kharcha, paani

Khorcha Koro

God chose Netaji's birthday to jolt pagla ladka with these words. God chose a fine spring day to introduce free India's way of working. It should have been no surprise, it should have been no shock. But it was. It struck him.

Twenty pious years, pagla ladka(referred as PL/pagla from now) was kept away from the cruel world by his parents. But for how long?? He had to confront it one day. And this was the opportune moment, when he least expected.

CORRUPTION - huh!!! PL remembers a survey he read somewhere at a time when he was pure. India was placed on a lowly 88th spot out of around 150 nations on the corruption index (1st is the least corrupted). The survey termed it as a 'severe situation'. But where was this devil?? PL did not get a chance to see it. But for how long??

'Source' - this was something PL heard often. There were instances when he saw that one having proper 'source' could actually make things do. Unfortunately(??), this was something PL could never take advantage of. But that was the worst of all viciousness he had seen until the 22nd of January.

PL was now in an institute of repute. A place where his mom n dad would've thought their pagla son would be shielded from the iniquitous world. Sad....they were wrong.

December'07, PL sets off for his first 'sarkaari' mission. To get his passport done. ehh!! not that he needed a passport...it was a just-like-that thing. Maybe to get a feel of doing things for the first time for himself, without the help of his parents.

With the Kolkata tour, begun proceedings. With almost no queue in the passport office and things done with in just around an hour, PL was pleased with himself and the 'system'. Though, the return journey to his home was painful (that is another story).

It is the second step which holds the crux of discussion - police verification. Even after as many as 3 rounds to the police station, the concerned officer was always missing. This guy comes all the way from midnapore(not very sure) on particular days which interestingly turn out to be sundays and national holidays. That too, he is quite irregular. Anyways, finally, on the 23rd day of January, the two - PL and the officer meet. Infact there was a third, the officer's assistant.

The passport officer turned out to be the cartoon of the century. With extremely poor, or no english & hindi speaking skills, he was turning out to be irritating. Adding salt to wounds was his habit of giving unvalued opinion on almost everything. Anyways, somehow, he managed to extricate both PL's and dipa's forms out of the pile he had.

Now was the turn of the assistant, who created a furore over a certain new rule introduced. This rule was supposed to make second year students(PL fell in this category) almost ineligible to get a passport. Though, after much coaxing, he accepted that the rule is often not considered in cases like PL's. Hence he would get the passport unless some other trouble crops up.

This cheered up PL(and his friend dipa who incidentally was also with him). Pagla filled up the form in haste - his name, father's name, village where he was born, the post office and what not. Anyways, after much deliberation with the passport officer over what should be filled in the 'village' column, the form-filling ceremony was over. The officer, thankfully, did not take time for signing their forms.

It is the next thing which is the reason for writing such a long prelude. The passport officer handed over the form to the assistant who took PL and dipa in a corner(for something dirtier than you might think). He straight-away, with no hesitation whatsoever uttered -

khorcha koro

For the convenience of non-bengali speaking junta(though you might have guessed already), 'shell out money'. PL had seen the assistant taking people earlier to this corner, he never guessed it could've been about money (or probably he had thought about it sub-consciously). The money was obviously to assure that your form goes through the police verification part with no hassles. They call it 'bribe'. Yeah, it exists - PL couldn't immediately break out of the realms of his fantasy-India.

200 for each. Whoa!!! PL brought himself in terms with reality and immediately bargained to 300 for the two. The devil immediately agreed. And in no time did the two fools pay and leave satisfied that their passports would reach them soon.

Huh!!! and now pagla ladka regrets. frets. rues. repents. The image he had of the 'system' was no doubt shattered. But why did he bend?? Why couldn't he do something about it?? Why didn't he do something about it?? And, why does nobody do anything about it?? questions, questions and questions....ohh!! pagla's head is in an excruciating pain. he is cursing himself. something needs to be done. but what?? do you do something against it?? do you have the answer??

India is prospering...hmmm

pagla regrets. frets. rues. repents.