Winds of change

I am sometimes possessed by an urge to hurt people. No, I am not some kind of a sadist. These are people who make your life miserable for cheap thrills and money, that I am referring to. I feel that I should devote all it takes to teaching that person not to ever, EVER, do that to anybody again. But then the business of daily living and stuff come in the way and I abandon that venture all together. Then in hindsight, I still feel that I should have taken the effort. I always feel that our Indian society as such as a very laid back and chalta hai -approach to everything and that is the very ruin of our country as such. Like I remind my husband every time, Change begins with each one of us. We have to believe that what we are doing is right and move ahead with that confidence. Why am I moving from me to the country? Am I not making sense?? Let me explain.

We hired a designer to take care of the interior work of our home. With great enthusiasm, she sold herself. We cut and snipped to make sure that it fit into our budget and then proceeded. Neha was about a year and half then and we knew that it would be difficult for me to visit the worksite daily. At that time, I stayed about 25 km away. Though hiring a designer would pinch our pocket, we thought it would be worth it. It was far from it. She was so casual that I had to visit the site with the baby far more times than she did. She overplayed the costs for everything despite the fact that we gently reminded her from time to time that budget was the key word. She charged premium for damaged material. She hired carpenters from Chennai who would run there at the drop of a hat. They stayed at the site and trashed up the place pretty bad. It is only when they moved out and the dust cleared that things started showing up. There were some final touches that we called her in for. When we brought the flaws to light, she was defensive, blamed the whole world and refused to accept her faults. She also had two projects from our building from which she was fired. All I required of her through that exercise was to accept that she did not pay the necessary attention to the project and apologize. The fact that she refused to do that pissed me off.

We told her that we would pay her the last installment only after completion of the remaining work. She began to rant and rave and refused to move from the apartment. If my husband allowed me, I would have let her have it. For the sake of peace, he was even willing to pay her. Over my dead body. He convinced her to carry on at that time. She came later, screamed and ranted but I refused to pay. She threatened and what not, but I refused to budge. Later, I also send her a notice. I was convinced that I should go through the Consumer Rights Forum. After the notice, I did not pursue it. She also stopped calling when she knew the shit had hit the ceiling. But had I gone ahead, though it would have been painful, I would have been successful. Besides the compensation, it would have driven home the point that, she should never do this to anybody again.

I do believe that change begins with everyone of us.. We SHOULD make that effort to change. Yes it is going to be miserably, sometimes embarrassingly difficult. But we have to make that start. But my husband, though he knows what I say is right, does not like to get into all this. Of course, it is easier to wipe the dust off the shoulders and carry on. But I do feel that the message that we are giving to such people who grab our money and walk off is that: We do not care. This very pathetic approach spurns them on to do it to somebody else. My husband says to that: Why do you care? Is it our headache? No. It is not our headache, but we are helping to make a criminal. And that is a burden that I do not want to carry around. I know she is out there cheating other people. I hate that feeling.

We should publicly embarrass people who want our hard-earned money. I suddenly remember that scene in Munnabhai MBBS-II where the old man who goes to that government office and pays whatever little money he has on him as a bribe. He then apologizes for having only that much money and then begins to take off all his accessories and clothes, quoting their cost. The official was so embarrassed and moved the old man’s file immediately.

Should I just give up trying to change things around me? Make this world a better place. There is so much wishful thinking in me right now. Really, we could do away with so much ugliness if we only tried hard enough. And more importantly, if we were allowed to try……….