Who are you trying to fool?..........

Who are you trying to fool?...........

I had to take the early morning bus from Chennai to Vellore last Saturday. So the cab was taking me at 4.30 am from home to the bus station.

The driver was muttering that I could have driven to Vellore rather than take the bus. I patiently explained that I could not get one of my two safe and favorite long distance drivers and hence the bus journey.

Lo behold, we saw a government bus which had taken off from the bus station  rolling away from Chennai. My cabby raced and pulled up in front, stopping the bus for me. I hopped in wondering how it was going to be travelling unreserved after a long time.

Surprisingly only a few passengers in the bus. Nice reclining seats and it was cool. I looked at the conductor for the ticket, but he generally ignored me; so I trotted off and took the seat in the third row.

In front of me sat a well dressed lady in thirties with a little girl and a big tall boy. The boy was older and sat on the left side of the bus and the lady with the daughter on the right side.

After a while the conductor came along and despite the noise I heard him laugh when the lady said something to him… I thought  what a friendly guy!  After a while of some casual conversation, he asked the boy to go and stand against the markings on the door. And then it hit me that the boy was being measured for height. He was too tall.

The lady had then to shell out the adult charges for the boy. Conductor then came to me in the next row to give me my ticket. When he went back to his seat, the boy winked at his mother and shrugged his shoulders ; both had a good laugh.

It was obvious to me that the mother for a few rupees, had tried to fool the conductor.

What sort of an example was she setting for her children? She was obviously a middle class lady who easily could have afforded the normal rates for her brood. What sort of adults will they be when they grow up? Do not parents realize that children are like sponges absorbing the good and the bad from parents all the time?

I still remember what an LKG teacher told us in UK when Pravin started school; the child learns at home and comes to play in school. There is a lot of truth in that statement. We talk about corruption, bribery and wonder what makes us crooked- well obviously bad upbringing is certainly one mighty good reason!

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