My office is about 25Kilometres away from my home. There is a company bus from a stop about 2 Kilometres from my home. If I am on time, I take this bus or otherwise I drive my Maruti 800 to office. 

Of late I am trying to take the bus more often. The morning 2KM walk is a good exercise for the body and mind! Bus starts at 7:45, so I start around 7:30 from home. It is a pleasant time to walk - cool weather and plenty of fresh air

This short walk of 15 minutes is a good time to reflect on the life. Today as I was walking, I noticed a mother scolding her young child. The child is refusing to go to school. Mother tells him - “I will call the police and let them take you”. Suddenly child was very afraid and he became submissive.

This reminded me my first visit to UK. One of the things that surprised me most was the fact that british generally had no fear of their police. They respect them, but fear? - I doubt it. This is just opposite to India or Kerala where Police has a very bad and fearsome reputation. They do command some respect, but most people consider them as some kind of monsters.

Now the people themselves are to blame for this. Indiscipline is so part of our life that only a fearsome police force can control us. It is the fear of police that keeps most of the anti social activities in check. 

Recently there were some attempts to give a humanistic face to Kerala Police. Some videos were made  by public relations department which showed how politely police should handle people. When it was publicly screened, people were laughing it off. It was as if people expect the police to be brutal!

In Malayalam, there is a saying - “yatha praja thatha raja”. This translates to - “as the ruled so the ruler”. I guess it applies to our police force as well.