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This bout of police efficiency reminded me of a minor incident almost forty years ago.
In 1975 I was a Lecturer at IIT KGP, West Bengal, and had just completed my super-Ph D under the supervision of my hyper-guide SDM after five enchanting but grueling years.
And found myself at a loose end.
And found that all my five younger sisters (and myself) had completed their higher education and were pining to get married...a good seven years after my elder sister married an IAS Officer, both employed then at Madras. Father had retired long ago and settled down in his own house at Gudur and was too senior a citizen to go about hunting bridegrooms and brides.
I then decided to jump into the fray and find grooms for my five younger sisters and a bride for myself eventually. All my sisters had completed their studies by then and were employed in AP a thousand and more kms away from KGP in WB.
The only way I could think of finding educated employed Telugu Brahmin bridegrooms was by advertising in the Matrimonial Columns of The Sunday Hindu to which I subscribed and was getting copies every Wednesday by post.
I went about the task with single-minded determination and found that 99% of the responses to my Post Box No 133 were unsuitable...needle and the haystack.
One fine day I got an Inland Cover from Mr Govinda Rao, aged 32, BE (Mech, Guindy Engg College, Madras) saying that he was the only son of retired old parents and was therefore himself answering ads in matrimonial columns. He said he was employed as an automobile engineer in the Hind Motors, Uttarpara, Hooghly, near Calcutta, a hundred km from KGP. The firm was then a very popular Birla concern manufacturing the ubiquitous Ambassador cars, a monopoly in Bengal. Hind Motors itself was a vast township and he gave his address like Block 5 Sector 13 and would be available in his workshop during the lunch hour 1 PM to 2 PM on any working day. And that he was a Telugu Brahmin (a sine qua non).
His English was impeccable (for which I had my own weakness).
It happened to be summer vacation for us at IIT KGP and so the next Monday myself and my friend NP traveled to Calcutta. And after lunch at NP's F-i-L' s place we rode the EMU Local to Uttarpara and eagerly went to Block 5 Sector 13 to meet Mr Govinda Rao. And found that there must have been some error since no Govinda Rao was available at the blessed place. So we tried Block 13 Sector 5 and all possible permutations and combinations with an error margin of (+/-) 2.
We got curiouser and curiouser like Alice in Wonderland and after a 3-hour wild goose chase met the Personnel Manager of the Hind Motors, flaunting our impeccable credentials from IIT KGP which was then very renowned in Bengal.
After a thorough search through his registers, the PM said that there is, was, and will ever be, none like Govinda Rao in the whole of Hind Motors...like Thurber, after playing on his violin for an hour, announced that there is none named Sherlock Holmes in Columbus, Ohio.
We retreated to KGP by the Evening Local, wounded but wise.
Next month I was at Gudur where my IAS B-i-L was visiting with his wife. And I was narrating our wild goose chase in Uttarpara.
He was thoroughly amused but got curious about the Madras connection of the elusive bridegroom and asked me if I still had that Inland Letter. I fished it out from my files and gave it to him. And he examined the postal seals, but like me, he too found them unreadable. Anyway he left Gudur the next day taking that Inland Letter with him to Madras.
Apparently he rang up his protocol-equivalent in the Madras Police to hunt for our mystery-groom, Govinda Rao. The Madras Police got in touch with their protocol-equivalent in the Postal Dept. And he tried all the Post Offices in Madras and discovered, from the 'signature seals' in all their post offices that the Inland Letter was posted in the West Mambalam Post Office.
And they were on the lookout for Inland Letters with the same handwriting for over a week and found out that the mystery bridegroom was not Govinda Rao but a Madhava Rao...a simple allotropic modification.
And the Police Officer dragged the culprit to my IAS B-i-L for an explanation. And found that the chap was unemployed and was desperately trying to catch an educated employed bride.
My IAS B-i-L was angry but kind...he himself got his bride from the Matrimonial Ads of The Sunday Hindu by proxy...his younger MBBS-brother was fooling around answering them in his own name and was caught with his pants down by my MD Uncle...another hilarious story for another day...
So, this Madhava Rao, alias Govinda Rao, was let off with a stern warning.
After six months, one day, I was reading the Sunday Hindu at KGP and there was this 3-inch column that one Madhava Rao from West Mambalam was arrested by the Madras Police for duping and marrying a young bride in the Tamilnadu IAS cadre...
The circle got squared at last...
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The two men wanted for the rape of a woman in the Hitec City area were arrested three days later by Cyberabad police after a wide-ranging operation. The police even took the help of the National Investigating Agency to trace the Volvo car in which the woman was kidnapped by the men posing as a taxi driver and passenger.
