Story of my missing purse
looks like a normal event, but the question is whether General Manager of a major railway can loose his purse that too on duty . It was not a case of missing or misplacing the purse, but GM’s pocket getting picked up. The culprit must have been a real dare devil. So let me give you the details.. I was General Manager Central Railway during 2002 to end of 2003.Mr Neetish Kumar had planned a non Railway visit to a place on CR . Due to some reason, name of the place is not being mentioned. MR’s visit was purely non railway one but as a protocol, GM has to remain near by , without participating in the programme. All arrangements including that of security are made by the State Government. As soon as the MR arrived in the town, a small town, there was a great rush of people , most of them having no political link, but just as a curiosity assemble at the venue.
As the MR was near the dais , he was surrounded by at least one hundred people. I was keeping myself at a little distance, but still could feel the pressure from all sides. Soon I felt a squeezing pressure from the side, and I could feel that some hands are close to my hip pocket, where normally I was keeping my purse, which also had Gold Pass. I was always keeping Gold pass with me, though never even once, any railway officer on duty asked me to show it. Next moment I was sure that my purse was gone. I tried my best to react physically but due to over crowding, I could not even take a turn to see who the gentleman or women was at the job. I left the whole thing on the destiny, assuming that the purse has been pick-pocketed. Within a second my mind worked and calculated that the total loss could not be more than a five hundred rupees. The purse was at least three years old, salvage value almost nil as I had purchased it from the footpath in Chowranghi area in Kolkata for, I remember , Rs 40/- only ( after some bargaining) , when I was serving there as Pr Chief Engineer. I never used to have a leather purse due to hygienic reasons, and also on religious grounds. I never kept more than 200/- cash in the purse. The only thing valuable was the ‘Gold Pass’. Fortunately I did not keep it with me that day as somehow the fate prevailed, I had handed over the pass to my Secretary, I don’t know WHY?. One debit card was also there , but there was a provision of blocking its misuse. So, in all the loss could have not been more than Rs 200/- But the key question was that even GM’s purse was not safe. However , I was, in the crowd, just one another person, like the others, In fact it was not a railway function, as I mentioned earlier. The security arrangements were that of the local administration, who were all concentrating on the MR, the chief guest. The Security Officer from Railway who always used to remain with me like a shadow, was around me , but about four feet away, He also did not realize, what had happened to my purse...The DRM of the Division was also around but he was also as part of the mad crowd as I was…
After about three four minutes when the Minister had reached the dais, and settled , the crowd also started spreading and thinning from the place where I was standing which was a spot about thirty feet away from the dais. My Security officer was able to spot me and he came closer to me. On seeing me a little disturbed , he asked, “ Is every thing OK , Sir?,” I did not want to tell him about the incident but I thought , what is the harm, In any case my purse is gone and by this time the culprit must have counted the cash found in the purse and must be cursing me for spoiling his Day as he could have found only about 200-250 rupees. His share out of that may be less than Rs 100/- ( as I know that the amount so looted is distributed among a number of persons in the chain. ) I told the Security Officer about the incident in one go But I was Amazed to note that the Security Officer was least disturbed. He asked me to take a chair which he asked another person to arrange. He futher asked me to just relax. How I could have relaxed inspite of my best effort to show normalcy on my face, but my body was not cooperating with me. Not because that the monetary loss was there but from the fact that even the General Manager was not beyond the reach of such petty criminals. My Security Officer came back with the Local SSP whom , first saluted me and tendered an apology for facing the situation. The SSP also asked me to just relax. In any case I first drank a glass of water, and started connecting to my wife on mobile, just an effort to divert my attention from the incident and to show off that the incident did not matter to me much. But that was not true, I was still not able to come to the normal. The mobile signal was fortunately good, and soon I was talking to my wife and trying to tell him how much busy I was at that point of time, I did not tell any thing about the missing purse, otherwise she would have started giving me lecture after lecture. Soon after I finished talking on mobile to my wife, I noticed my Security Officer coming along with four five local police men towards me, with a broad smile on his face, indicating some good news to me. “Sir , is it your purse?’, and then he advanced a purse towards me. Seeing the purse , my most valuable possession, I immediately responded, “Yes, that is the one” . My Security Officer and other policemen were relieved and so I was. I got my purse back , just in about 8 to 10 minutes time from the point it was taken away, I thanked the local Policeman profusely , and they turned back after a big salute to me without giving me any more time, not giving me ant opportunity of asking them further questions. I thanked also my Security Officer. Even today I do not know the mystery how the local police was able to solve the crime so fast.
