For me, police stations and hospitals are places that are to be seen only when needed and ignored when not needed. Such places are good to have nearby, but not too close, if you know what I mean.
It’s not like I’m scared of them; just that I’d like to keep my distance from them. Most of the times I pretend like they don’t exist !
Last week was one of the times that I didn’t ignore the presence of a police station. I was in Colva (Goa) and the local police station was close to where I was staying. Housed in an old and traditional house that looked really quaint and cute, the Colva Police Station was a landmark in the area. But what caught my attention was a huge pile of papers stacked on an open shelf in the station’s verandah and clearly visible from the road.
I was intrigued at the paper pile at the police station and all sorts of questions ran through my mind. What were these papers all about?
Were they solved cases or unsolved cases?
Were they FIRs or NCs?
Were they important papers or unimportant papers?
And most importantly, what were these papers doing out in the open?
I would pass the police station at least twice a day during my stay in Colva, and each time my eyes would be drawn to the paper pile. And each time I would wonder at the different possibilities of what the papers could be or could not be.
Dear reader, what do you think these papers are? Do tell 🙂
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I am quite sure it has everything from personal data to FIRs. They are out in the open because there is no space to store them. There is no one to file them. No one bothered to digitize them.
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That is what I’m afraid of, Vinitha. Personal data, which has no business being out in the open like this.
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Sudha, I dont think anyone else will ever think of a travel post about a police station!!!! but those piles of paper are such a common sight for me, that i dont think i would have given a second look either. i remember the first time i saw such huge piles of paper was in the corridors of the mumbai university. they were obviously exam answer papes and loads of exam related docs and they were simply piled up high, almost to the ceiling, along all the corridors of the exam house at kalina. i couldnt believe all our hard work eventually ended up here. thats also when i lost faith in the re-evaluation system. how on earth would they ever find my paper amidst that mess??? years later, i visited an lic office, and tho a bit more organised, there were piles and piles of paper once again… thankfully they at least knew which pile had what!!!! then a few years back, at a registar’s office, there they were again.. this time piles of paper with land records!!!! i have now seen those piles so often that i think they are omnipresent!!
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Anu, but this was such an unusual one. I have seen paper piles inside offices, but not like this – open to the elements, the passerby and what not. Mumbai University is a veritable nightmare and it is high time that the University sheds some load !
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My guess is nobody would be able to recognize it as a chowki sans this. Sort of pieces of decoration…
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Hahaha… that is a such an apt observation 😀
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As an aside – The police station looks a lot similar to the one shown in Ajay Devgn’s ‘Singham’. I doubt they’d use a real police station, but I guess they used a house with a similar design or copied it for the set they built. Hmm.
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And I have not seen Singham. Only remember reading a lot of controversies about it. Or was that some other movie? I’m not sure now. But I will now have to watch the movie.
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ubiquitous, those piles of paper in any sarkari set up. thank God for clerks who know what they contain. btw, i once had to dig through these and never managed to find the original records of a post office account that I needed to renew….some money still locked in there! These piles from your pic could contain case files, or old FIRs for all you know….no clue! Interesting post!
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Thanks, Mukta.
I too have seen piles of paper in sarkari offices, but never like this and that too in a police station. Perhaps that is what caught my attention in the first place. And good luck with recovering that Post Office account 🙂
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Given that this is Goa, these might be the papers of challans that the police has made in the year! Come December 31st and they’ll probably dispose them. Good observation nevertheless Sudha. It’s always fun to read every word you write 🙂
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And good to see you here, Abhishek 🙂
Challans? And what would the challans be for? *The mind goes a wandering again*
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A Travel post on police station- one of its kind 🙂
I think those are old FIRs that have no space inside the chowki.
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Well, I have never seen a police station like this one. So it did deserve to be featured here on my Travel Shot series 😀
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If paperwork is a hallmark of diligence, as is the common belief in India, then the Colva police station must have set the bar pretty high.On the other hand, it must also be a pretty intimidating sight for the nameless person desperately seeking redresssal of a wrong! That pile can mean a lot of things.
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That pile can definitely mean a lot of things and I’m trying to gather together all the possible explanations 😉
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Now that everything is digitalised and police stations too are getting computers…must be no use at all of the papers. 😉 Old FIRS, work pile that seemed they were doing now lie outside, remembering the golden days when the bulky selves were part of the ‘system’. Poor police station staff. Now they don’t even have a thick file to push away from the desk..just a dust laden computer..;-)
Jokes apart, maybe it was a temporary annual cleaning going on. 🙂
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Hmmm… jokes apart, you do have a point. I mean, it is entirely possible that the police station has got computerised and these papers are no longer required. Maybe the police station does not have a shredder and is waiting for the neighbourhood raddiwala to come and clear the papers. 🙂
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What is an Indian police station without a good, high and unorganized pile of papers? Its quite a status symbol.
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That’s very well said, Rupertt. And paper is also a sign of bureaucracy as well 😛
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They might be just old case papers piled up for possible future reference. The police station is indeed quaint and lovely.
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The police station is quiant and lovely yes, but quirky too, wouldn’t you agree? Now which police station would keep papers like this out in the open?
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I feel the same way.But i think the stations must be far away from homes and living areas.So it could be safe to have far away from staying areas.
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The Colva Police station is in Colva and centrally located, though not on the main road. As for it being safe, perhaps you are right? After all, who would steal from a police station ! 😀
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I agree with Anuradha above. Seriously, who would think of paper piles for a travel post, except you? 😀 I too have wondered about the way papers are stacked in government offices, but seeing them in a police station is a little scary. What if an FIR is lost and they can’t proceed against a criminal? More scarily, what about the victim? Btw, there is no sign board to announce it as a police station or is it there somewhere?
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Papers being stacked all over the place in government offices is one thing, but paper being stacked and left like this in the open is another thing. Tell me, how can I not write about something like this? 😀
There is a signboard which says ‘Colva Police station’ in the first photograph, but you can’t see it as the size of the photo is small.
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Amazing how you turned a pile of papers at a police chawki into a blogpost. Good job!
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Thanks, NS. Glad you enjoyed the post. 😀
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What an pile of papers! I guess they are cases received from the surrounding area (district)…and why are they left unguarded (in case of strong winds) ..now I have so many questions running in my mind
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Join the club, Uma. 😀 Ever since I saw the pile of papers, that is what I have been thinking about !
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I think they contain personal data – maybe some old records, challans and ongoing and closed complaints. I was not surprised by them, though, for such piles of paper are an essential part of any sarkari set-up in our country. 🙂
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It could be anything, TGND. But to have such piles out in the open is scary. Granted that Goa is laidback and all that. But even then …
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This is your specialty, you manage to observe and write about things which we usually overlook. BTW I guess those papers were mostly FIR copies 🙂
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Thanks, Puru. All of us have a unique gaze and I guess this type is mine. And if those are FIRs, I’m shuddering in horror right now.
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awesome blog…enjoyed the visit! you write so well …
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Welcome here, Ashok. Thank you so much for stopping by and commneting and I hope that you will keep visiting as well. 🙂
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Hmm no idea what is in those papers but this did reminded me of ” Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”…
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I had to google to find out what Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?””meant, and I have to say that I can’t agree with you more. 😀
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What an innovative travel location! 😛
I have no idea what those papers are though I can make a wild guess. 😛
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The travel location was not an innovative one, but the storage area definitely was 😛
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