X: The Busy Street

The Busy Street...

Guy walks into a street filled with people; name's A. Another guy comes in walking from the other side; name's B. Mr. D is sipping on his tea, watches Mr. A collide with Mr. B, fight starts. People overhear something about one picking the other's pocket; Mr. C, owns a shop on the street, quickly comes in to settle the problem. In no more than 5 minutes the heated storm passes and the street resumes its usual busy business storm.

Detective X and historian Y visit the place next day. They look for facts and the truth. X only observes, from noon till 8 pm in the evening, while Y only stays there for about 3 hours. He asks the people around, "What happened here?"

The day after, at 9 am, Mr. Y gives his account to a local news network...

I went to the Agawana Street, a busy, small, narrow street, which attracts plenty of people and remains packed throughout the day. My objective was to write an accurate account of an event that took place the day before. Two people got into a nasty fight and one of whom went home with an alleged broken nose.

As I got there I saw a young boy selling newspapers at a distance of almost 10 meters from where the fight took place. I asked him, "What happened here yesterday?" Following is his reply...

"Sir, two people, Mr. A and Mr. B, got into a nasty fight. I didn't really notice what happened before the fight, but in the fight, A beat the bejesus out of B!" He said with a laugh. "Mr. A was tall and also had a muscular build so he easily punched B in the face as he went down on the floor! That nice looking person Mr. C stopped the fight then. They are saying today that B even had a surgery to fix his broken nose late in the night. Was an eventful day though!"

Then I went to an old man selling bananas on the other side of the street. This man claimed he had seen 'everything'. His account was different from the boy's...

"Oh sonny boy, it was terrible! I been on this here street for over a decade I has! Always a pick-pocket's heaven. Only this time, it went south for the picker it did! About time someone showed 'em bad boys how many bananas in a dozen eh?!" He said with a grins and a giggle. "That little thieving B, wanted to pick big boy A's pocket. But A was no simpleton! He knew karate he did! Anyone swing an arm like that, I tells ya boy; he knew karate! Couple of punches to B's face and down the little man went, BAM! Then A picked up his purse. But B was such a mean fellow! He got up to hit him! A was again on him! But thank goodness for that good fella Mr C, nice quiet man he is, came in between and stopped the fight. Made 'em shake hands and everything."

After going through such gossip for a couple of hours, I decided to look for a reliable and authentic source. So I went to Mr. D. He was this nice middle aged man who had owned a book store on that street for the past few years. He told me a precise unbiased account of the event...

"Ah... it was middle of the day, 2:15 I think. I was looking at this guy, A was his name, as he walked through the street with a cell phone in his hand. I was having a cup of tea then. Unnoticeably, unwillingly, he collided with another fast approaching person, B. Not just his cell but also his purse fell down. He blamed B. Instead of trying to explain it to A, B became aggressive. The aggression is understandable though. This time of the day, he was probably hungry and going for lunch at that there café," he said pointing at a café nearby. "Anyways, then it got physical. Both showed unnecessary anger and aggression and B even got badly hurt. If it weren't for Mr. C, it could have been more than just a bloody nose! That old man C, he is a really nice respectful man. He came in and stopped the fight. More people should be like that, you know?"

As you can see for yourself now, it was just a mere misunderstanding that caused all the commotion that day. And violence, violent intentions and thoughts, and unnecessary aggression aggravated the situation.

Detective X, 10 days after the incident, goes in with the police, arrests a few people and solves the pick pocketing problem entirely. His account is thus...

History tries to be un-biased, succeeds in being a fool. It doesn't matter whether the chicken was arachnophobic or whether the street had too much traffic or not. What matters is 'why the heck did the chicken cross the street'. I sat at the street for more than 8 hours every day for 7 days straight. I noticed 4 things of suspicion:

1. The street is more than 90 meters in length; 93, to be more precise, give or take a foot. It has entrances only 3 meters wide at one and 7 meters wide at the other end. No one enters the street without certain people noticing him/her...

One of these people is a beggar, he sits at one corner of the street. His eyes register anyone and everyone, regular, occasional, or even the one-timers. I observed that many times he waited for certain people to return to the edge where he sat so that he could remind them that they did not bestow upon him any alms. By my calculations, he only missed 2 of every 10 such people. So when he got up to leave one day at around 6 pm, I waved to get his attention. As he looked at me I called him and gave him more than he was expecting but, in return I asked him a question, "Tell me my good man, the two people that fought here a few days back, could you recognise them?" He replied, "Ya I think I've seen 'A' few times in the past 2, 3 weeks. Comes here usually for office stationary. But haven't seen B, ever."

When I further enquired about B, he just quickly told me that he knows nothing more and rushed off.

2. Mr. C owns the grocery store but never does anything other than read a book or look outside at everybody else...

What kind of a business man turns a blind eye on his own business and looks out at other's? Although he claimed that he does so because he is also the leader of the shopkeeper's union, I just could not get my head around it.

3. The fruit and vegetable barrows in the street were not spread throughout the length of the street but were in groups...

You can observe it yourself, in ten meters or so there are 10 barrows or carts, then nothing for the next 20 and then again 10 in 15 or 20 then again nothing for the next 20 or 30, so on and so forth.

4. Every day at noon, as I walked in to the street, I went straight to Mr. C and every single day I asked him the same question: "how are you Mr. Hero?"

Did the response change? No. Did the expressions change? No. Did the tone change? No. Did the following pleasantries change? No.

What is, is what is. B tried to rob A. A was powerful enough to defend himself. C, seeing the situation going south, came in and orchestrated a truce. Actually, C orchestrates more than just truces. He is the chairman of the shopkeeper's union and thus is in-charge of matters of his street. He groups the barrows in a way which creates crowds of people at regular intervals. Then he lets people pick pockets. As a thanksgiving, these people then give a portion of their 'earnings' to C. C does not look outside and away from his business, no. He looks outside to observe his more profitable business.

How am I so sure of this that I arrested him? The Faces; it's always the faces. C's face when I asked him "how are you hero" never changed a shade. Sometimes, the failure of acting natural is evident in such unusual things. He did not panic, yes, but the issue is that a normal person would have freaked out! Once, understandable; ask it twice, a look of suspicion; thrice, definitely something wrong; four, five, six, seven, a violent reaction is inevitable. And if you are so respectable, nice, quiet, good and 'humble', then no way would you stand by and watch someone call you a hero again and again.

Then that beggar's face; never looked at me after I asked him about B. My guess; he is a spotter for C. But let's not judge this by my guess, let's wait for the interrogation report.

X was spot on. C was the master-mind, D was his accomplice and the beggar was his spotter, the interrogation reports revealed. Not just B, but many more were then apprehended who worked that street.

Sometimes, events in the past are looked at from an unbiased perspective while what is needed is to look at them from a detective's eye because...

"Doctor Watson, you may see what I see, but you do not notice what I notice." - Sherlock Holmes