Auto-matic!

Parents around. The only desire they'd have while here with me is to visit the relatives in and around Bangalore - apart from temple-trotting. Since y'day was a holiday I reluctantly decided give them company. One reason to say yes to accompany them was the difficulty to find an auto from the place where I reside.

Thankfully we didn't have to wait much. And even better, the auto-driver knew the 'right' way and didn't try to take us by the longest route possible (as is wont with many in Bangalore). But the surprise awaited us when we alighted. He took out a new fare list and said, "that's Rs. 63 Sir". The meter read 50.50. "But I haven't seen any notification in the newspapers. Nor was it on the TV" I said. "I don't know sir. I also was handed over this by my driver-friends this morning only". Any ways he relented and took money as per the current meter.

This experience repeated several times in the same day. What kind of a hoax are these auto drivers up to? Is it THAT easy to con the 'choiceless' and probably gullible auto-seeking public of Bangalore? This is the new way to swindle - apart from asking for more outrightly, refusing to come to the place you'd want to travel to, asking for 'one-and-half meter fare' even before the clock chimes 9 in the night!

So much for awareness, consumer rights and 'jago grahak' thingies!

Living up to the Legacy!

Australia is a country of immigrants. Centuries ago the British deported all its thugs, murderers, cheats and such other criminals to the shores of now what's called Australia. I most times wondered about the veracity of this information. Were all the people in Australia the descendants of cheats and criminals?

Yesterday they proved it beyond doubt. Yes, the genes are irreplaceable. Australians are cheats. Loud and clear. And, they're proud about it too. They take pride in cheating, lying and brow-beating others to submission. Wow! What a legacy they have!

Australians didn't need cheating or lying or even under-hand tactics to establish their supremacy in World Cricket. But they still went ahead and used it to win an otherwise losing test, and a loss of chance to rewrite the record books. Shows what stuff they're made of. Full of shit!

I doubt if India would bounce back in the series even to fetch a draw in either Perth or Adelaide. In all probabilities it'd be a 4-0 in favour of 13-member Australian side that is also backed by the local media (which otherwise was primrose pure while the side was playing in India), the match referee and supported from the ring-side by a boneless wonder called BCCI. The same BCCI that bares its fangs at its own fellow-cricketers when they want to earn a buck but becomes blind, tongue-tied when the entire country's prestige is at stake.