Ulta chor kotwal ko daante

In our everyday lives, we see a lot of proverbs and idioms living up to their meanings. I had a similar experience last summer when I experienced the meaning of “Ulta chor kotwal ko daante" (In English it would be similar to "Pot calling the kettle black").

So one nice day, on my way back to home, a young Indian man, who happened be my friend and colleague, met me. With a big Colgate smile on his face he told me “Hey buddy, I am going to India and don't have so much of luggage with me. Do you want me to bring something for you?”

This is a very common practice among Indians to ask fellow countrymen (especially if they are from the same region or live in close by cities) to bring some small things from their cities / places. Of course one pays them for the price of stuff and if they have a "rate-chart" they disclose it prior to the dealing unlike the auto-walas in India who don't say anything about the price and once you reach the destination they charge whatever they wish.

Anyways, so I told him well if you have spare place and are offering me then yes why not. Buy me 3 Kg of kajukatli and laddoos. I added that "it should be as per your convenience" otherwise you don’t have to. "No No, don't worry dude, I'll bring it". Once he reached India he wrote me a mail saying 3 Kg is getting too much so he would cut it in half. No problem, "as per your convenience”, I told him again.

Now this guy reached Copenhagen, called me from his apartment, asked me to fetch the mithai. I went to his apartment, we talked about this and that and then finally he took the mithai out and gave it to me. Well "thank you man for bringing this, how much it cost then" I asked.

Now comes the interesting part, his thinking process started, "hmmm how much should I charge this guy hmmm..can I get my flight ticket from this mithai deal hmmm.. maybe not :P". After a while he said "Yaar, it costs 850 INR".

The shop from which he has bought this mithai (now I even suspect that, maybe he bought from a nukkad waala and packed it into a fancy box, well why not: P) is a very well known and I myself have bought from this shop many times. The money sounded a little bit too much for 1 Kg kaju katli and ½ laddo from this shop but, my assumption and my past experience told me:- “he is a friend and would not cheat, not for 300 INR”. So I have decided to know the fact and called the shop. "The total mithai costs 550 INR" shopkeeper told me.

It is amazing that people can even tell a lie and cheat you for as much as 300 Indian Rupees (around 40 DKK) even though they are earning in DKKs.

Anyways, as a friend and colleague, I felt bad that he is telling a lie and ripping me off for just 350 INR. He should have told me before and I would have had no problem in giving him his “labour", as it turned out to be.

So I have decided that I will give him 850 but at least should tell him that I know it costs 550 but since you’ve asked me 850 so I am giving you 850. Next day I called this guy and gave him the 850 and telling him that I know it costs 550 but because you’ve aksed 850, so here it is.

Until this point, this guy was denying any wrongdoing and giving lame excuses like "Ohh...I don't remember the exact price because my father has bought it", "yes maybe it is less", “No No it is actually 850”.

Upon realizing that he finally got caught and has no excuse rather than coming face-to-face with the truth, this guy wasn't only furious, he also took it as a insult and repeatedly told me "Why did you call the mithai shop, why did you not trust me??”

Excuse me...I have a very good reason for NOT trusting you, and never to trust in future.

This shameless person came up with so cheap arguments that I had a real tough time to digest. Here are some of those:

· “You know it was very hot in India, I took my scooter all the way to the shop so I burnt some fuel”

· “I have carried your 1½ kg mithai from India to Copenhagen”, he added, as if he was carrying it on his head :P all the way to Denmark.

· “This extra 1½ kg could have cost me around thousand rupees”, ahem ahem….if you had a problem in carrying this, you should not have done so but please come up with a better excuse.

· “What about all my efforts I put in buying your 1½ kg mithai” yeah that’s better, I smiled J

Imagine a person who was a friend (later he denied that too and said that we are not friends and this was just a business deal) telling you all the above excuses. There were many more but I literally had to shove them off coz they are not worth mentioning here.

He also claimed that he has brought many things for other people and always charge them and they never asked him. I wonder about all those poor guys who don’t know his small tricks and just giving him whatever he asked.

Well now I can certainly understand his feelings. I think before this incident took place, nobody has managed to catch him or questioned his "rate-calculations", so it was an obvious reaction.

I told him from next time onwards, please show your “rate-chart” before offering your services to others.

I also advised him to open a mithai shop in neighborhood, I am sure he will earn good :-)

This is the end of story, I am sure he must have learned a lesson by now and to whomever he is offering his “services”, he must be extra-alert now ;-)

First snow of the year!!

