Monday, December 8, 2008

Did I do something wrong?

In the past few months, I encountered a dilemma twice - Am I doing something wrong? Let me share the instances first.

Incident # 1

I was in Lucknow for Diwali and going to Gomti Nagar by my scooter. On one road, there was some barricading , leaving a part of road open. Since there was no sign like no entry or one way, I entered the road. However, it was a one way. I was told that the traffic police do not put up a sign so that the targets of challan can be achieved. At the end of the road, there were two constables for checking papers. Although my scooter doesn't have a problem of throwing excess smoke, it didn't had a pollution control certificate either. More problematically, the insurance was also expired and neither me nor anybody back home renewed it.
So finally, there were two options for me - first, get a challan, leave my papers with traffic police, pay some 1350 bucks in penalty, go to their office, and get the papers back after three days, as the office was closed for Diwali; and second - slip a 100 bucks to the constable and drive away in peace.
I chose the latter. Although I picked the most convenient option and there are a lot of justifications, like - it was 'wasooli' time and there was no signboard to declare it one-way. But somehow, no justification works when I feel guilty for bribing.

Incident # 2
I was in Vadodara, roaming around after a day long conference. I saw a small roadside 'gumti' selling dry fruits . It was run by a lady with two small and cute kids. It would obviously be difficult for her to sustain household with two kids. With this impulsive thought, I decided to buy some dry fruits from her. However, as my stuff was being packed, handcart-pullers standing nearby started running in one direction. It was a policeman removing them all from there, including the dry fruit shop. At that moment, I encountered the dilemma - am I helping a poor lady to sustain or am I encouraging encroachment? Finally, I took the stuff but got hooked to this chaos within.

I am sure that there was something wrong on my part on both the times. What I am not sure of is how wrong was I. There are deeper connotations as well but let those be food for thought for all of us.

1 comment:

zo said...

U shudn't really blame urself...see in the first incident u didn't know that it was a one way .in fact the police should be paying the fines :)
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