A Visit to the Police Station.

Back in school days we wrote so many essays on visit to here and there and what not but imagine a visit to a Police station. If i wrote one essay back in school days and i write it now, there won't be any connection.
Okay puzzles off. Actually last week I visited a Police station for the first time here in the Netherlands. And first thing i could thought of was just the vast difference !

Being there felt more like standing at the reception of some hotel or at some service center for some inquiry.

Ohh wait, before there are some speculations on why we were there let me clarify to make it some sense.

5th May - Libration day holiday. (Only once every 5 years and this year being that lucky one). We were at SpuiMarkt, Den Haag. There was a big open air concert going on at same place but we didn't spend much time there. When we came back to underground parking lot after a few hours, front number plate of car was missing. We were not sure if we were allowed to drive without one and unsure where and how we lost it!

So we had some knowledge enhancement

1. We were allowed to drive as long as back number plate was alright.

2. Back number plate is more important than front one.

As soon as we were out of parking at the first turn we came across police who signaled us to stop. Before they say anything we tried explaining and before we explain that we already informed police and from here we were directly going to Police Station in our town he interrupted us with that's later first Alchohol test ....yeah that open air concert i mentioned, remember? which meant lots of beer flowing and also driving after drinking !

People you are allowed to drink, but you are not allowed to drink and drive and hurt yourself or someone else.

After the test he listened to our story and surprisingly he was too cool about it, saying not a big deal, it keeps happening but we need to go to Police Station and report. And that is for our own safety as if its not lost and stolen you have a proof and you can be out of any unpleasant experiences. Agreed.

So that is how we were there... got the story now?

Now imagine standing at a police station, what will you imagine? If i hadn't been here, from my past experience i will expect some noises, some criminal, some authority voices and a kind of atmosphere which makes you feel to run away from there at the first possibility.

But here, it was no where near to my image of Police stations from my experience back home. There was a big nice sitting / waiting area on the left side as we entered and a photo of queen in the front wall. On the right side there were desks like you will see at any reception. There were 2-3 people sitting behind those desks in their uniform behind the computer screens.

They listened to us, took all the required data, put into system and printed a report.

The police officer who was mainly communicating with us started chatting with us afterwards and we chatted about almost whole world. If it was possible we would have estalished the world peace and harmony after that discussion...haha
We talked about languages, difficulties about learning languages, mother/root languages like Latin or Sanskrit, Problems with India, edge which India has over other asian countries, how British colonisation helped India, IT in world and IT in India, technical education and scopes, humanism, gods, how one god or no god and only believing in one another will help whole world ! whooaaa...so you got the idea !

In the case, If you noticed more peace and harmony prevailing around you in last week don't forget to thank us ! hehe

But seriously, it felt like talking with a friend, a long lost friend. After sometime suddenly all of us realised why were we there and we came back to the real world. He explained us all the formalities (which was nothing, just contact your dealer with a copy of that report and they will take care of everything from insurance to new number plate)
And yes, now we know what those superceded small 1 or 2 on number plates mean !

When we left we were smiling and I couldn't help but to linger upon the difference what i saw here and what i grew up with !
In India, job in police department is more about "power" (which unfortunately not all can handle very well) while here it is more about "service". It is all about helping people and that is very clear from ambiance, smiles and friendliness of people.

I know everyone is not same, and all policemen here might also won't be same or like him but i would like them to, we liked him !