The jogging policeman⁴¹

When I was coming back from my run around four-thirty, at the thousand-metre mark what did I see? A policeman jogging. He had no car and he was not running to catch any thief. He had a radio with earphones and he was in his police uniform. He was a real policeman, with a badge and a gun. He was not someone joking or pretending.

As soon as I saw him, I smiled at him. Then he said to me either, “Sri” or “Shrai” — I could not hear very well — “Good morning!”

When I said to him, “Sir, good morning,” he stopped and shook hands with me. He was very fat and very tall at the same time.

This was the first time I had seen a policeman jogging. He was going very, very slowly. What he was doing jogging at that hour, God alone knows.