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Mumbai, a city forgetting basic humanity......


Mumbai, a city full of life, happenings every moment, bright and dark alleys, a city messed up by its own people, a city with moments of joy and melancholy.

Millions of people spread across this beautiful city have millions of varied nature people around. The moment you step out on the roads of Mumbai, you will enjoy every moment seeing the vibrant mixture around you.
A city with a crowd boisterous, running ahead of time, working in a cliché manner every single day is a picturesque to watch around not just for photographers to capture them all, but for everyone staying in this huge city.

The other day, Mom and me along with the other crowd of Mumbai were waiting at the bus stop for the most expected bus to a particular destination. The cabbies would not budge to take us to the place where we wanted to go so they left us no choice but wait for almost 30 mins. for the BEST transport.
Finally seeing the red vehicle wading its way from the heavy traffic we had a sigh of relief. Thankfully the empty bus had some seats waiting for us inside. The vehicle representative obstinately came towards me and in a typical shrewd manner gestured where I would want to go at his mercy, and I gave him a 100 buck and asked him for the ticket. He somehow against his will to give a change had to give me the ticket with exact change keeping the female respect in mind thankfully. His next target was a poor and simple, in mid 20’s, dark skinned boy who might have returned from his tuitions or was on his way to one, who handed him a 50 buck note a bit apprehensively. And the unexpected retort to him was, “Chhutta nahi toh chadhta kyun hain bus mein, utar jaa abhi.” And he signaled the driver to stop by ringing the bell. The pitiable boy looked here and there with despair and was almost on his way to exit. I filled with resentment took out a 10 buck note and handed over to the conductor scolding him, how could he manage to give me a change and ask the poor fellow to leave the bus just for a matter of 5 bucks ticket. I asked him to give him the ticket and handed him change of 10 bucks which he had just given me. I scolded the conductor, “Why are u asking him to leave the bus for a 5 bucks ticket? You had 100 bucks change to give me and for him you ask the poor guy to get down. Dare you act biased like this with passengers.” Few fellow passengers too supported me in opposition of the grumbling conductor. He reluctantly took the change from me and gave the guy a ticket. The poor kid was ecstatic and in not so polished English said Thankoo Didi!!!

Why the common men are always stamped down by these so called government servicemen? Are we at their mercy!!! People here need to understand the basic humanity values first.


Comments

its up to us how we try and make our city better... small steps and maybe someone will be inspired from us to do the same later :-)
Anonymous said…
( exact change keeping the female respect in mind thankfully ) ..wondering the situation if there was a female bus conductor ? :P

nothing changes..besides after sometime we start accepting things the way they are :)
Rupesh said…
First & foremost, BEST is an autonomous organization even from its parent the MCGM (Formerly BMC).

I see nothing wrong when I see the BEST conductor getting a bit harsh with commuters not having change. The kids parents should have ensured he tendered the exact change for the ride. May be they had but, the kid spent it on chocolates or a tempting gola on the street side. It is obnoxious to keep a 50/100 denomination note for a Rs. 5 bus ticket. And the BEST conductor encounters such people 100 times daily, why would he not be upset. Imagine the kinds of people the conductor encounters during the whole day of his work & is still able to do his job almost perfectly in comparison to his counter parts in other cities, Delhi especially, where you have to walk up to the conductor for a ticket. I find BEST staff, the most professional & well behaved. Consider the eve-teasing that girls & women encounter by the transport staff alongwith the commuters in northern cities. It is just the other way round here, the BEST maintains a solid discipline to ensure commuter safety.
Ranjeet said…
Well penned.. You have good command over language and your narrating skills are too good. I could actually feel as if the scene is happening in front of my eyes..!!

well done!
keep it up!
The conductor in this question is also a "common man". He will get the same treatment elsewhere. In India it is dog eat dog world and everyone is a dog except the top 0.5 percent rich (politicians, corrupt bureaucrats & corporation owners). This is how the country will always be, because to change 1000000000 people is not an easy or I'd say even possible task.
Shrijith Nair said…
Nice article... but i think it was a problem only with this particular conductor...and not all govt servants...
Unknown said…
great post.. i loved it a lot..
Anonymous said…
Is it possible that kid does this everyday? probably he has been using the Rs.50 note for a few months now. :)
@Rupesh - Well said, agree with you that the BEST employees are the people who have to face a patience test everyday....But then, if he had to be rude he would had been to me too, but no its the human nature of always dominating the weaker section.
@Ranjeet - Thank you. Nice to know you could actually visualize it. :)
@Sahasi - Not an impossible task if each one of us decide to change the world and every human actually starts respecting and loving their own self and so would change happen.
@Srijith - No offense meant against this particular conductor or govt employees but then as said "One rotten apple spoils the entire basket", a single element from a group spoils the name of entire group.....
@Geo Jolly - Thanks....:)))

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