Lessons of life in a taxi ride!!

This one was my 2nd visit to the very ethnic indian city..Kolkata, and if you behave like a tourist you will be treated like one. Another time I was taken for a metered ride in circular paths. I could not understand how was this profitable to the cabbie because he would have to spend at least 20 extra minutes measuring his metered mulla to a stunning double of what I had paid in the morning to travel to the same destination, milestone to milestone.

Oh! I must mention another instance when the same gimmik was played the 1st time i had come down to this rather peacefully, happily polluted city. Our cabbie dude took me around my destination point 3 times through various tiny viny streets which I had never seen before and at 7.00pm (calcutta is already dark by this time in peak summers as well) they looked even more unfamiliar.

Being a delhiite (oh my god!! have i started calling myself that!?!) I want to flaunt my desi courage off and on. I could never accept the fact that a driver from calcutta could fleece a dilli ki ladki off her cash and walk away so easily. And therefore, I commanded the driver to pull over near a traffic police guy. He very promptly did because he was now tired of circling the roads and at that point I realised he was pleaded guilty for a false offence. What the heck!! he better know his city!! not my fault.

So I acted like a tourist who had been played on by a taxi driver to extract extra cash and soon a mob (precisly about 5 people) inquisitively gathered around the yellow cab most of these people who came to rescue me were about half my size....vertically and horizontally. I was definately putting up a great show for them and the whiteman (traffic police in cal wears white uniform and in dark you can only see white and assume theres man covered with it) for whom i was a wonderful piece of entertainment after a hard day's work.... meeting a stupid woman going around her hotel in closest circumfrence is not an everyday thing...(you dare laugh!!.... :))

Happens after being taken for a ride!! sounds familiar..uuhh?? And what is it that makes people take others for a ride or take advantage of your situation?? I think it is somewhere related to Darwin's theory of survival, each one has to survive and yes on the expense of the other... if need be.

So where are your ethics?? your integrity?? you will ask me. Well I will say who made it in the first place? And you will promptly say God! And to that my reply will be BULLSHIT.

The fact is to everything pleasant and unpleasant that is unexplainable, God is the easiest target. The only thing God gave us is this incredible brain and a priceless life, that we royally abuse. So ethics and integrity are the origination of the billions of neuron connections in that 1 gallon mass you carry on your head. God has not been a baniya in weighing your brain less than his favorite. If you have been victimized, stop complaining and act. Stop prosecuting others for their offences before you give yourself a verdict. And for goodness sakes stop hoping that some divine magic will save you from being fooled. Tough?? yeah it is. but thats why they say, try.

The next time something wrong is done unto you ask what had you NOT done that has put you in this situation. And for all you cab drivers.....Do what you want others to do unto you!!

Use Travelsense!! .......wink wink!