Article: Dishonesty is the best policy [by Ratheesh]

Squeezing myself out of the local BMTC bus was in itself a great achievement. I had spent the last ten minutes planning the escape route in my head. I was seated in the last row and had to make it alive through atleast 30 people before I could reach the door. Should I say ‘Excuse Me’ to each co-passenger; or should I stick with ‘Swalpa Jaaga bidtheera swami’ lest I make myself sound too important with my English (which usually resulted in angry stares), I wondered.

Anyways, I was out; I had done it. Now walking towards office my thoughts went back to the incident which occurred while I sat in the Bus. This shabbily dressed guy got into the bus at K.H.Road. And I noticed he stood a few feet away from where I sat. Soon enough the conductor came to that area to issue tickets and I could hear this guy say ‘Pass’. The conductor wanted to see it. The next thing I heard is the conductor shouting at him for trying to cheat him with a pass that belonged to someone else. And the guy was standing there listening to that but with no fear or remorse on his face. He says ‘En saar, drama maadtheera? Ticket thagobeka, thagotheeni’ (Don’t create a scene, I shall take a ticket if you want me to)

The conductor issued a ticket and walked away shaking his head. Now if the audacity of that person to cheat and be so proud of it did not shock me, what happened next, did. As soon as the conductor was out of range, some of the usual I-SPEAK-LOUDLY-IN-BUS types started discussing it. One chap indicates it’s not a big deal. Another one says the conductor was in fact making a huge thing out of it. Another person points out that conductors themselves are cheats… so on. ‘What is happening here? Is there public support for crime now?’ I thought.

I had reached my reception by then; and had wished a ‘silent’ good morning to some of my colleagues with the usual straight-lip, raised-eyebrow, facial expression. That’s when it struck me; I was mute witness to a whole lot of crimes everyday, committed by my colleagues, shamelessly.

Just yesterday as I was walking past a cubicle I heard one of them yelling out pretty loudly. ‘Did you submit the IT proofs too? I just did. I put in a letter saying I pay rent to my dad. That way I can get exemption on rent.’ The other one was laughing; another buddy of mine in the next cubicle got up and started asking details on how to do it. I could just walk away wondering what was happening to our people.

A week before that someone I knew very well at office comes to me and inquires where I collect my travel bills from. On my question of ‘What travel bills?’, he says ‘Your fake travel bills?’ I was taken aback and politely changed topic. Apparently this chap pays a few thousand bucks to get fake travel bills so that he can claim the LTA.

I had gone past the reception now. While I fished in my bag for my access card, I was still trying to recollect all the other kinds of crimes I was witnessing in my daily life. Everyone was into it. They were proudly cheating the company, the country, themselves in the process. Some of them were committing large crimes like showing wrong income while filing their IT, and some of them were involved in petty crimes like not putting the soft drinks coupon before shamelessly taking it out of the cooler.

As I dug up my brain I found more and more instances of well educated young and old men and women like us taking the path of dishonesty. Recently I met up with a colleague who worked in night shifts. His work times were supposedly 7pm to 3am. I happened to ask ‘Don’t you have a choice? Why don’t you opt for a morning shift?’ His reply was ‘Boss its just called night shift. I come in at 7.30, work a little beyond 12 because they pay allowance only if you work after 12, then I just go home at 12.30 or so. I bill for 8 hours a day but’. He smiled and walked away. ‘Wow’ I thought. ‘Hope his manager who gives bhashans on customer satisfaction hears that’.

Firmly seated at my cubicle now, I was comparing the crimes in my office to what I saw in the bus. And suddenly the incident in the bus felt so minor. There he was, some guy, probably not very educated, maybe unemployed trying to avoid a 5 rupee ticket. And here they were, a bunch of highly educated people, who earned in thousands (and lakhs) committing crimes everyday with ease and pride; and yes, with a lot of colleague-support. Being dishonest was starting to become a trend now.

That’s when my desk phone rang. It was my manager. As soon as I picked it up and kept it to my ears, he started talking ‘Good morning Ratheesh, Did you send me that estimate I asked you to send me yesterday’. ‘Yes, I sent it to you yesterday evening just before I left’. ‘I don’t find it in my Inbox, you sure’ he replied. ‘I sent it to you just after the call. Must be some issue with the email server or something’ I replied. ‘Ok, just send it again’ he hung up. I smiled back shamelessly at the smiling Gandhiji Wallpaper on my desktop as I decided to send him that email…’again’.