The curious case of Indane: Ignorance is bliss till you realize how much money you spent unnecessarily.
It has been a year since we moved back to India. It has been 11 months since we started living in our current house. But last month was the first time we received government gas
In India there are three forms of cooking gas available.
1. Government gas: HP or Indane
2. Private Gas
3. Black
I am still not entirely sure what the difference between option 2 and 3 except in our case 2 was delivered by a nice guy and 3 by what could closely be described as a thug!
The main difference between option 1 and 2/3 is a price difference of about Rs. 600. So why did we not get the option 1 as soon as we got here. Well because the entire acquisition is a really convoluted method where you must have address proof but you just cannot get address proof because you have no address proof.
Here is our story
October mid : Suresh moved into MIMS ardendale and started to get his utilities settled in. Anywhere he went they asked him for a government address proof which was either
- an electricity bill: which in our case was still with the builder, or
- a land line telephone : to acquire which you needed an address proof
- a drivers license with your current address: which we realized would require us either going to the RTO and paying some guy off or going to a driving school who would 'pay off' some guy in the RTO (Pay off = BRIBE)
Suresh finally sought help from the kind property manager (who I would call a 'thug' myself .... suresh says he is just caught by his circumstance of having to please 90 villa owners) who set him up with Option 3. The Gas guys shows up (i.e. Option 3) charges Suresh a deposit of Rs 2500, promises him a gazillion things like instant service even at 2 am at night etc etc. So we end up with a gas cylinder from the 'thug'.
I land in Banglaore a month later and in a matter of few days we realise that we cannot have just one gas cylinder especially with two kids and not way to tell when the cylinder is close to empty except to count days! So we call the 'thug' and ask him for a second cylinder. He charges us another Rs 2500 'deposit' and gives us a second cylinder.
Life continues as usual till the gas runs out. We call Mr thug and he comes with a new cylinder and says gas price has gone up ... it was Rs 1000 last month it is Rs 1100 this month.
Next month --- gas price has gone up it is Rs 1200 and then again a month later, gas price has become Rs 1300.
I finally felt the whole thing fishy and decided to ask a neighbor --- This was probably the first thing I should have done anyway! She said that private gas was Rs 800 and I could get it from a reliable source called 'J' and that if I was paying anything more I was being cheated.
Tubelight! We were being taken for a ride! How naive! No not naive --- how stupid --- how ignorant. I decide it was war time and called Mr. Thug.
He comes all happy to deliver another cylinder and I am sure was going to tell us that gas price was now Rs 1400. Instead and I bring out the two empty cylinders and ask him for our deposit back. Mr Thug is shocked. He says he doesn't have the money with him at that moment --- but he can take the cylinders off my hands. Huh! Yes thank you! Why dont you kick me in the rear while you are at it.
After arguing with him for a while we realised it was pointless. So we let him go and told him to come back with the money in a week's time.
One month later we still had two cylinders with us! We decided to use some threat action. We told the property manager, who by now we knew was friends with Mr. Thug, that we were planning to go to the cops since Mr. Thug owed us Rs 5000. A few hours later Mr. Thug sends his older brother Mr. Thug2 who was far more uncouth than Mr. Thug himself. After an hour long of shouting outside our door where Mr. Thug2 kept telling us that he had only Rs 1500 and we had to just take it and return one of the cylinders ... and us not budging from our position of 'Give us Rs 2500 and take your cylinder', we finally go Rs 2500 and had one less cylinder in our house. But the problem did not end there. Mr. Thug2 promised us he would return with the remaining money in one week and pick up the second cylinder.
Another month passed and still not sight of Mr. Thug 2. I had lost my patience with Suresh too. I had begged and pleaded of him to go to Mr. Thug 2 's shop and get the money back. Suresh loves saying that the only way to straighten crooked people in India was Lathi charge .... but he never does much about it. One of these days I am going to hand him a 'Lathi' to see what he does with it.
I finally picked up the empty second cylinder and put it in the car, put Isaac in his car seat and drove to Mr. Thug 2's shop. When I reached there he pretended like he didnt know me initially. After arguing with him for about 45 minutes he finally gave in. In the 45 minutes that I refused to budge from his shop step he told me it was really uncouth of me to yell in front of his shop. Interesting he did not think of this when he was screaming outside our door. He told me that it was very unlady like. I told him I didnt care - I needed the money back. 45 minutes later I walked out of the shop with Rs 2400 - He told me Rs 100 was for prompt delivery of the gas cylinders and charges for his petrol.
I got into the car and drove for two minutes -- stopped my car and counted the money three times. I was shocked that he had given it!
I have taken on the new name of Jhansi Ki Rani !
I have decided to ask when I do not know how to do things!
PS: One thing I forgot to mention -- Why do I think our property manager was a thug -- well during our many arguments with Thug2, he let it slip that he had to given someone 'Chai pani' (-- i.e. a commission) to get the business's from our Villas' ... Hmmm I wonder who that could be ---
It has been a year since we moved back to India. It has been 11 months since we started living in our current house. But last month was the first time we received government gas
In India there are three forms of cooking gas available.
