[zaks]

The companies should make it a policy to educate new joinees to the do's and dont's of that city, else the new comers are very likely to get the taste of bad of that place.

[animdas]

Saw this in Bangalore Mirror today:

Techie accused of damaging bike, then mugged at Marathalli


Shwetha Sathyanarayan

Posted On Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 08:37:24 AM

City-based techie Anand D was travelling to work from HAL to Whitefield on Monday when, around 10 am near the Marathalli bridge signal, two persons on a black Bajaj Discover knocked on the window of his WagonR. They accused him of damaging their bike, but when he pointed out that it was an old dent, they assaulted him with their helmet.


Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Anand said, “I have an 11-day-old baby, and was scared of what might happen if I retaliated.”They snatched his mobile and demanded Rs 25,000 for the ‘damage’ to the bike. Anand offered them Rs 1,000, but that was not enough for the miscreants. They pulled him out of his car and took him to a nearby IndusInd ATM on the outer ring road. “I tried to dial 100 but there was no response. Only later did I realise that one must dial 080-100,” Anand said.
The miscreants cleaned out the Rs 6,000 that was in his account and fled the scene. Anand took an auto to the HAL police station, where he lodged a complaint.

“According to the police, they are local miscreants who mug people in the early hours or late at night. This is the first time they have attempted something like this. Earlier, they would use a black Pulsar but have now changed their vehicle. The police say they target cars with tinted windows and single drivers,” Anand said.

“What surprised me was that the incident happened in broad daylight but no one came to my rescue,” he said. The police said they were on the look-out for the miscreants.

[srishiva]

Do these muggers read something on a person's face to decide whom to intercept and mug them? It astonishes me that someone can give in to such blackmail even when you are inside the safety of your car. I can understand if its night time but 10 AM is just too much.

[Spitfire]

The muggers thrive on other people's apathy and the xenophobia that is so prevalent in this city.

That's my daily route, there was a lonely lady being harassed by a person on the same route at 1700 hours. Anyone here thinks the techie above could have got any help?

I love this city though So all's good.

[Newpunter]

10 AM near Marathahalli bridge signal? :O . I live very near to that place. If people are not safe during the day at crowded junctions, I am scared to think of what would happen at lonely places.

Lol @ Spitfire.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

The muggers thrive on other people's apathy and the xenophobia that is so prevalent in this city.

That's my daily route, there was a lonely lady being harassed by a person on the same route at 1700 hours. Anyone here thinks the techie above could have got any help?

I love this city though So all's good.

Friend, you need to chill out with your Xenophobia musings. There are only 30% local people in this City and please dont use evil words.

I can understand People's apathy and its not misplaced in many big cities. How many people in the area you mentioned are locals having xenophobic tendencies? Why does such things not happen with the same frequency in older areas of Bengaluru?

I hope this forum continues healthy discussions without labelling anyone generically.

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by srishiva

please dont use evil words.

Buddy, I will tell you where Xenophobia comes from.

Not once or twice that I have gone to a police station for some stranger. The last time being for a gentleman who got severely knocked down by an Auto coming the wrong way.

I was the only one who entered the station. The injured person went to the police only because I agreed to go along with him. The scene at the station was so downright ugly, all due to the fact that we were non-residents.

This is Xenophobia. Pure and simple. When a bleeding, injured person is told to get lost only because they knew he could do nothing about his situation.

Do you think this is an unbelievable situation today in Bangalore?

I can understand People's apathy and its not misplaced in many big cities. How many people in the area you mentioned are locals having xenophobic tendencies? Why does such things not happen with the same frequency in older areas of Bengaluru?

Which areas are these?

I stay in Marathahalli area and the number of mugging cases there should give a clue.

My general question is why doesn't anyone stand up when a wrong is being done in this city? Another thread talked about utilizing GK. Its doesn't go down with me though.

I hope this forum continues healthy discussions without labelling anyone generically.

When umpteenth incidents don't shake the conscience some harsh words are natural. Being an ostrich does not help.

