Point to ponder

I was getting hopelessly behind in my ironing, so decided to outsource this to a local shop. Dumped a first batch of 12 clothes, got them back in perfect shape and was charged at the rate of Rs.2.50 per garment. Impressed by their speed, I gave them a second round of 15 garments. This time he told me the charge was  Rs.3 per garment !! I immediately told him about the last times rate and brought it down to 2.50 per piece. Happily I returned home, satisfied with my own alertness.

On the way back itself a sense of shame and guilt began to overpower me. I have no hesitation in blowing away hundreds of rupees whenever I visit a bookshop or a mall. Just recently I splurged couple of thousand on new shoes on goggles. Never ever thought of bargaining in those shops. Now here I am stealing away 50ps per cloth from a husband-wife combo who have a barebones existence, work tirelessly from morning to evening and have at least one kid to support. How insensitive can I get ?

But sadly it is not only me. Most of Bangalore (maybe India and the world too ) seems intent on following this same path. Sample behavior : Negotiate hard with your local vegetable guy for maybe a Rs.5 saving,then go to an AC restaurant and pay Rs.1500 for dinner without even a whimper of complaint.

Every time I stop at a traffic signal, some kid or the other will come begging for money. Almost always I turn them away. I know of some intellectuals who say that is the right thing to do as it will stop them from begging and look for other jobs. In an ideal world perhaps that is true. But in a practical world it is an extremely tough day to day existence for them. In spite of knowing all this I don’t know why I refuse to pay at times.

If at all a resolution made sense for me in 2009, it is possibly to be more sensitive to a fellow human being’s difficulties