bad karma police

This has to be one of the weirder dining experiences we’ve had in India. While enjoying a number 9 (aubergine & humus wrap) and a number 2 (falafel & salad wrap) along with a heap of other assorted traveller types at this street side cafe in Pushkar, a tractor and trailor suddenly tore down the street with a sinister looking band of men onboard, one of whom was wearing a balaclava, the international symbol of terror (or alternative beachwear in some parts of India). They jumped off and proceeded to commandeer, not our passports or credit cards, but the plastic chairs we’d been sitting on. The café owners and staff tried in vain to wrestle the chairs back and hide them back inside the café but at least 3 or 4 were seized by the tractor gang. Apparently they are henchmen sent by the police to deter café owners from illegally setting up tables and chairs on the roadside.  We thought it was a touch extreme.