Last night when I landed in Mumbai after a week long vacation with my family on the occasion of Diwali, I was lost in the memories of time spent with my family after a gap of a year. As soon as I came out of the terminal I found an empty taxi on the road and I stopped it. The conversation that followed was as follows:
Me: Powai?
Driver: Haan.
At this point I got inside the taxi.
Driver: Powai mein kahan?
Me: Hiranandani.
Taxi driver moved the taxi behind then moved it forward and stopped it in the same position. (Now I think it could be some kind of a signal to his partner.)
After stopping the taxi, driver turned around and asked me: Aapne parchi li?
Me: Kaisi parchi?
Driver: Ye prepaid wali taxi hai?
Me: Ab parchi lene to main nahi ja raha, itni samasya hai to main utar jata hun.
While I was about to get out of the taxi, another man entered the taxi and sat beside the driver in the front seat.
Con man: (to the driver) Kya hua?
Driver: Inhone parchi nahi li.
Con man: Kahan jana hai?
Driver: Hiranandani.
Con man: Arrey sawari bitha ke utarte nahi hain. Main paise deta hun chhod ke aa ja.
Con man: (handing over a 1000 Rs note to the driver) Ye lo 500 Rs le lo, gas bhara lena aur sir to chhod aao.
Driver: Chhutte do.
Con man: (to me) Aapke paas change hai?
I promptly took out two 500 Rs notes and handed over to the man in exchange of the 1000 Rs. While I looked down to keep the 1000 Rs note in my wallet, the con man exchanged the 500 Rs with two 100 Rs notes.
Con man: Sir, 1000 Rs diye maine.
Me: Haan, to maine diye to do 500.
The con man showed the two 100 Rs notes in his hand to me. At this point I realized I have been cornered and these guys have conned me off 800 Rs but I was not is a position and mood to fight with two guys over 800 Rs, so I decided to get rid of the taxi and pick another one. Even after all this the con man had the guts to ask me, "250 Rs de do chhod aayega."
After leaving the taxi I do not know what I did was the best thing to do at that point or I could have handled the situation better. This incident has made me more alert though. I am posting this so that others reading this also are alert and avoid getting caught in such situation. It's not the money gone which hurts, that's not that big an amount, it's the thought that you were outsmarted that hurts more.
