Whose Country is it Anyway?

Since the media these days majorly focuses on large scale corruption brought to fore by activists like Arvind Kejriwal and others, we seem to have completely forgotten the small timers altogether. Here is a true tale of modern India. 

 

Recently, I travelled with my son to Mumbai and the distance from my home to the airport is about 22 Kms. The unreasonable taxi fares forced me to take the public transport system after decades. I also wanted my son to experience the public utilities, which he was hardly exposed to. We boarded the star bus from our residence. We had to get off half way and take another bus. I presented Rs 30/- and the conductor gave us a ticket of Rs 18/- and returned Rs. 10 and in case of any checking, he told us to say we boarded from a place which was a few kilometers ahead of our actual boarding point. All this happened in a jiffy and as a matter of routine. It took me some time to realize what had actually happened – I effectively paid Rs 20/- instead of Rs 22 and the conductor transferred Rs. 18/- to the state and pocketed Rs. 2/-. 

 

On realizing, I asked him to return Rs. 2/- and he looked absolutely flabbergasted. He then started hauling at me for not giving him exact change. According to him, I must be grateful as he was helping me instead of asking me to get off the bus for not tendering exact change. I was dismayed while he went ahead regardless. As I watched the others, I realized that this is a normal practice and almost all regular commuters do this. They know what to say when surprise checks are held and as a matter of routine the public and the conductor are cheating the state. 

 

My son, a class 12^th student, was perplexed and asked me to explain. While I explained to him what was going on, I also said that these are aberrations and not the norm. However, this happened once again in our second leg and this time we pushed the conductor on the back foot, gave him exact change and demanded correct tickets. Again two days later, when we returned back, we faced similar situation on both the legs but we were armed to corner the conductors. While we may have come clean, my son concluded that this is not an aberration but a norm and I was left with a bad taste for I had to get into altercation with a bus conductor to be fair and honest, while most go on regardless. 

 

I wonder, whose country is it anyway?  I am glad my son qualified in the interview and the medicals to join the merchant navy. Hopefully, he will never have to go through such embarrassments to be a honest citizen in this country. Even better, I wish he never comes back to this country ever.

 

An epilogue

 

I was in Delhi recently and took a bus from University to Hazrat Nizammudin railway station. The conductor was a hansom young man from Haryana with a very pleasing personality which forced me to draw a comparison between the conductors of Nagpur and Delhi. I presented Rs 100/- for a ticket of Rs 15/- and offered to give change of Rs 5/- in addition, to make mathematics a little easier. He declined and gave me the ticket and Rs 50/- with Rs 35/- as balance written in the reverse of the ticket. I was all along concious not to forget the balance and as I reached my destination, I presented the ticket back to him and he promptly returned Rs 35/- and I thought he returned the original ticket too. I was in a hurry to alight and once down and comfortable, I saw the ticket carefully to realize that he handed over another ticket of Rs 5/- along with the balance money of Rs 35/-. I was shocked but could do nothing as the bus vanished into the heavy morning traffic of Delhi.

 

This is India!!!!!