Corrupting all the way!

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Somewhere in between Rampur and Bareilly, 27th December 2014: 

I had just boarded the train to back home, assiduously using the privileged leaves in my account for the New Year holidays. Now as all you must have experienced, the maddening rush for the train tickets, coupled with the dense fog had left all train schedules go haywire. So I now board a train from Rampur, with a last minute sleeper class ticket- scared out of my wits on whether I would get a seat or not!

So I reach my berth- and to my dismay (yup you expected it) find it occupied with- and this is real- with 8 kids! Their father, a middle age man, comes to me, asks for my berth number and gently asks his kids to move to the other side of the coach. So we now have 8 people (minimum) travelling without ticket. Nonplussed, I lie down and sleep.

After about an hour, I am woken up by a middle age lady, who was prodding me to 'kindly' spare her some place as she would get down soon. Irritated, I tell ask her if she has a ticket, to which I get no response and of course, the lady walks off. Within two minutes, I have fingers being pointed at me, apparently because I am the nincompoop who is travelling with a ticket, in the sleeper class! Moreover, one guy had the audacity to come and say, "Bhai paise kyun waste kiye!”

And then came the TT- and what a wonderful sight it was. I was expecting very little from him too, but the scene that had to follow was a class apart. So the guy goes and sits on one of the berth and people make a beeline towards him, a 'Gandhiji' in their hand. Me, without my sms in mobile phone is told, "accha theekh hain' without even seeing the ticket. 

So on one and, you have the Modis and the Kejriwals, crying their hearts out against corruption and black money and bah blah and then you have the average Indian, ready to shell out under the table money rather than buy a ticket (which now the government says buy it online). And then you have people travelling in AC compartments after buying a general ticket and giving a 'Peela wala Gandhiji' to the TT. The same Indian who laments at the pathetic state of our country. The Irony!


So my humble request, please stop preaching and lamenting and start changing yourself. Do not go out there in mass protests, campaigns and stuff. Just start aligning your mindset to the thoughts being preached by well, everyone. Change yourself and you will have played your part in the improvement of the great nation that we call India. 


Be the change within!

Comments

  1. Hemant Chambhare23 September 2016 at 06:24

    Be the change that you wish to see in the world - M K Gandhi
    Nice article Salil..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hemant Chambhare23 September 2016 at 06:25

    Be the change that you wish to see in the world - M K Gandhi
    Nice article Salil..

    ReplyDelete

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