Influential

I have many schoolmates from my village who dropped out of school. Some of them are in Bangalore. I met two of them recently. A is working as an agent who will get you driving license, although you might know little driving. B works as security guard in a private company near MG Road.

We settled for beer as its summer. A started talking highly of his contacts and money can buy anything here. He worked hard in a driving school for one year. Later he came to know that many of these schools bribe the traffic inspectors who take the test. He learnt the trick here to get familiar with traffic police inspectors. Rather than working hard at school, he started befriending people coming for driving license tests. Especially those who failed in the test used to be his targets.
He made some easy, illegal money and it went in to his head. Slowly he became a bucketwallah of the influential. The bucketwallah is borrowed term from rural side. It’s referred to a person who will hold bucket for influential, to everything they have to dispose off. Now don’t ask me what all influential people dispose off!

I received a call meanwhile, I went out to. By the time I came back A was shouting at the hotel staff “You know who I am? Don’t play with me”. I had to intervene and prevent any further incident there.

We sent off A home, I started talking to B. He said his job is weird. He had to do night shifts many times. Recently he had to lie about his job to a prospective father-in-law. No father agrees to give his girl for a security guard. When there was a confirmatory visit to his office by this father-in-law, he had to be in formal clothes. He had told him that he works an administrative staff. I encouraged him to enroll in to distance education. But not to take short cuts, like becoming a bucketwallah.

Meanwhile one hotel staff I knew was leaving for the day. I asked him the reason behind the scuffle with A. He informed that A spoke very cheaply with one of them. If not for the intervention they (hotel staff) would have celebrated his birthday and played soccer of him.

I see a big change in A, as I know him from childhood. It’s the same change you see in people believing that knowing influential people is a great protection for them. Every now and then we observe this kind of attitude with relatives of politicians, policemen. So INFLUENTIAL will haunt common mortals, even when they are sitting somewhere else.