Finding faults

A Mumbaikar knows what it means to travel in a local train in office hours. Recently, a gentleman who daily travels in a second class local from Borivli to Andheri, got a lift from a friend, right from his doorstep to Andheri. Later he complained that he had to walk half a kilometer from where his friend dropped him, conveniently forgetting the rush hour traffic in trains and the convenience of his friend’s A.C.car. Some people are like that. They will find fault in everything. It is in their nature.

This incident reminded me of another similar incident a few years back. One of my ordinary middle class friend’s daughter won some contest with prize money of one lac fifty thousand Rupees. I came to know of this from a mutual friend. Both of us were very happy for our friend and his daughter. So we decided to call him and congratulate him on his daughter’s success. When we called him in Bangalore and congratulated him, his response was typical: “It is all very well for you to sit there in Bombay and greet me. We will get the prize money, no doubt, but you know the trouble I will have to go through for that? It is so inconvenient really. I will have to get photocopies of various certificates like ration card, proof of address, proof of my daughter’s age and that too certified by a govt official, then I have to courier it to them. Only after that they will send the cheque. On top of this, the government will deduct tax to the tune of twenty five plus Rupees. So inconvenient, I tell you.”

This coming from a person who hardly earned fifteen thousand rupees those days to make his ends meet shocked both of us. Never mind that the prize money was equivalent to eight-nine months of his income. And never mind about his daughter’s achievement and pleasure.

You cannot satisfy such people. My friend commented: “We wasted our money. He will find fault in God Almighty himself if Almighty decides to appear before him.” I agree.