Oh, it has been quite a while since I have written my last blog. My close friends know the reason for that or they can easily figure it out ;-). Nevertheless, with the first snow of the season, I am up again with my views and thoughts to share. Anyways what else can one do in a temperature of 2 degree and a wind chill of almost -10 degree centigrade ;-).
Pheww , the only thing in my mind is that here comes the loooong and dark winter season. I will definitely miss my shorts and t-shirts :-(.

Is this all neccessary?

I was just wathicng one of the CNN IBNs video about the road blocks in Delhi and other NCR region over the Amarnath land issue. In the midst of the chakka jam, 70 Year old Gendaram died in the ambulance simply because the ambulance was caught in the jam. We should ask his family about the worthiness of this chakka-jaam.

Democracy gives the right to everybody to express his views / opinions, not neccessarily at the cost of other's lives. We should not forget that authority comes with the responsibility. There should be strict laws that restrict any political party/ organization/union to organize any chakka jams on National Highways, during office hours and the safe passage to the emergency vehicles should be guaranteed by the authorities.

I think now its time for us to introspect, is there any issue bigger than saving a person's life?

Regionalism: A new aspect of cheap politics

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve". I remember somewhere I have read these lines of George Bernard Shaw's comment. In today’s era, these lines seem to be 100 % true. With the spread of hate, violence, non- tolerance in the name of Marathi Manoos, started yet another chapter in the cheap politics of my nation. I have some questions to all those leaders who are self-proclaiming savior of Marathi manoos and the Marathi culture:
"You have all your kids educated at prestigious schools like Bombay-Scottish in English medium, why did you not admit them in Marathi-medium schools”?
They want all the non-marathis to get out of the Maharashtra; will they be calling all the marathis from all over the India back to Maharashtra? What will they do when all the non-marathis will leave Maharashtra? Do they have any plan, any vision when they will be left with almost no taxi drivers, rickshaw pullers or any other labourers?
However, it is always easy for us to point our fingers to the leaders and skip our duty as a citizen of this republic. Are we that blind? Can we not do introspection? We are no better than a herd of sheep who blindly follows the one who is in front, never argue, never reason, never question, Just follow.

Nano....where will you drive in India ??

With the arrival of long time awaiting Tata nano car, I would like to ask Mr. Ratan Tata-"Where will the people drive these cars”? Everytime I go to India, I see new flyovers, bridges, toll collecting stations. It all seems like a concrete jungle where it is becoming difficult to breathe. No wonder we are becoming a gigantic contributor to the CO2 emission club. Had Mr. Tata invested in researching a cleaner, , more efficient public transport bus, it would have been much more beneficial for the nature and for the people too.

Fight for reservation in Rajasthan

Fight for reservation is an ongoing hot topic in Rajsthan's politics these days. Being a rajasthani, I cannot help myself to pen down a couple of thoughts I have on this topic. When the constitution of India was being drafted, certain historicaly opressed and under-represented groups were identified by the constitution makers. The whole idea of the reservation was to give these people a chance to climb the ladders with somewhat help and be on a comman platform as others. With time, this idea had taken toll in the power corridors of India to play the usual politics.
In current scenario it is completely transformed into something which only comes out of the box just before elections to pursuade people. What could be the worse than common people themselves cannot understand the dirty politics of our leaders which show the mirage everytime elections are on their way ?

Shameful new year eve !!

Once again, the news of women molestation on the new year's eve shocked the country. It happened all across the landscape of India, from kochi to mumbai to patna. The most shocking news to me was in mumbai, a crowd of 60 hoodlums molested 2 young women. This was the time when we were supposed to make the resolution in order to be a more just, fair and strong society. On the contrary, few thugs tried to harass 2 helpless young women. To my surprise, on the same day some so called "moral police" guys smashed a video parlour in Mumbai accusing them of running the prostitution business. I have a very simple question- Where the hell this moral police disappears when the shameful incidents like the molestation of 2 women by 60 men happens? When this "moral police" can smash an archies card shop for selling the valentine day card, why don't they come up for the help of young women like those who have been harassed? What an extreme of hypocracy !!!!!
Incidents like this not only shows the drastic degradation in our moral values, they also pin points that as a society, where are we heading. If few guys were molesting these women, what were other people doing? Why didn't they come for their help? I don't buy the argument that Police didn't do anything. Police is forced to enforce the law, but common people plays a vital role in enforcing the law. We need to rethink on this and try to act on our intuition so as to stop the incidents like this.