Street Fight!

(written on August 08,2010)

The animal lovers may not like this…but today I fought like an animal or a street side thug as Ravi would call it. What started out as a normal lazy Sunday ended up rising my blood pressure which is still not down. Mom and I went shopping today and we bought some jewelry then went to buy some clothes and dress material and added the shopping experience with a nice Willy Wonka ice cream from cream stone. As with the female hormones, shopping always relaxes and we didn’t want the day to end. But time and pocket says otherwise. So I agree we were a little late in getting back home yet at a reasonable time for taking a public comute (auto rickshaws). We agreed to pay a sum of Rs. 45 after much haggling (which is again a part of this city's culture of autos). Anyway, the distance between home and this mall is not more that 4kms so technically we were still paying a high price. Now when we got home this gentleman who was driving demands Rs. 50 saying that, that was the amount agreed upon, which was an outright lie and both mom and I argued. Of course he thought otherwise and was so upset with his passengers that he decided to take out his frustration by throwing the money on her face viz.. moi! One can only imagine what happened after that! I was only short of punching his balls out and we both fought like hungry animals on a piece of meat. Towards the end he wanted to give me a ride till the police station to sort this matter out and I was ready to drag him by the collar to the cops. Luckily for him, my mom interfered and stopped it. We paid what we had decided to pay and walked off. He also after much grumbling left. Therefore, he survives.
To my Children,  if ever you read this, remember it is not the 5 rupees that I fought for. It is the question of ethics. It was dark and I was alone and all the while that I was standing just short of hitting him, I did not feel scared. On the contrary it was just sheer disgust of having come across such a person who has no values whatsoever to stand by his own words. One may argue that with that class of people how you can expect ethics or values. True, and I don't. Not with that class, but with any class. I expect it of myself and I don't sell myself short of that because some class of society doesn't fit into it. It would be easier to give up and throw a 5 rupee coin but tough to stand my ground for what I believe was correct. I did so today and will do so again and again and again till eternity and so must you if ever required because your self respect is what you will take to the grave.
 I Love You!