there when he runs from pillar to post with his father to find a link to get good marks in board practical exams. Stop it if you can and you will stop corruption I bet.

Also, come what may; hard work and talent can never be replaced by connections and palm-greasing.  Links may get one there but it cannot hold him there. And if short-lived success of handful of corrupts are going to set our moral standards then it means we didn’t had any to start with.

To me, the current situation of CWG is as if a BARAT(read CW nations sans India) is about to come and the LADKI-Wale(read Indian Government) is lacking behind in preparations, and we the relatives from bride’s side (read Indian citizen)  are making fun of the preparations instead of offering a helping hand. 

I am sure that Universe is not conspiring against CWG; it’s our own people and media who seem to be the plotters. The negative publicity has already done a great harm to the nation, let’s stop it.

Gopal Mishra

mailgopalmishra@gmail.com