Dakshina – The bribe.

I wish my first blog would be about something pleasant, but its not to be.

I woke up early today as usual to attend my driving lessons. Little did i know that i would be in for a surprise. I reached the training school and began driving the Indica. After about 2 mins into the drive my instructor seated to my left opened the door on his side to spit out the gutkha he was chewing. It was odd for him to do so, because for the last 5 days he preferred keeping the gutkha in his mouth the entire duration of my driving lesson which rendered his instructions 75% useless as i couldnt understand what he was trying to say, much to my dislike.

Today was different, he started by telling me that the Indica had been brought back from the servicing centre having fixed its shaky steering. For the next few minutes he asked me if everything felt right and i told him that the car responded well after its servicing had been done. He added,

” Kuch takleef ho to humko batau “

I nodded a ‘yes’ in response, my eyes fixed on the traffic ahead, careful not to bump into any vehicle. Then he smiled and said,

“Kuch dakshina vakshina leke aao, to mast gaadi chalana sikhayen…“

For the first time i heard his entire sentence clearly, i politely smiled back wondering why he said what he did. Im sure he felt that i thought he was joking, so just to make his point clear he added,

” Andar (the office) jo paisa bhara hai, usse kuch matlab nahi hai, samjhe? Ab jo bhi karna hai woh humko karna hai…“

Inadvertently, i turned towards him still trying to understand what he meant by

“Andar jo paisa bhara hai…“

as i had paid Rs.2300 to be exact, for the License & lessons. He looked at me as though it was a routine request while it was more like a bomb dropped for me as i never before had anyone directly ask me extra cash for the service i requested. I knew such things existed & happened for decades now, and though i didnt like it, i got my first experience. I just let the words exit from my ears and i looked back onto the road driving the remaining road stretch careful not to kill any sleeping dogs on the road as i had the habit of accelerating at the sight of an empty road…!

Towards the end i parked the car near the start point where the next student in line would take his turn. As i exited the vehicle he gave me a reminder once again, to get the ‘dakshina‘ that he thinks he deserves when i would rather be happy to print my fist on his face than handover a smiling bapu to him. Money talks, they say, but i know that i want my money to stay shut in my wallet until i need to take it out for a proper purpose, not as dakshina. I also know that im not the first one he’s asked for cash and im certainly not going to be the last. This cash reward scheme is one that goes on everywhere and even though at times the amount given is small, it still goes down as unethical & against the morals of truth and justice and everything that makes up the law of the country… What may have started as a habit has now become a disease. I just want to do my bit to eradicate this disease as i know the value of money ever since i had my parents spend their hard earned money on me only reminding me that they want to see me achieve my goal by abiding to truthful ways to get there. Tomorrow as i go again to my ‘guru‘ i plan to give him a piece of my mind as dakshina, how much i succeed in doing so, i dont know, but i’ll take the effort to hopefully stand out as someone who refused to pay a petty amount. I hope i never have to go against my will and give dakshina (this word has started to irritate me now.. X-(  ) to anybody for any purpose whatsoever. Im confident that my refusal will not result in any undesirable consequences on the day of my driving test at RTO.

P.E.A.C.E