Prasanth was driving home to KK Nagar when he was stopped by Chennai traffic police. It was past 6.00 pm on 24 March, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb COVID-19 transmission in India. Prasanth showed the bills for essentials he’d purchased, which included diapers for his two-week-old son. He also showed his wife’s discharge summary to prove they were new parents. No dice. The cop wasn’t as interested in enforcing lockdown rules as he was in extracting bribes from people who’d done no wrong.
A seething Prasanth paid the cop Rs 300 and …
Roshni is a features writer and former editor of The Morning Context's Chaos team. Her career spans The Ken, Reuters, the Hindustan Times and DNA. She is a recipient of the UNFPA Laadli award and was shortlisted for the RedInk Awards 2016 for her story on Mumbai’s leprosy colonies. Her far-flung ideas would sometimes drive our editor-in-chief Ashish up the wall, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way (even if he didn’t admit it).
roshni@mailtmc.com