Illegal Connection

This story is about the old proverb ‘Unity is strength’; in context of the life of medical representatives. No matter how high they think about themselves, medical representatives are seldom noticed by the mainstream society. People only notice them when they appear to be the hindrance when a patient is waiting for his turn outside a doctor’s chamber. But this incident made many people of the town to acknowledge the existence of a species called ‘Medical Representative’.

This incident happened in Dhanbad; during the mid 1990s. Two medical representatives from two different companies were living in an outhouse as tenant. Their landlord had not taken the proper connection of electricity. He was using hooks to siphon off electricity illegally from the power-line.

Once the state government issued a notice; about its plans to take action against all those who were using illegal means to get electricity supply. After that, there was a raid on their outhouse on a fateful night. Both the guys pleaded with the police team about their innocence. They requested the police to book the landlord but it was of no avail. The police arrested them and immediately put them in the lockup.

Next day, the news spread like a wildfire among the medical representatives. Most of the medical representatives began to gather near the area where most of the government offices were located. Some leaders of the medical representatives’ union were leading the crowd. Almost everyone was dressed in the business attire. The well ironed dresses with shining leather shoes and neckties were somewhat an oddity in the premises of government offices because government employees in most of the small towns are shoddily dressed. Many government employees could be seen in leather slippers; wearing loosely fitting shirts which may not have been tucked inside their trousers. Many of them were even sporting three days’ old stubble on their faces. They appeared to be so overawed by the presence of neatly dressed guys that they allowed all of us to meet our colleagues in the lockup.

Those poor chaps were highly depressed because they had been arrested for no fault of theirs. They pleaded with us to quickly do something to ensure their early release. After that, we came on the main road and all of us sat on the boundary wall of the office premises. One of us ordered a tea-vendor to serve tea to every medical representative present there. Then we collected two rupees from each and paid the bill to the tea seller.

It was a sight worth seeing. About one hundred and twenty people were sitting in a row on the boundary wall. Almost all of them were in formal dresses. Almost equal number of two-wheelers was parked in a parallel row on the roadside. The road; passing through the office premises; is the main road of Dhanbad. It is one of the busiest roads in the town. Most of the people who were passing by were looking at us with deep sense of wonder. Many could also be seen stopping to kill their curiosity.

A small delegation from our team went to the nearby District Hospital to meet the CMO. Even the CMO was closely acquainted with us because he was an important customer for most of the pharmaceuticals companies. He issued a letter on his letterhead; addressed to the SHO of the police station. Based on that letter, the SHO allowed our colleagues to go to the District Hospital for a round of medical checkup.

The doctor made a certificate that those two guys needed bed rest and advised their immediate release from the lockup.

Once we were successful in getting them shifted to the District Hospital, they felt highly relieved. After that, some senior medical representatives held a couple of rounds of negotiations with the lawyers and the police. By that time, even the policemen were convinced of our clout with the medical fraternity. They were also wary of our collective strength. Thus, our pressure forced them to release our colleagues; without framing a charge.