[mkh]

Our company sent out a safety precaution email, cause the guy who was the victim was in our building! I go by that route daily, what can one do in this case? Just keep driving on and pay no heed? Man, these guys should by mistake come across someone like them, who can thrash the life out of them
Its sad that all this was at 10AM and none came forward, God help all cause the law and order cannot looks like!

[zaks]

As long as we have people who allow themselves to be subjected to this meekly there will be muggers and other mishaps.
The best way these things are handled are with public awareness and resistance to be bullied. Once these criminals get to know that it's not so easy to mug anyone they will not do it so indiscriminately.

But we are hapless Indians and have sheep mentality, everybody watches the drama but no one steps out to object. So they thrive on this weakness of ours.

In short as long as we give in these will continue.

[hallik9]

I had a different experience last night.Had taken the Volvo to goto office and was returning back to my apartment near Electronic city.The signal near the Central Jail junction was clogged and even the space meant for the lesser mortals like me to walk,was jammed by cars and 2 wheelers.No one wanted to follow the lanes and everyone wanted to utilize every inch of space that was available.
Whilst I started to walk,I noticed that there were 3 bikes who were on the edge of the road(And beyond this,there is a cliff of close to 30 feet as a real estate company has dug up the entire area for building a Mall)
If I had to walk,there was every chance that I could slip and fall down the cliff.
So decided to walk between the parked vehicles.My backpack touched the bike handle of one of those guys and he started to shout at me instantly.He noticed that I was an IT guy with a badge and a laptop.

Well,just didnt waste any time and asked him to move his bike to the corner.When he saw that the edge of the road had a huge cliff,his stopped to argue.Gave him a proper dressing down.
A cop who was standing at the signal came running and cooled the tempers.What made me insane was that the other 2 bikers were busy eve teasing.
When the cop arrived,I promptly mentioned that to him.
He was a good soul.Just plucked the keys of those 3 bikes and made them drag the bikes all the way to the end of the road.Gave them a proper dose of select abuses and sent them away with a warning.
I was pleasantly surprised that the cop took some prompt action and blasted them.

Things arent that bad as they are perceived at times!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by animdas

Techie accused of damaging bike, then mugged at Marathalli



“What surprised me was that the incident happened in broad daylight but no one came to my rescue,” he said. The police said they were on the look-out for the miscreants.

When I read this today morning in the paper, I was disgusted. Not at the law & order situation, not at the lack of help he received, but to see how techies have become the perfect victims.

• It is very easy to identify a techie in Bangalore. They wear the company badge everywhere, anytime they are outside. I often wonder whether they wear it at home too.
• While many of them are seasoned keyboard warriors and conference room warriors, they are perfect wimps in the streets. Ask them for anything, they will hand it out. No need to show any weapons either, just a round helmet will do. In this case, he knew perfectly that the accident was a lie, they were trying to rob him in daylight, yet he complied.
• When you are in such a situation, scream your head off, get into a loud verbal contest. Language doesn't matter, use English, Hindi, whatever you are most comfortable with. Suddenly you will see 20 jobless people around you drawn to watch the fight. After that use the crowd, refuse to move, make more noise, finally police can't ignore the mob and will come check the problem. If you do that much, no criminal wants stand around to see the next part.
• You don't need to be a physical fighter to fight off in such a situation, just a loud mouth and determination will do.

No one can help a person, if he doesn't help himself first.

[Mr.Bangalore]

Originally Posted by Samurai

When I read this today morning in the paper, I was disgusted. Not at the law & order situation, not at the lack of help he received, but to see how techies have become the perfect victims.

• It is very easy to identify a techie in Bangalore. They wear the company badge everywhere, anytime they are outside. I often wonder whether they wear it at home too.
• While many of them are seasoned keyboard warriors and conference room warriors, they are perfect wimps in the streets. Ask them for anything, they will hand it out. No need to show any weapons either, just a round helmet will do. In this case, he knew perfectly that the accident was a lie, they were trying to rob him in daylight, yet he complied.
• When you are in such a situation, scream your head off, get into a loud verbal contest. Language doesn't matter, use English, Hindi, whatever you are most comfortable with. Suddenly you will see 20 jobless people around you drawn to watch the fight. After that use the crowd, refuse to move, make more noise, finally police can't ignore the mob and will come check the problem. If you do that much, no criminal wants stand around to see the next part.
• You don't need to be a physical fighter to fight off in such a situation, just a loud mouth and determination will do.

