The Good; The Bad, The Ugly

Indeed times are bad. (Don't blame me since the bad mood persisted over a wasted morning when I witnessed a fight in train between two screwed up individuals [both unshaved and disheveled, some fashion this] with nothing worth calling manners, to my knowledge. I lost on my precious reading time on my daily commute and am still disoriented.) I guess MTV and VTV has done a big disservice by introducing the casual culture among youth. Both the young guys were wearing casual clothes.

But this morning had a spark of the good. Yes, serendipitously, sometimes the good overcomes the bad. Sanjay Dubey is a rickshaw driver I am friendly with. He is very polite and asks me for old clothes. So I give him old sweaters, trousers and a few shirts that I no longer wear. This morning he drove me to the station and gave me back ten rupees when I had given him twenty (the fare is rupees fifteen). I was touched. So I gave him back the ten rupees and said he should keep the change. This is good.

Last night the rickshaw driver was not like Sanjay Dubey. He charged me Rs 20 when my usual fare was Rs 18. He said the fares had been increased and didn't I know? I said I didn't, no notifications had come in the papers. What papers, he says, who believes the papers these days, we have our unions. God, is it the breakdown of communications? What do the media pundits have to say about this in this age of information overload? This is bad.

Last night I went to buy a brush for the toilet. I am very particular about toilets and I want mine to be as clean as in a hotel (if the hotels can do it why can't I?). I have no hesitation in saying I clean mine myself. The day before I had bought one from Sector 4 of Belapur and he had charged me Rs 25. So yesterday I went to another shop nearby in Sector 6 and the bloody lout told me to pay Rs 50, i.e., double the amount. Ugh! A 100 per cent profit on top of their usual profit margin. This is unfair, this is profiteering, this is absolute highway robbery (except that I don't see any trace of a highway nearby). This ugly.