Corruption and Greed

My Meditations

Well, everyone on face agrees that “corruption” and “greed” two are bad. And actually “Everyone” is an overstatement, so let's say “most of us”.

Let's be controversial for a moment and allow me present to you two people who view “corruption” and “greed” positively. 

Dhruv Agarwal and Rohit Sud.

Dhruv Agarwal was my Tech Lead at Mobileum (something like 2015-2018).
Dhruv was doing a distance-education degree in MBA (Strategic Leadership) from IIM Lucknow. He used to board the office cab from Saket till Sector 48, Gurugram. That was about an hour long ride.

One point I remember he used to make was his stand for corruption as a positive driver of economics and society.   

He used to say “if everything was priced fairly, there would no incentive for anyone to make extra efforts in accomplishing anything. The money that's passed under the table is an opportunity for people to make something extra”.

Secondly, he used to say that “if society was fare and just, and there were equal opportunities, then what does that translate to in a country with over a billion strong population. So basically, corruption is the tool by which you can expedite your case ahead of others in this pool of people for some extra bucks.”

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Rohit is my old friend, know him since my school days. He would sometimes call me to cheer me up and to give me some gyaan on whatever problems I would be facing at the moment. 

On one such calls, he advocated for “Greed and Corruption”. 

So he told me this story: He visits a neighborhood barber's shop for getting a hair cut or hair do. And there after the service person (among 2-3 young men who work there) finishes his job, Rohit pays him 20 Rupees tip apart from the service charge. And next time when Rohit goes there, at first, there would be a race and excitement in those young men to serve Rohit. The service person would ask Rohit for tea or coffee, and make Rohit feel like a king (for the moment). All that for just 20 Rupees.

On the contrary, when I (till now) used to take any service, I would not pay any tip. On top of that, I would be bargaining for a lower price. And now here was my friend giving me gyaan on how to use greed, corruption and poverty of this country to our advantage.

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The reason I am writing about 'Corruption and Greed' today is because I encountered how Uber drivers were trying to make a couple extra bucks out of Uber users by fooling them in one way or the other.

Way 1: The Uber driver would refuse to pay tolls out of his pocket and would ask you to pay for tolls. And let me tell you – sometimes the drivers seek for this toll money and other times they don't. Simple meaning – this ask for toll money from a bad bunch of drivers is illegitimate. 
FYI: I travel between Inderlok, Delhi and Sector 79, Gurugram often.

Way 2: At the end of the ride, before the driver would close the ride, he would ask you how much money was the Uber app was showing when you booked the ride, and would ask you pay that much.
“Not closing the ride” on the spot is an important step for them, because otherwise actual amount would reflect on his and your screen. 
Note: The predicted amount that shows in Uber app at the time of booking a ride is higher than the actual amount at the end of the ride.

Way 3: This happened to me to once around 10-14 days back. And then I also learned it's fix.
At the end of the ride, the driver showed me an invoice for a trip that was booked for some 65 Rupees. And the invoice said something like 130 (with all the tax calculation).

The way out of it is ask the driver to close the ride and then open the “Activities” section in the Uber app, it would show all the past ride details and how much you were supposed to pay for that ride.

Way 4: The driver might take an extra longer (in terms of miles) route and would make extra money for the extra distance.

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Now, I don't want to leave you hanging their but I will draw a conclusion to this debate some other. Right, it is getting late and I need to go to sleep.

PS: I am reading (60% done) a great Chetan Bhagat book “Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, And Ambition”