SPS Jain ( every bit of the story is astrue as it can be,
Story of my missing purse
looks like a normal event, but the question is whether General Manager of a major railway can loose his purse that too on duty . It was not a case of missing or misplacing the purse, but GM’s pocket getting picked up. The culprit must have been a real dare devil. So let me give you the details.. I was General Manager Central Railway during 2002 to end of 2003.Mr Neetish Kumar had planned a non Railway visit to a place on CR . Due to some reason, name of the place is not being mentioned. MR’s visit was purely non railway one but as a protocol, GM has to remain near by , without participating in the programme. All arrangements including that of security are made by the State Government. As soon as the MR arrived in the town, a small town, there was a great rush of people , most of them having no political link, but just as a curiosity assemble at the venue.
As the MR was near the dais , he was surrounded by at least one hundred people. I was keeping myself at a little distance, but still could feel the pressure from all sides. Soon I felt a squeezing pressure from the side, and I could feel that some hands are close to my hip pocket, where normally I was keeping my purse, which also had Gold Pass. I was always keeping Gold pass with me, though never even once, any railway officer on duty asked me to show it. Next moment I was sure that my purse was gone. I tried my best to react physically but due to over crowding, I could not even take a turn to see who the gentleman or women was at the job. I left the whole thing on the destiny, assuming that the purse has been pick-pocketed. Within a second my mind worked and calculated that the total loss could not be more than a five hundred rupees. The purse was at least three years old, salvage value almost nil as I had purchased it from the footpath in Chowranghi area in Kolkata for, I remember , Rs 40/- only ( after some bargaining) , when I was serving there as Pr Chief Engineer. I never used to have a leather purse due to hygienic reasons, and also on religious grounds. I never kept more than 200/- cash in the purse. The only thing valuable was the ‘Gold Pass’. Fortunately I did not keep it with me that day as somehow the fate prevailed, I had handed over the pass to my Secretary, I don’t know WHY?. One debit card was also there , but there was a provision of blocking its misuse. So, in all the loss could have not been more than Rs 200/- But the key question was that even GM’s purse was not safe. However , I was, in the crowd, just one another person, like the others, In fact it was not a railway function, as I mentioned earlier. The security arrangements were that of the local administration, who were all concentrating on the MR, the chief guest. The Security Officer from Railway who always used to remain with me like a shadow, was around me , but about four feet away, He also did not realize, what had happened to my purse...The DRM of the Division was also around but he was also as part of the mad crowd as I was…
After about three four minutes when the Minister had reached the dais, and settled , the crowd also started spreading and thinning from the place where I was standing which was a spot about thirty feet away from the dais. My Security officer was able to spot me and he came closer to me. On seeing me a little disturbed , he asked, “ Is every thing OK , Sir?,” I did not want to tell him about the incident but I thought , what is the harm, In any case my purse is gone and by this time the culprit must have counted the cash found in the purse and must be cursing me for spoiling his Day as he could have found only about 200-250 rupees. His share out of that may be less than Rs 100/- ( as I know that the amount so looted is distributed among a number of persons in the chain. ) I told the Security Officer about the incident in one go But I was Amazed to note that the Security Officer was least disturbed. He asked me to take a chair which he asked another person to arrange. He futher asked me to just relax. How I could have relaxed inspite of my best effort to show normalcy on my face, but my body was not cooperating with me. Not because that the monetary loss was there but from the fact that even the General Manager was not beyond the reach of such petty criminals. My Security Officer came back with the Local SSP whom , first saluted me and tendered an apology for facing the situation. The SSP also asked me to just relax. In any case I first drank a glass of water, and started connecting to my wife on mobile, just an effort to divert my attention from the incident and to show off that the incident did not matter to me much. But that was not true, I was still not able to come to the normal. The mobile signal was fortunately good, and soon I was talking to my wife and trying to tell him how much busy I was at that point of time, I did not tell any thing about the missing purse, otherwise she would have started giving me lecture after lecture. Soon after I finished talking on mobile to my wife, I noticed my Security Officer coming along with four five local police men towards me, with a broad smile on his face, indicating some good news to me. “Sir , is it your purse?’, and then he advanced a purse towards me. Seeing the purse , my most valuable possession, I immediately responded, “Yes, that is the one” . My Security Officer and other policemen were relieved and so I was. I got my purse back , just in about 8 to 10 minutes time from the point it was taken away, I thanked the local Policeman profusely , and they turned back after a big salute to me without giving me any more time, not giving me ant opportunity of asking them further questions. I thanked also my Security Officer. Even today I do not know the mystery how the local police was able to solve the crime so fast.
SPS Jain ( every bit of the story is astrue as it can be,
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