What do i care?
| January 17th, 2007“Arre bhaiya kyu lafde main padte ho, police ko khush rakho aur jao” said the khakhi clad cop at the railway station. It was a journey from home to Delhi after the new year celebrations, and i was carrying my T.V with me. Me and Karan had decided to go together and we got the T.V packed at the station. Where we were told luggage upto 35 kg is allowed per person.
Karan couldnt get his bike which he claims to be “the world’s best bike” because he had lost the R.C Book and he had some terrible experience with the cops. So he decided not to pay any bribes and i joined in the party. As we were chatting about the corruption in the train, smoking good ol’ Navy Cuts, there came a cop and caught Karan smoking. Asked him to follow him, i followed them and took the pack from Karan, went back to the seat. After an hour Karan returned filled with pride and a smile on his face, saying “I didn’t pay him any bribe, I paid the fine and got the reciept!”
The next morning we hired a coolie who charged us a bomb, i mean the freakin coolie would surely be earning more than me for sure. So we were walking out merrily out of the station and suddenly this Delhi Police guy stopped us and pointing towards the TV, asked “Isme kya hai?”. “TV”, I said. He asked for a reciept which the TC should have given me, but he didn’t. He said I’ll be charged 6 times the fine of whatever be the amount. After consulting a TC he said that I’ll have to pay 700 odd bucks.
At the station where i boarded i was told that about 35 kgs luggage is free for every passenger, so I argued and asked him to show me the written rule. He got fed up and passed me on to a female in her 40s, who reminded me of my Hindi teacher so i hated her already. She said, that I’ll have to go to the office for that, I was more than happy to do that and check the written rule. Meanwhile the cop who caught us said, “Bhaiya, kyu panga lete ho, police ko khush rakho aur jao”. I said “Bhaiya, rishwat nahi doonga, rule dikha do mein fine bhar deta hoo” And oh! boy should’ve seen the sucker fuming when i said ‘rishwat’, it hurt his ego i guess.
Meanwhile, Karan joined me and we put on a strong argument, finally the lady came up with a book and showed me a rule that said : If a passenger travels with an extra seat just for his luggage, he is liable to 6 times the ticket cost. And she said, “ye dekho likha hai, 6 guna fine”. I laughed and asked her to stop bull shitting me. She fumed too and to our surprise started shouting on the cop “Kaise pagal logo ko pakad lete ho, mera time waste kar diya, kitne passengers nikal gaye”. And she said to us”jao yaha se, mera dimaag mat karo”
And as me and Karan walked out victoriously of the station, we decided not to pay any bribes, no matter if we have to pay a huge amount fighting for it.
Noooooooo! Don’t take me wrong, I aint a nice guy yet who will abide by the rules, I will break all the possible rules but I aint gonna pay any bribes… New year resolution lets say.
