The experience of being short-changed
RESUMING MY SEAT AFTER A MINUTE OR SO I KEPT PONDERING BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD HIS FEAR THAT IF THE BAG REMAINED IN THE AUTO HE COULD BE WRONGLY ACCUSED OF THEFT. HE SEEMED TO EMBODY A POOR MAN’S VULNERABILITY TO THE CYNICAL MISTRUST OF THE ADVANTAGED.
It was the end of the week and I was to travel from Bathinda, where I work, to my home in Patiala. As usual, I was to take an auto-rickshaw for the railway station to catch the evening intercity express. The auto that I saw coming towards me was certainly not shipshape because the noise of its creaking and loose ramshackle frame could be heard from far.
As it came to a halt, I observed that the auto driver was a gaunt-looking old man dressed in a kurta pyjama. I said ‘station’ and took my seat. Before we started, I requested the driver to stop at an ATM on the way as I had to withdraw money.
In the meantime, another passenger, a young woman, came and occupied the seat uttering the words ‘bus stand’. As she sat, the seat got dislodged from the base and we had to push it back with our weight. The bus stand is precisely half way to the station from my place of work. The fare is fixed – Rs 10 for the bus stand Rs 20 for the station. As the girl paid her Rs 10 and got down at the bus stand, I spotted an ATM right across its wide entrance. I patted the old man on the shoulder and asked him to stop next to the ATM.
Not wanting to keep him waiting, I jumped off and broke into a run. The driver shouted out to me from behind, “Babu ji! Please take your bag with you.” I looked at the small handbag and reasoned that it contained nothing but books and a water bottle. The driver folded his hands and said, “No sir, please take your bag. I am a poor man.”
I did not see the point at once but did his bidding. Resuming my seat after a minute or so I kept pondering before I understood his fear that if the bag remained in the auto he could be wrongly accused of theft. He seemed to embody a poor man’s vulnerability to the cynical mistrust of the advantaged.
On reaching the station, I took out a Rs 500 note and asked him if I should get the change if he was short of loose currency. Without answering, he kept the note and taking out a soiled polythene purse, returned three Rs 100 notes and three Rs 50 notes. After counting the money, I looked at him with a questioning look. “Isn’t it Rs 20 for the station?” I asked. He snapped back, “Sir, Rs 50. I told you in advance and I did not take any other passenger.”
I fielded the unanticipated volley of lies and walked away with a crestfallen remonstrance, “What you are doing is not good.” My thoughts now flowed against the earlier tide of sympathy.
Walking to the platform I wondered what could have made him shortchange me. Was he impelled by his circumstances? The poor condition of his auto and his paranoia bore out the fact that he was indeed a poor man. Yet, drawing a connection between need and deceit would not only be wrong but would also confirm his paranoia. It could also be sophistry on sensing an opportunity -making a brief stop at the ATM his inner justification for charging more than double?
Kishore Kumar’s song ‘Lekin pehle de do mera paanch rupaiya baara aana’ came to my mind.
The happy-go-lucky star playing a taxi driver in the movie Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi made light of the experience of getting shortchanged by his passenger by composing a ditty around it.
In ordinary life, we inflict little gol maal on one another sometimes as drivers and sometimes as passengers only to forgive and forget.
However, when those who we have put in the driver’s seat of our society take us for a ride by indulging in corruption and making off with huge amounts of public wealth, all of us passengers feel sourly shortchanged and find it hard to forgive.