“We will make you pay the whole fine.” These were the words of a Ticket Teetotaler – T.T., to me and few friends of mine, which shattered my confidence in the great bribery system of Indian railways. We were trying to settle the account for a mistake; we thought was minor while his perspective attached a high importance to. But all my hopes to strike a successful n cheaper deal ended in a complete disdain.
It was a setback for me to totally toss this system with which I had been traveling since my childhood. I had been born and brought up in this system and today conspicuously I was forced to migrate to the system in which one has to follow the so called rules set by the government .My mind was not allowing me to forget that how this System has so many advantages over the one proposed by the government.
Firstly, this system is self correcting one. As the economy of the country shows a bloom or the average earning capacity of an individual increases this system correspondingly installs the correction factor .I guess about 10 years ago the without ticket traveling facility was provided, under this system, at about Rs. 100 and now its about 150 bucks for the same distance. So we see how well it paces with the economy.
Secondly, Flexibility of the charges levied on the passengers tells us that how much sensitive is the system to the different strata of societies. If you are from a poor family u would be fined less while if u hail from a rich background they gone cut deeper in your pocket. Not only this if you are a student then u might be free of the charge at a very meager amount but if u r working, as a responsible or rather irresponsible citizen, u have to part with a greater share.
Thirdly, It helps to hone one’s management skills. Whenever one is fixed in such a situation , the major challenge is to settle for the cheapest possible penalty, so as much razor-sharp u are at bargaining that much less u pay. Also it offers you an “on job” kind of opportunity to check your skills to handle the stress and patience. The longer u manage to talk, the heavier your wallet remains. On top of it this also adds on the judgmental capability of the T.T. thus making it a symbiotic relationship.
If you say that the money goes to the T.T. and not the govt. then I say atleast it goes to needy rather then greedy, coz even if it goes to govt. u r not sure it would be put to good use. Also this system is uniformly present over all the regions of Indian railways and never discriminates on the basis of caste, race or religion.
Finally, it saves a lot of paper work and the valuable time of the courts and the lesson behind the penalty is also truly taught as in case of judicial enquiries it’s quite possible that the doer may escape the charges.
My head was boggling with these wonderful and optimistic sides of the system. But at the same time I was troubled with the demand of that T.T. He was very staunch on his stand but we also didn’t allow ourselves the languish of sorrow. Somehow we managed to squeeze out some time and persuaded him to pay the fine at our destination. The morning was a kind of new turn to this tryst of mine with the railways .It was only few minutes left for the journey and the T.T. came searching for us to finally clear up the penalty by a non-receipted payment of about 20 % amount.
My faith in the bribery system of Indian railways was restored and was sure that this system is immortal. No matter where we go this system will be there to stay and no wonder, since so many days nobody has tried to change this system. Coz whenever we glance deeper we find that it is this system which makes the travel of a common man possible in India. Even if we try to implement such a real-time system legally it won’t match the zenith achieved by this system. This dynamic system is a kind of boon in disguise if we allow it a slightly perverted thought.
It was a setback for me to totally toss this system with which I had been traveling since my childhood. I had been born and brought up in this system and today conspicuously I was forced to migrate to the system in which one has to follow the so called rules set by the government .My mind was not allowing me to forget that how this System has so many advantages over the one proposed by the government.
Firstly, this system is self correcting one. As the economy of the country shows a bloom or the average earning capacity of an individual increases this system correspondingly installs the correction factor .I guess about 10 years ago the without ticket traveling facility was provided, under this system, at about Rs. 100 and now its about 150 bucks for the same distance. So we see how well it paces with the economy.
Secondly, Flexibility of the charges levied on the passengers tells us that how much sensitive is the system to the different strata of societies. If you are from a poor family u would be fined less while if u hail from a rich background they gone cut deeper in your pocket. Not only this if you are a student then u might be free of the charge at a very meager amount but if u r working, as a responsible or rather irresponsible citizen, u have to part with a greater share.
Thirdly, It helps to hone one’s management skills. Whenever one is fixed in such a situation , the major challenge is to settle for the cheapest possible penalty, so as much razor-sharp u are at bargaining that much less u pay. Also it offers you an “on job” kind of opportunity to check your skills to handle the stress and patience. The longer u manage to talk, the heavier your wallet remains. On top of it this also adds on the judgmental capability of the T.T. thus making it a symbiotic relationship.
If you say that the money goes to the T.T. and not the govt. then I say atleast it goes to needy rather then greedy, coz even if it goes to govt. u r not sure it would be put to good use. Also this system is uniformly present over all the regions of Indian railways and never discriminates on the basis of caste, race or religion.
Finally, it saves a lot of paper work and the valuable time of the courts and the lesson behind the penalty is also truly taught as in case of judicial enquiries it’s quite possible that the doer may escape the charges.
My head was boggling with these wonderful and optimistic sides of the system. But at the same time I was troubled with the demand of that T.T. He was very staunch on his stand but we also didn’t allow ourselves the languish of sorrow. Somehow we managed to squeeze out some time and persuaded him to pay the fine at our destination. The morning was a kind of new turn to this tryst of mine with the railways .It was only few minutes left for the journey and the T.T. came searching for us to finally clear up the penalty by a non-receipted payment of about 20 % amount.
My faith in the bribery system of Indian railways was restored and was sure that this system is immortal. No matter where we go this system will be there to stay and no wonder, since so many days nobody has tried to change this system. Coz whenever we glance deeper we find that it is this system which makes the travel of a common man possible in India. Even if we try to implement such a real-time system legally it won’t match the zenith achieved by this system. This dynamic system is a kind of boon in disguise if we allow it a slightly perverted thought.
1 comment:
Its not on your topic.... ITs when you loose everything, you find YOURSELF.... congrats
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