Nilesh flops down on a cane chair and casually tosses one arm over the back. ``I was on duty that night, but as I needed to go to the bathroom I went to the nullah nearby. It was there that five men approached me. They were carrying big dandas. They asked me what I was doing there and then threatened me if I told anyone about their presence,'' he says, his eyes growing wider, almost in mock fear. Of course he was scared, he laughs now and says. ``I rushed to a nearby chowkidar and told him then I ran to my father and informed him''.

``He was on duty for me because I was ill that night,'' says Nilesh's father Pratap. ``I have been suffering from fever and a stomach ache for quite a few days and the doctors had advised complete rest. Nilesh came and told me about spotting those strangers, and I checked around. There was no one, so I didn't see any point in raising an alarm.'' Pratap says: ``I checked and saw nothing. If I had called the police, they would have shouted at me for unnecessarily creating panic. If I had woken up one of the residents, he would also have shouted at me for disturbing him. So I decided to keep quiet.'' A guard standing nearby pipes in, ``We only get Rs 100 or so from every house. Why should we risk our lives''?

While the guards would prefer to look after their own security, the residents squabble over money. One of them says, ``I have been saying for years that we must have an organised security system. But no one wants to pay the money. And look at the heavy price we have to pay now.'' There is no organised security in M-Block. Each lane has different guards, who are paid by some of the residents in that lane. He also washes the cars in the morning. Pratap for instance has been in the colony for three years now, and started working for one Lata Mehta in M-27 a year ago.

Residents' welfare association president Harnam Singh says, ``We have to take some responsibility. It is not possible for the police to constantly monitor movements in every colony. The police can give us an umbrella, but they cannot stop the rain''.