1. Government gas: HP or Indane
2. Private Gas
3. Black
I am still not entirely sure what the difference between option 2 and 3 except in our case 2 was delivered by a nice guy and 3 by what could closely be described as a thug!
The main difference between option 1 and 2/3 is a price difference of about Rs. 600. So why did we not get the option 1 as soon as we got here. Well because the entire acquisition is a really convoluted method where you must have address proof but you just cannot get address proof because you have no address proof.
Here is our story
October mid : Suresh moved into MIMS ardendale and started to get his utilities settled in. Anywhere he went they asked him for a government address proof which was either
- an electricity bill: which in our case was still with the builder, or
- a land line telephone : to acquire which you needed an address proof
- a drivers license with your current address: which we realized would require us either going to the RTO and paying some guy off or going to a driving school who would 'pay off' some guy in the RTO (Pay off = BRIBE)
Suresh finally sought help from the kind property manager (who I would call a 'thug' myself .... suresh says he is just caught by his circumstance of having to please 90 villa owners) who set him up with Option 3. The Gas guys shows up (i.e. Option 3) charges Suresh a deposit of Rs 2500, promises him a gazillion things like instant service even at 2 am at night etc etc. So we end up with a gas cylinder from the 'thug'.
I land in Banglaore a month later and in a matter of few days we realise that we cannot have just one gas cylinder especially with two kids and not way to tell when the cylinder is close to empty except to count days! So we call the 'thug' and ask him for a second cylinder. He charges us another Rs 2500 'deposit' and gives us a second cylinder.
Life continues as usual till the gas runs out. We call Mr thug and he comes with a new cylinder and says gas price has gone up ... it was Rs 1000 last month it is Rs 1100 this month.
Next month --- gas price has gone up it is Rs 1200 and then again a month later, gas price has become Rs 1300.
I finally felt the whole thing fishy and decided to ask a neighbor --- This was probably the first thing I should have done anyway! She said that private gas was Rs 800 and I could get it from a reliable source called 'J' and that if I was paying anything more I was being cheated.
Tubelight! We were being taken for a ride! How naive! No not naive --- how stupid --- how ignorant. I decide it was war time and called Mr. Thug.
He comes all happy to deliver another cylinder and I am sure was going to tell us that gas price was now Rs 1400. Instead and I bring out the two empty cylinders and ask him for our deposit back. Mr Thug is shocked. He says he doesn't have the money with him at that moment --- but he can take the cylinders off my hands. Huh! Yes thank you! Why dont you kick me in the rear while you are at it.
After arguing with him for a while we realised it was pointless. So we let him go and told him to come back with the money in a week's time.
One month later we still had two cylinders with us! We decided to use some threat action. We told the property manager, who by now we knew was friends with Mr. Thug, that we were planning to go to the cops since Mr. Thug owed us Rs 5000. A few hours later Mr. Thug sends his older brother Mr. Thug2 who was far more uncouth than Mr. Thug himself. After an hour long of shouting outside our door where Mr. Thug2 kept telling us that he had only Rs 1500 and we had to just take it and return one of the cylinders ... and us not budging from our position of 'Give us Rs 2500 and take your cylinder', we finally go Rs 2500 and had one less cylinder in our house. But the problem did not end there. Mr. Thug2 promised us he would return with the remaining money in one week and pick up the second cylinder.
Another month passed and still not sight of Mr. Thug 2. I had lost my patience with Suresh too. I had begged and pleaded of him to go to Mr. Thug 2 's shop and get the money back. Suresh loves saying that the only way to straighten crooked people in India was Lathi charge .... but he never does much about it. One of these days I am going to hand him a 'Lathi' to see what he does with it.
I finally picked up the empty second cylinder and put it in the car, put Isaac in his car seat and drove to Mr. Thug 2's shop. When I reached there he pretended like he didnt know me initially. After arguing with him for about 45 minutes he finally gave in. In the 45 minutes that I refused to budge from his shop step he told me it was really uncouth of me to yell in front of his shop. Interesting he did not think of this when he was screaming outside our door. He told me that it was very unlady like. I told him I didnt care - I needed the money back. 45 minutes later I walked out of the shop with Rs 2400 - He told me Rs 100 was for prompt delivery of the gas cylinders and charges for his petrol.
I got into the car and drove for two minutes -- stopped my car and counted the money three times. I was shocked that he had given it!
I have taken on the new name of Jhansi Ki Rani !
I have decided to ask when I do not know how to do things!
PS: One thing I forgot to mention -- Why do I think our property manager was a thug -- well during our many arguments with Thug2, he let it slip that he had to given someone 'Chai pani' (-- i.e. a commission) to get the business's from our Villas' ... Hmmm I wonder who that could be ---
oh my goodness, you are so much braver than I! good for you!
ReplyDelete