Here’s a mugshot gallery that surprised even cops!

The article is sponsored by Lipton Iced tea.

If you haven’t done this already, now might be a good time to thank your stars if you are reading this in an air-conditioned environment. Yesterday, over 80% of Indians lived through a day when the temperature crossed 40 degrees Celsius.

That probably makes us one of the toughest countries to work in during the summer, especially if you work outside the cool environs of an air-conditioned building. Add to that the pollution, crowds, deafening noise, and it makes you wonder how traffic policemen (and women) and traffic volunteers even come back to work, day after sweltering day. The term “job environment” for them takes on a whole new meaning in the summer heat, especially during a heatwave.

How do these folks keep their cool? What could make their day just a little better? It was time for us to find out.

YS employees in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai went out and shared a cold bottle of Lipton Iced Tea with traffic cops in their neighbourhood on a hot sweltering afternoon – when they needed it the most.

And in almost every case, we got a lovely smile in return, and some great inputs on what we could do to make their life easier. And guess what, most of their feedback won’t cost us anything but it would make everyone’s life a whole lot easier.

Traffic cops everywhere told us that 90% of the traffic issues arises because people don’t follow traffic rules – whether it’s driving haphazardly to honking unnecessarily to over-speeding. One policeman told us, “If we confront people for breaking traffic rules, they abuse and provoke us…it’s like they deliberately make us lose our cool.”

Another policeman standing at a busy, polluted junction when the mercury touched 46 degrees, pointed out, “Sometimes because people are in a hurry and drive irresponsibly, we are prone to accidents while on duty.” A third had a very simple request: “A little bit of gratitude and just being a responsible driver goes a long way in helping us do our job.”

So the next time you’re driving and you’re in a mad rush, spare a thought for the people who keep the city’s traffic humming smoothly and the challenges they face, and behave responsibly: don’t park in a no-parking zone, follow lane discipline, don’t break traffic signals, and follow statuary traffic regulations and guidelines. Not only will you be making a traffic policeman’s life easier, you’ll also make Indian roads safer for you and everyone else.

Lipton Iced Tea salutes the traffic police stationed at every traffic signal, every road corner, and traffic control rooms across the country – in their effort to tame the crazy Indian traffic.