Being crooked
by a rickshawala gave rise to profound thoughts.
The moment I
was not careful, he charged an impossible amount of fare. My fault was that I did
not fix the fare from beforehand. And though I could have argued with him after
having got down at my door for having been dishonest and charging double the
usual fare, I realized that it was, after all, my mistake. I was careless. I did
not think of doing the usual – being careful.
And so it is
with everyone around us. The moment we stop watching our back, we get a
reminder – sometimes in the form of accidents or sometimes as betrayals – that we
can’t afford a single moment of slack. It’s imperative that we work like
machines. The basic honesty and trustworthiness has become so rare – and I’m
sure that most of us regret it – that if we find an honest taxi driver or an honest
maid, we become overwhelmed with the presence of goodness in human beings.
But this was
hardly the case with our parents’ generation, let alone that of our
grandparents. They could trust, without having the lurking fear of being
cheated.
And can we
blame only the poor economy for this? Isn't there a continuous degradation of
humanity which has less to do with the fall of the Rupee and more with the rise
of Capitalism? The want of more. Better mobile, better clothes, better shoes,
more brands; you have the i-phone, you want the i-pad – you have the Metro, you
want the Louboutin.
Am I any
different? May be not. I have been thinking of buying a new phone for some time
now. And after today’s experience, I wonder if my phone isn't working fine for
me. I have all the required features in it. Then why do I need a new one? Anyway,
this longing for “more” is hardly going to stop anywhere.
