Thorns and Roses

When we ask for a World with people who are kind and considerate our eyes narrow down on … guess what??? JUST THE OPPOSITE. But is this real?!

This is purely based on my personal experience. In Bangalore, the autorickshaw walas are very choosy on the rides they take up. Due to Uber and Ola sometimes they are forced to accept unwanted rides. So they have found a way to beat the system. They call the passengers before they reach and check the destination. If they do not think it is profitable enough they cancel the ride and we are left clueless till the app shows that it is looking for another auto.

 Recently I was stuck on one of the famous roads in Bangalore. I waited nearly for 40 minutes before an auto accepted. My heart sank when he called to check the destination. As expected he canceled the ride and I was left to look for auto on my own. An auto pulled up in front of me after about 10 minutes. As soon as I told him my destination he demanded Rs 150 whereas on Uber & Ola the fare came up to Rs 100 & Rs120 respectively. By now, I was tired and I just wanted to get home so I did not mind paying the extra cash and I got in. We would have traveled for about 8 minutes and then came another demand. Since there is no u-turn in front of my place he demanded Rs20 extra.  This I thought was very unfair as I did not plan the roads and I had no say in where the Government decided to put that u-turn. He continued to complain for the next 10 minutes. So I felt my anger surge from within.

I managed to speak logically (thanks to the practices on Black Lotus) and chewed his head off with all the logical and practical explanations as to how he was being unfair and that how we need to be fair and work with integrity. When I appealed to his values something changed in the way he spoke to me. He started narrating his life story to me and why he was demanding the extra money.

What I then realized was that there are a few people in the Society who are creating so much havoc and putting all of us under pressure to either accept corruption and go with it or complain to heaven and back but still live with this reality. This is making Society more corrupt. I also realized that all of us are interdependent and we do not get anywhere by antagonizing each other and exploiting each other. All of us have a fair share of downtime and that does not mean we have the liberty to cause any trouble in another’s life. The main question is how do we unite and how do we face our fears and overcome it so that we can become responsible citizens?

I was so touched by this auto driver’s story. I thanked him for his honesty and for trusting me and telling me about himself. He was actually a well-educated person who did not find a job and landed up as a lorry driver and then as an auto driver. Due to the rising prices and the Societal pressures he is forced to demand more.  I paid him Rs200  and asked him to take care.

Towards the end of that journey, he became “anna” (brother) from just an auto driver. I have learned 2 very important lessons – 1. Not to judge a book by its cover 2. With Unity, we can conquer our fears and beat this Corruption prevailing in Society.