#Upside Downside upside down
The 100 Rupee Note
It was only half a kilometer walk to the Metro station from their college, yet they used to take a cycle-rickshaw daily. For a frail man in humble clothes and worn out chappals, riding a rickshaw a few kilometres was also a troubling sight. Yet, there he was, earning his bread by doing some work rather than begging. This was the sole reason they preferred taking his rickshaw. He was earning with dignity, they were trying to help him do it. Both Paridhi and Amita, despite their diametric natures, were very particular about righteousness.
But one day in a rush to make it to a meeting they were already running late for, they sat behind a much younger and well-built rickshaw-puller and asked him to hurry the cycle up. The man however stopped midway with a jolt. He’d found a 100 rupee note lying on the road. He picked it up, pocketed it and sped the rickshaw even before they could ask the reason for this sudden halt.
Paridhi felt strongly against it. “How can he do it? This is so bad. He should have looked around for someone who might have dropped it!” she exclaimed. Amita was perplexed, “But somebody else would have falsely claimed it in that case. How can you trust the others around here?”
“Oh come on, it doesn’t need a genius to figure out who’s being genuine and who’s not. And no matter what you say, one fact is clear, This man is bad. It's people like him only who make us skeptical of trusting anyone else. I am never going to sit in his rickshaw again!” declared an annoyed Paridhi.
They reached the college. Amita was still wondering aloud, “You know, I once participated in a debate in class 11, the topic was ‘Chance Favours the Bold’. Perhaps he too is bold enough to take advantage of his chance, after all he is poor and must be having a family to look after”.
“Oh damn its 11:20am! Hurry up Ami, we’re late already. We'll get back to this discussion later.”
Grab the Chocolate! It doesn't come easy.
Two years later. On Phone,
Amita: Hey Par! Did you check your mail? The project we helped Prof. Dayal with is getting published! They're putting our name too in there.
Paridhi: “Oh! Wow! Awesome! Yae dude, finally we’re getting rewarded!”
Amita: “But it's disturbing me. We didn’t do that much work on this one. We don’t deserve this.”
Paridhi: “What crap! Don't you remember how that ‘Fraudy Shyamareddy’ had stolen our work and gotten it published without so much as peanuts to us for acknowledgement? And how he had hidden the fact from us for full one year! We are getting repaid for what we lost then. It comes back. Don't you worry. God takes things away. It's his way of giving it back.”
Amita: “But, this is also not right. We know we didn’t work enough. Prof. Dayal knows it too. How can we face him. I’ll feel ashamed of myself.”
Paridhi: “Haven’t you read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roahld Dahl? Would Charlie have earned the Chocolate factory had he not picked up the chocolate on road? You’d say he did the wrong thing, but even you can’t deny that if anyone ever deserved to win the factory, it was him. (Mischieviously) So dudette, what do you do when you see an unopened chocolate bar?”
Amita: “Hmm, you’re right. I’m only over-reacting. (Cheerful all of a sudden) Yeah, the chocolate bar? We grab it and eat it; we finish it off like no-one deserved it more!”
Both: “Ha ha ha ha....”
The laughter and a fresh gust of cool air from the balcony made them push the issue to the back of their minds.
Afterthoughts
What is morality? How much of it is right? Because after all excess of everything is bad. Grab Opportunities they say. Life is a game of Snakes and Ladders. Would you be a fool to leave the ladder and pursue the road the hard way? Then what justifies the snake-bites?
And if Parmita’s name appearing in the research paper is justified then what was that rickshaw-pullers fault? Wasn’t he right in taking that 100rs note? Wasn’t this a way of God helping him?
What is righteousness really?
