A Matter of Honor!!!

Munich, a corrupt ticket collector, a hasty shopping and a conflict of conscience, what could these four terms have in common! No no...It’s not the letter “i” that is common here, but the fact that I was the common individual who was involved here; and a friend of mine who still couldn’t believe that I went through the entire thing irrespective of what happened.

It all began in 1972, when a Palestinian militant secular group called the Black September Organisation massacred 11 Israeli athletes and Steven Spielberg decided to direct this event into a film called Munich! So basically the seeds were planned since the 70’s for me to get into trouble on a Saturday of 2005, when I and a friend of mine decided to be present for the second day second show of Munich at Sterling Theatre at CST. We bought a train-ticket at Kalyan which is almost a 90 minutes ride till CST and took a little detour via Mulund where we halted for a quick shopping. The plan was to get the required collectibles from Mulund by 11:30 and reach CST by 12:30 to get the 1 pm movie.

I was so proud to have reached our destination on the pre-decided time that I started praising the perfection with which I had executed the entire manoeuvre as if I was an undercover CIA agent! Guys have a knack of doing so. However, when a hand was placed on my shoulder I realised that my cover was blown away!

The face of the owner to whom the hand belonged (which was placed on my shoulder) was that of a common man...no harm intended! But the rest of the body part which was in a black and white uniform, which makes you feel nervous on a platform even if you have the valid ticket or pass. I have a feeling that let it be the traffic cops or the ticket examiners or the police in general, they are not here to help the common man but to bother him as much as possible!

Come to think of it...who will break a signal if the traffic police will stand at the traffic light and not camouflaged behind a tree just a few metres away from the signal? Or who will not buy a train ticket and enter the platform if the TTE was in plain sight? Rather, they go the Tango-Charlie way and ambush the law-breaking citizens! Wonder who is right here!

Anyways, I am not the guilty person here, so I produced my 11 bucks train ticket to the TTE and he, after a mere glance at the ticket, asked me to accompany him! WHAT THE HELL! What did I do wrong? We were led to this group of TTE’s who had circled their prey, i.e. a group of commuters (3-4 cute babes, who made me forget about the incident a bit, 4-5 brothers in arms (or the north Indians) and 2 angry females cursing their husbands to left them on the platform without tickets). Our case was taken up by a paunchy who saw the ticket, took out a small book with a very fine print and showed a clause with a finer print.

According to these fine lines, the journey was supposed to be completed within the hour or so and that our ticket has surpassed the valid time period :o( and so I had to pay a fine of 325 bucks! I had the experience that when caught in a situation like this never confess that you are a person with a job! Always say that you are a student...they always sympathise with you! So I said so and so came the sympathy... “Gimme 150 bucks and get the hell outta here!” and so came the clash of the conscience! Is this a bribe? Should I succumb to the corruption? Is it right to do so?

But somehow I still gave him the required amount of 150 and asked him on his face for the receipt! It was now a matter of honour for me! The look on his face was worth 150,000 bucks! It was a combination of gastric attack and kick in the place which is meant to be handled with care! “You want a receipt, I will give you a receipt which you will never forgive...gimme 325 bucks and I will give you a receipt of your life!”

My friend by then slapped me into senses and asked me what the hell I was doing! He told the TTE that we don’t want any receipt and pulled me away from the scene.I started arguing with him that I would have felt better if I paid the entire amount and that he (the TTE) won’t get to keep those 150 bucks of mine for himself! I felt cheated and was very mad at my friend...who was explaining to me that the world doesn’t work like that.

Anyways...the thought of paying 175 bucks was more overwhelming than the pressure of the conscience...what the hell, I could watch the movie and buy a large popcorn! And even got to buy the Jeffery Archer novel ‘A Matter of Honour’ in those 175 bucks :o)