Rang Diya…!!!?

I got out of the country’s largest multiplex on a Saturday night. It wasn’t a mid-night but was just 10 to 10. I chose the route to pre-paid auto counter and was happy enough to stand in the queue. It was something I felt good about my home city, “citizen-friendly you know?” I asked my non-local friend. As we neared the counter it was just 8 minutes to 10. The officer issued a ticket and said “One and half, sir”.
“It’s not 10 yet…” I argued. “Sorry Sir. You don’t have to pay one and half rate”, he replied. We felt better.
“I cannot go now, we’ll wait for few more minutes and charge one and half”, the auto drivers were conversing in the local language. “Ask for 50 extra bucks on dropping them…they’ll pay that for sure”, suggested the officer. My friend had got into the auto before I could say anything. “It’s alright, I’ll miss my train otherwise”, he told me.
Is it that the pre-paid counter was built for?

I got down at a bus stop 2 Km away from home. No, I didn’t plan to walk my way (and get robbed) at 10:30pm on a Saturday night. All autos refuse to drive on the road to my house, “Bangalore roads, you know!” When we brought the house in this colony 4 and a half years back, it was one of the remotest places in the city for sure but certainly a calm and beautiful locale. As more constructions happened, more trucks traveled to destroy the roads and no one would ever believe me if I say this!

There I stood at the bus stop for nearly a minute or two when the mammoth BMTC bus stopped by. I boarded and got comfortably seated next to the window. The cool breeze got a smile out of me. “Ah! That’s Bangalore… cool even in the mid-summer!” The bus conductor approached me for the ticket. This face looked quite familiar to me. Yes, this is the man I had picked up a fight with! “How much is the ticket for last stop?” I asked. “Five rupees”, came the reply after an awful yawning. I searched in my wallet to find an old 10 rupee note expecting a five rupee coin in return. But, yes this was the man indeed. I got 7 rupees in return without any ticket. It was my turn now. The blasting went on… “Are you not paid the salary?” Everyone looked on. It must be embarrassing for the poor chap, I thought. Only I thought, not him. He issued a ticket and I gave him those 2 rupees.
“ticket, ticket…” he went on and earned as much as I had spent at the multiplex that evening.
“Wish he’ll watch a Rang De Basanti!” Would that even impact? “Yes and No”
“Guess I bring the director Shankar of Hindustaani and Anniyan fame and ask him to kill this bus conductor! And as one of the characters in the movie asks, “Is just getting an extra 3 rupee a crime!?”

I came back home with mixed feelings. I had picked up a fight with the same corrupt government employee twice and blasted him in the public but nothing changed him! What else could I have done? I switched on the NDTV and saw something which I had not imagined before. One victim of the malefic “bribery” had not just bribed a Police officer but was smart enough to record the whole incident with a hidden camera.
Public and the media had rushed to see the villain of this whole drama and all they heard from him was “No comments!”

But, I had something to comment. “It’s happening! We have come quite some miles to end this evil. So, all those fellow villains beware! As more film makers are waking up, the citizens are not too behind, the most recent addition being Mr. Aamir Khan himself who’s just joined the NBA. Yes, the generation slowly awakens to the voices of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti.

Would it be too early to say that “Mr. Mehra ne Rang Diya…?”