Life in India

Rs.5 ka Corruption

This is a real incident that happened a couple of days back.

It was a lazy afternoon and I was on a 500C (ITPL – Banashankari) Bangalore BMTC Volvo bus, traveling from Whitefield to Marathahalli. That was when this dude, around 25-ish years of age, adorned with a Software company ID card all all got on the bus from the Spice Garden (Munnekolala) stop and landed up in front of the conductor. The conductor, ticketing machine at the ready, looked at him questioningly.

The dude fishes out a Rs.5 coin and extends it to the conductor and says “Bhaiyya, Multiplex.”

The Conductor glares at him and retorts: “10 Rupees!”

Dude: “Next stop hai na?” and Extends the Rs.5 coin a little more.

Conductor: “Multiplex thanga thaane? 10 Rupees kodappa!” (Multiplex only no? Give me Rs.10!)

Dude: “Hain, to adjust kijiyena bhaiyya.”

Now, if you are not from Bangalore or are not familiar with the BMTC way of working, there are some conductors who for short distances do not issue tickets and take lesser amounts from the passengers in a sort of “adjustment” so that he can pocket the amount. This is usually seen on Ordinary buses, but never on Volvos. Marathalli Multiplex is the next stop after Spice Garden, the “short distance”. The dude probably must have hoped that he could entice the conductor to do his bidding. Coming back to the Dude and the Conductor:

Conductor: “Yenappa adjustmentu? Ten Rupess ticket charge kodu!” (What adjustment? Give me 10 Rupees, the ticket charge!) and punches out a Rs.10 ticket on the machine.

The dude, all red in the face and probably feeling stupid, reluctantly puts back the Rs.5 coin in his pocket, takes out a Rs.10 note from his wallet and hands it over to the conductor who takes it and gives him the ticket.

Conductor: (Waving the note in the air, with a stern face looking him in the eye): “Ithu local bus alla. Yeh gochi sab yehan nahi chalega. Theek hai?” (This is not a local bus. Your gochi will not work here.”)

The dude slowly shakes his head.

Conductor: “Aur, mein thera Bhaiyya nahin hoon.” Muttering under his breath, he walks away to the next passenger.

The Dude sulked and I took that opportunity to grin at him along with many people in the bus. Along with it, I developed a sort of grudging admiration for the conductor who stood up to the temptation of earning an extra five bucks from what can be termed as “Corruption”. But then again, I have never seen this kind of incident in a Volvo bus, though I have a couple of times on Ordinary buses.

Corruption is done by politicians. Yeh to “adjustment” hain.

I had written a post earlier about how corrupt we Indians generally are, and how we have mastered the system to suit our own needs but do not consider that as “corruption” but mostly an “adjustment” that we twist in our favor with the help of excuses to show that we are not wrong, but it is all “natural” because “everyone else is doing it” and corruption as such is something that only politicians and bureaucrats do. If I had confronted this dude with charges of corruption, he would probably have said: ” Corruption? This is not corruption! That was just Rs.5! Kya farak padtha? I was just trying to save money!” << Hypocrisy

Dude, you were trying to cheat the Government out of Rs.10. And corrupt netas do the same thing, only on a very larger scale. And these people come from our society only, not from Mars. We created them. They are corrupt because we are all equally corrupt and opportunistic.

I am not judging anyone, but somehow I am sure that this dude must be among the anti-corruption supporter brigade, it is always like that. People have so self-righteous that they forget who they are. And it does not matter that his company pays him half a lakh per month.

The war against corruption will succeed the say we realize that it is not the individual is corrupt, but it is the society which is made up of individuals is corrupt. Fight against the system of corruption and not against any individual.

And take tickets on buses and trains. If you don’t and then compose paeans against corruption and “corrupts”, you are just another hypocrite.

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Abhishek G

The techie & The Honest Conductor are the first 2 dimensions to the events unfolded. Undoubtedly, the protogonist & the wrongdoer (not in that order).
There is an important 3rd dimension to the events unfolding, which I would like to use the term ‘silent majority’ a.k.a commuters of the same bus. Kudos to 1 amoung them to blog about it! Giving a voice to the good we want to see Vs just cursing our fates at the state of the Nation
What if the script was different? i.e. the conductor actually accepts the ‘adjustment’

vadakkus

Thank you Abhishek Garu! I know, people think it far cooler to shout out against who are commonly “perceived” to be corrupt. And the fact remains that each one of them believe themselves to be “clean” and self righteous and have a ready excuse to justify whatever wrong they do.

Nutanchat

Very good 

vadakkus

Thanks! 

Manjunath

Conductors on volvo buses are slowly accepting these “adjustments”. Personally seen them “adjusting”.

vadakkus

Haven’t come across any till now. But that is sad. 

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