30-Aug, it was my birthday and on that morning Mom gifted me a black dial -wrist-watch :-). After answering to all the birthday wishes, I set to office and joined a meeting. I got a call from Mantu (my co-brother) when I was in the meeting; I disconnected the call, telling him that I would call back after some time. After the meeting, I called him and got excited when he told that Shruthi has sent a gift to me and he asked me to collect it from MIT College (near Srirangapatna). I was lil’ busy and I told him that I would meet him at 4:00. Mantu was also busy and he was there in the college for a workshop. At 4:00 pm, I started from office and by that time, Mantu was also done with this work. He handed the gift to me and it was Nokia E63! I happily received it from him, rang Shruthi and thanked her ;-). The gift was not a surprise to me as I got few indirect hints from Shruthi the previous week ;-)
I invited Mantu and his colleagues for a coffee near Mysore, Mantu got into my car and I was taking out my car from the parking area. At the same time, few KSRTC (state-run) buses entered the campus and the students started boarding the buses. They were flocking near my car and I had no choice other than stop my vehicle.
Suddenly from no-where one KSRTC bus came in a reverse gear and hit my car's left gate! The students were yelling at this reckless driver to stop and even I was honking, the driver didn’t hear the yelling and he had no conductor to guide. Even I could not move the car back or front as the students were around my vehicle. The bus just crashed the left gate and made a big dent!
I stepped out of the car and yelled at the driver and literally pulled him out! I asked him to come to the police station along with me. He admitted his mistake and was ready to come to the station. But before that he wanted to report this incident to the college Principal and request him to make some alternate arrangements. We met the principal and he just cut our reporting and asked me to report the incident to the bus depot manager and not to pull / link this incident with the college, as the bus is run by the state transport service.
We called up the depot manager and the driver got blastings from him. Then the depot manager requested me to settle the matter at the spot and not to drag the case to the police station. I thought over it for some time and following things came to my mind:
This college comes under the jurisdiction of Srirangapatna police station and I have to complain at that police station.
Both the vehicles have to be parked at the police station atleast for a week.
I might have to forget the spare parts of my vehicle!
The RTO inspector would come from Mysore and he would take his own sweet time to come and inspect the vehicle.
I might have to bribe him and others in the station to take my car out.
The case will be filed at Srirangapatna magistrate / civil court and I have to hunt for witnesses from the college.
This whole process would take more than a month and every time I have to go to Srirangapatna for all the court hearings / dates.
Even otherwise I have to claim for the insurance, plus I have to shell extra bucks from my pocket. If I go to police station, I have to spend more than the car repair expenses.
So going to the police station was a very bad Idea, then I diverted the discussion and I asked the driver to compensate for the losses. Fortunately, he agreed and started from Rs. 500/- and finally agreed for Rs. 2,500/- The driver had only 1k with him and he got the rest from the college accounts department and then paid me the amount. I knew that the compensation was small, but I could make out that it would be difficult for the driver to pay back! I was sad while taking the amount from that poor guy, the feeling was sadder than what had happened to my car. But I thought this would be a punishment for his reckless driving and next time he would be more careful :-)
Though the phrase is from the famous movie "3 Idiots", the attitude is from a typical Indian. In the movie Aamir khan narrates a story of his town - the people in his town used to sleep peacefully by hearing the Gurkha’s (night watchman) call - "Aal Izz well" (all is well), thinking that he is there to watch. Once a robbery happened in the town and later the people came to know that this Gurkha is blind. People will not wake up / act, unless it’s alarming or things have turned worse and have come to their neck. Assertiveness, examination, backup option, taking initiatives lack in many people. If few things are moving smooth (good / bad) leave it as-it-is, unless something major happens with the system.
Take this most irritating unscheduled power cuts in Karnataka; as an interim arrangement the state govt thought of buying power from “power surplus state” Gujarat. Gujarat govt (after its survey) announced that the state is ready to give power, but Karnataka is unable to do so as transmission arrangement is not in place. Now, the Karnataka govt is acting on this issue and planning to put the system is place. But this will take more than two years!! I guess these guys are maintaining this sine Sir MV’s time! So the govt's "Aal izz well" attitude has pushed the state in longer hours of darkness for two more years. You would say this is the attitude of govt in all the sectors. But consider a common man - during the recession many lost their jobs and they were not having any alternate options / plans for their future. Even though the job market was down and many companies were laying-off their employees, many were waiting for their turn to be sacked! People did not look-out nor had an alternate arrangement because of this attitude. People didn’t even try to save their jobs by performing well or taking some extra initiatives in the company to prove their value. This attitude exists in all of us to quite an extent. So folks when-ever you take up any major tasks / decision make sure that you do it right keeping the future impact / use; only then this “Aal izz well” attitude will hold good. This is nothing to do with pessimism; this is being alert, assertive, futuristic and being safe. “Aal izz NOT well” should be your attitude!