No one can help a person, if he doesn't help himself first.

adding to the list.
do not stop when demanded, just drive to a near by signal and stop there in that situation you will get the support of the drivers around and also Cop in that signal.

[animdas]

I think there has to be different strategies to tackle these @#$*&%'s at broad daylight (peak hours) and night (remote stretches). I know this may not be a comprehensive list.

Peak Hours:
Make lot of noise/ honk like crazy
Drive to the nearest bus stop/ signal/ police stn (if you are lucky to reach there)
Few aggressive local language keywords should do magic

Night hours
Be observant- look ahead for problem areas/ stretches
Dont be too aggressive- you never know whether they will go physical

Any other additional points...?

[Alter_Ego]

Would like to refer an incident here which happened a couple of days ago but taught me a nice lesson.Though I was not involved directly.

After dropping my wife at her office in Belandur I was driving on the service road just adjacent to Salarpuria Softzone.Early mornings that road is full crowded and traffic moves bumper to bumper.Suddenly some biker tried to edge past a qualis(note a private vehicle and not a cab).The bike has a TN registration(just stated a fact.Please dont infer otherwise.Special request for people who like to troll).Just while passing through he touched the back door of the qualis.
And then the next thing I see is that the owner of the qualis, a man probably in his 40s gets down and starts abusing this guy.Of course this guy was at fault.And as expected this guy apologised and said sorry at least a 100 times while the other guy was abusing him.
Then all of a sudden the qualis guy snatches the poor bikers helmet and throws it down.Few more abuses.The poor biker(obviously an IT guy, as his bike had a ITPL entry sticker) walks to pick this helmet and meanwhile the qualis guy manages to break the mirror from the bike.
The poor biker is all scared and comes down and is crying and tries to apologise by touching the qualis guys feet.At this instant the qualis guy snatches the helmet again and BANG!! hits the biker on the head.

This blew my head.I immediately get down and before I could walk down round my vehicle and reach the spot a bunch of other folks, note mostly IT folks, have jumped from their bikes, cars and whatever vehicles they were riding and along with some auto drivers beat the hell out of this qualis guy.Some even tore his shirt and some broke the qualis's headlight.Meanwhile me along with a bunch of other IT folks(Why IT cause as someone said , We, were all wearing tags) manage to get the biker back on his feet and then on his bike.He says he wants to leave and not create a mess.
Meanwhile the traffic police from the next junction are seen coming running.

The entire crowd suddenly disperses with the traffic police are left with the task of taking the qualis guy to hospital.
Though this was not a mugging episode but,
Lesson learnt how deal with the muggers : Stay calm.No mugger can afford to beat you with the helmet.Its all a fake threat.If they do then take the beating and then watch them getting turned to pulp. Its better to go home with a swollen head than to lose self-respect and feel like a wimp by giving them all your money.

I have decided to not stop if they try to knock on my window and if they try to block my way then lord save them.I drive a Tata Safari and I am going to reclaim my life .....

[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by Samurai

While many of them are seasoned keyboard warriors and conference room warriors, they are perfect wimps in the streets. Ask them for anything, they will hand it out. No need to show any weapons either, just a round helmet will do. In this case, he knew perfectly that the accident was a lie, they were trying to rob him in daylight, yet he complied.
No one can help a person, if he doesn't help himself first.

Amen to that!

Originally Posted by Alter_Ego

Its better to go home with a swollen head than to lose self-respect and feel like a wimp by giving them all your money.

Well said! Its really not the money. It will come and go. It is the feeling of man-lessness against uneducated brats that gets many. Whats the use of education when your money is going to goons who chased girls while you were burning the midnight oil and now taking you money.

Don't let go w/o a fight people.