To give or not to ...

We were on a train to Mangalore, evening time. Sitting in a reserved compartment. Side upper and side lower had been booked.

I enjoyed the view. Always loved this view of landscapes passing by as you sit in one place. Used to be awake during night bus journeys from Calicut to Madurai ..vice-versa .Looking through the big glass ,seeing villages asleep.Dark silhouetted trees would pass by, mountains would be far away, huts , tiled houses, terraces, giving you a feel for the persons staying in each and every house.
thanks to the air suspension in private buses you could just feel the bump a little ,not too much to affect the sight seeing.

Train journeys, very similar i love it.

So on that day's journey, was sitting along with mom..in a reserved AC 3 tier, we had put the seats down so it can be one huge platform. we were talking family matters. Train stopped at a station. Lot of crowd was getting on and off the train, i saw a couple who i would say were probably day workers from neighbouring state. simply and neatly dressed, the father had a small beard, lean features, Mom too simple yet in a nice saree, jasmine flowers on her head. Had a tiny baby, they were waiting for another train. But they were walking around passing our window more than twice.

I looked at them and thought... why can't we have a system of second class where all boggies of second class are alike, AC and good seats assured. ok fine don't give AC atleast make it comfortable to enjoy the travel with peace. Every one knows whereever you go in India there is crowd, that doesn't mean make less fortunate ppl travel like Nazi's did years back when they transported prisoners across ( Think russians did worse refering to the book GULAG by Anne Applebaum )
Do they have an oppurtunity in the life time to be in the comfort which I have?
Does the Mom dream of her son/ daughter to become a well paid say IT chap, in that case can she
enroll him in a school that gives quality education? And doesn't she dream of siting in such comfort  with her son in years to come.

Scandinavian countries are known to have a good human development index,making a huge part of population acheive certain comforts with easiness, primary being education.

How I wish we could achieve same level of comfort. Very rich and very poor will always be there in any country, but I believe their percentage should be less in a population. Majority should be able to enjoy same level of comfort in many public aspects i.e education, Transport.

We started our walk to globalisation years behind other countries, then why haven't we learnt from its mistakes and tried to patch up. The disparity is huge in our case, i earn more than what my father earned, so why isn't  same happening with people who are below my socio economical strata too..?

Recently I read a nice post of a friend who describes how nice it is to bump onto a good auto driver who sticks to the meter.That post deals with the sweetness of meeting a good human amidst the bad ones the urban society brews.
I have had similar good interaction with some auto drivers who took exact metre fare or incase agreed 1.5 of metre charge if it exceeded city corporation limits.When I met with auto drivers asking more, demanding more I rarely argued beyond a point.

This has been a dilemma for me since i started earning. Not just auto drivers many such "sir this isn't enough" questions make me only see a valid reason behind them asking me.
Would our auto drivers ask /argue more if we had a system that paid them fairly?
When riding in auto's for instance if the driver asks for more than the share he should get , say for 50rs ride he  demands 100rs

i would bring it to abt 75 and i would take that ride knowing he is getting more than he should.

But the context i avoid arguing too much isn't that it doesn't look nice :) It is because :

1. The 25rs though in terms of monetary value is the same for us living in same country. The

quality of what he would get with it is more than what I would buy

i.e a pencil box he buys for his kid is definetly more valuable than a magazine for 50rs.

2. If the meter's were adjusted according to the actual fuel consumption+fuel price in todays traffic? Would he demand for more ? (Sure some crooks are there in auto drivers but not all are one)

3. karma :) If he takes more than necessary now , he will loose more at a time of utmost need. So let the karma govern with it.

Above doesn't mean I endorse his "Grab" nature with senior citizens and normal people.I only hope he doesn't do that to above two category.

So am I saying its ok for auto drivers to take more from people who earn substantially higher than him ?
Yes.As long as the metre isn't a fair reflection of his work
 Does he have right to deny ride to other passengers who wouldn't pay more than meter?
NO. if he does his license should be cancelled. autos are FOR HIRE.. they have no right to deny a passenger a ride.