Sunday, February 17, 2008

"Honesty is the best Policy" (Proof & Contradiction)

I am not gonna take you into any proverbial training here! It was an auto-walah who raised this saying (fyi, he did it in English), and impressed us by his square actions.

[All conversation in red are by the auto-walah and are reproduced exactly.. He spoke in English, Mind you!]
I took an auto from Murugeshpalaya (a.k.a Chemfort vicinity), after having had a proper dinner @ Maduri Grand. I was with two of my friends (Antony, Varalu) and we began to chatter in Tamil. We had barely gone few mts that this guy grew interested in us - "Sir, Are you all from Tamil Nadu ? Which place are you from Sir ?".
"Yes, all belong to different places..". On hearing that one of us were from Chennai - "Sir, I would like to travel to Chennai and see the sea there!" (He grinned, glancing back at us, impressed by the literary effect he had successfully created). I was taken aback by his remarkably flawless syntax. Everybody speaks English, but this one was too polished & well laid out for an auto-walah. And so, we told him what he had to do to see the sea :) He seemed happy and continued (willing to converse more in English) - "Sir, how is my English ?". I was too overwhelmed and hit him with my appeciation - "Wah! kya english hai :)".
"Sir, I have been practising this language for the past one month, in just this small time I was able to learn this. I have been reading this newspaper regularly". And he showed us the Mid-Day Newspaper. "It is a very good feeling Sir. Everybody should learn English. Hindi is just our National language, but English is International language!". We nodded. It was a short ride and we soon got down. As we glanced at him to tell us the fare (for every Bangalorean who makes daily auto-trips, this is the most aweful moment with butterflies in his stomach while the auto-walah comes out with his G.P.F - greatest possible fare and presents his magical formula that helped him arrive at this stupendous figure!). He didn't budge, instead - "Sir, how much does the meter show ?". Then he took out his paper that would help him magnify the fare - "New rates sir, for 38 it comes to 40, look sir, correct ?". We would have given him any amount he demanded for the impression he had created, but he insisted - "Sir, it is the right of every passenger to see this and check". The G.P.F for him, pointed to Rs 60/-, which I happily paid (now this is what I called cent-percent Customer Satisfaction) and moved out wondering how the city would be had every auto-walah been like him.
As he rightly said - "Honesty is the best policy".
HENCE PROVED !

Now comes the contradiction, (I cite for this, an incident which occured on the same day, infact just couple of hours before we had dinner and got into the above said auto). We were returning from the brandfactory (marathahalli) in a BMTC bus and I held out the fare (which is also a G.P.F here in Bangalore, bus rates being mercilessly high) - 20 Rs. He gave me tkts which costed 18. I knew I had to get the change back, so waited as the conductor buzzed by to issue tkts to others at the other end of the bus. As my stop grew nearer, we asked him for the change for which made a jeering remark calling us software engineers and hinting at us not to make a big fuss about it. He finally pulled out the 2 Rs and tossed it to me, asking me for our tkts. I was under the impression that he wanted to cross-check and do some ksrtc fundae. But, he did something different. He got our tkts and handed them over to another fellow ! We were spellbound. This was the finest execution of day-robbery (regret : directly translated from its Tamil equivalent).
I have witnessed conductors get money & sneak away without issuing tkts. Others procrastinate issuing the change to passengers till its too late and the passengers let it go. I have often wondered about the number of commuters that BMTC serves and such petty incidents hit the corporation severly in terms of revenue. I must say the goverment takes heed of such acts and ensures people are issued tkts to the right place and at the right scale (leave alone the possibility of them not buying a tkt, its becoming the other way round - Conductors not issuing tkts!).
HENCE, CONTRADICTED !

4 comments:

Arula said...

I didnt expect the bangalore bus conductors are this much worse. I think he ll get almost twice his salary by issuing used tickets itself.
And for this matter every city is in a like this only. I had some bad experiences with the auto people at hyderbad and even in chennai also.
I think coimbatore would be a much better place da...

VV said...

@Arula - you know what.. there are always good/ bad/ worse people everywhere... In our case we met a good auto wala and a bad bus conductor...

I travel by bus daily... i see so many. I have had(past and present) this (சமுதாயக் கோபங்கள்)... but i get worse thinking of these... you were my roommate for few years so you must be aware of this...

I was the one who was accompanying Params...

You know what the problem is?
You/ We do not make things right where we have to... You should have created a scene in the bus asking for the ticket (again...people say that you behave so cheap) instead of rumblings in our blogs...

i do not know...

Its upto people to realize...
Everyone has their own reasons...

Ok... Time to stop and go to sleep.

Ragha Prasad said...

@varalu...

And you need balls of steel to create a scene in Banaglore... Especially if you don't know the native tongue. Things can take an ugly turn.You never know. :(

This country has gone to the dogs! Thats all i can say!

VV said...

Agreed Raga :).

I always wish i can kick, punch if such things happen. But then... ??? @#@#$!#@$!@

One day... i wish i can make things right.. somehow..