The police checked 50,000 driving licenses and 77 Volvo cars in the state. A four-second, blurred CCTV grab of the car was the vital clue...
...DC Front Page Wednesday 23 October 2013
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
In 1975 I was a Lecturer at IIT KGP, West Bengal, and had just completed my super-Ph D under the supervision of my hyper-guide SDM after five enchanting but grueling years.
And found myself at a loose end.
And found that all my five younger sisters (and myself) had completed their higher education and were pining to get married...a good seven years after my elder sister married an IAS Officer, both employed then at Madras. Father had retired long ago and settled down in his own house at Gudur and was too senior a citizen to go about hunting bridegrooms and brides.
I then decided to jump into the fray and find grooms for my five younger sisters and a bride for myself eventually. All my sisters had completed their studies by then and were employed in AP a thousand and more kms away from KGP in WB.
The only way I could think of finding educated employed Telugu Brahmin bridegrooms was by advertising in the Matrimonial Columns of The Sunday Hindu to which I subscribed and was getting copies every Wednesday by post.
I went about the task with single-minded determination and found that 99% of the responses to my Post Box No 133 were unsuitable...needle and the haystack.
One fine day I got an Inland Cover from Mr Govinda Rao, aged 32, BE (Mech, Guindy Engg College, Madras) saying that he was the only son of retired old parents and was therefore himself answering ads in matrimonial columns. He said he was employed as an automobile engineer in the Hind Motors, Uttarpara, Hooghly, near Calcutta, a hundred km from KGP. The firm was then a very popular Birla concern manufacturing the ubiquitous Ambassador cars, a monopoly in Bengal. Hind Motors itself was a vast township and he gave his address like Block 5 Sector 13 and would be available in his workshop during the lunch hour 1 PM to 2 PM on any working day. And that he was a Telugu Brahmin (a sine qua non).
His English was impeccable (for which I had my own weakness).
It happened to be summer vacation for us at IIT KGP and so the next Monday myself and my friend NP traveled to Calcutta. And after lunch at NP's F-i-L' s place we rode the EMU Local to Uttarpara and eagerly went to Block 5 Sector 13 to meet Mr Govinda Rao. And found that there must have been some error since no Govinda Rao was available at the blessed place. So we tried Block 13 Sector 5 and all possible permutations and combinations with an error margin of (+/-) 2.
We got curiouser and curiouser like Alice in Wonderland and after a 3-hour wild goose chase met the Personnel Manager of the Hind Motors, flaunting our impeccable credentials from IIT KGP which was then very renowned in Bengal.
After a thorough search through his registers, the PM said that there is, was, and will ever be, none like Govinda Rao in the whole of Hind Motors...like Thurber, after playing on his violin for an hour, announced that there is none named Sherlock Holmes in Columbus, Ohio.
We retreated to KGP by the Evening Local, wounded but wise.
Next month I was at Gudur where my IAS B-i-L was visiting with his wife. And I was narrating our wild goose chase in Uttarpara.
He was thoroughly amused but got curious about the Madras connection of the elusive bridegroom and asked me if I still had that Inland Letter. I fished it out from my files and gave it to him. And he examined the postal seals, but like me, he too found them unreadable. Anyway he left Gudur the next day taking that Inland Letter with him to Madras.
Apparently he rang up his protocol-equivalent in the Madras Police to hunt for our mystery-groom, Govinda Rao. The Madras Police got in touch with their protocol-equivalent in the Postal Dept. And he tried all the Post Offices in Madras and discovered, from the 'signature seals' in all their post offices that the Inland Letter was posted in the West Mambalam Post Office.
And they were on the lookout for Inland Letters with the same handwriting for over a week and found out that the mystery bridegroom was not Govinda Rao but a Madhava Rao...a simple allotropic modification.
And the Police Officer dragged the culprit to my IAS B-i-L for an explanation. And found that the chap was unemployed and was desperately trying to catch an educated employed bride.
My IAS B-i-L was angry but kind...he himself got his bride from the Matrimonial Ads of The Sunday Hindu by proxy...his younger MBBS-brother was fooling around answering them in his own name and was caught with his pants down by my MD Uncle...another hilarious story for another day...
So, this Madhava Rao, alias Govinda Rao, was let off with a stern warning.
After six months, one day, I was reading the Sunday Hindu at KGP and there was this 3-inch column that one Madhava Rao from West Mambalam was arrested by the Madras Police for duping and marrying a young bride in the Tamilnadu IAS cadre...
The circle got squared at last...
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