Confessions Of A Shopaholic

Note: This article is a mishmash of a couple of different ideas observations. The reader is requested to read through the entire article to understand how they all co-incide.


Part 1: The Taxi-Wallah

It’s raining heavily, he can’t see 10ft ahead of him, one of his hands is on the steering wheel the other one outside manually operating the windscreen wiper, he’s constantly getting abused by the other drivers on the road and at the end of the 45min journey which should have taken 10min he gets paid rs.40. Welcome to the life of Mr. Amol Upadhay.
Mr. A is a taxi driver by profession. He drives the taxi in Mumbai. He has been doing that for the last 30 yrs. He doesn’t own the taxi; it has been rented out for a daily rent. He has been driving the same vehicle for the last 30 yrs.
On one of the rare occasions that I was heading to my office I boarded his cab from Dadar bound for Nariman point, and in the ensuing 45mins I learnt more than I had in the last 3 months.
Mr. A earns about Rs 1000 daily out of which he has to give Rs 250 to the owner of the car and he spends Rs.250 for the gas in his car. So his net income is Rs.500 per day. Now while that sounds like a lot it actually means around 15k per month which is not much when you have a wife and three kids to tend to. All three kids go to school. He says and I quote “I will do anything to make sure that they get the education that I didn’t and don’t end up as taxi drivers like me”. So he slogs his ass off to make sure that they get educated. Not just that, He even wants the right environment for them to study, so he buys an A/C on a 6 month loan so that they don’t have to be uncomfortable while studying!!

Part 2: It’s Not about Mumbai
You would imagine that Mr. A has no other option but this to earn his daily bread that he would be on the streets if he stopped driving his taxi. Well, you would be wrong.
Now this is the really astonishing bit. Mr. A has a 20 acre farm in his hometown in Bihar. He has a 3 storey bungalow on that farm and the entire farm is cultivated and managed by his brothers. A genuine WTF moment. Astonished, I asked him why in the name of all that’s holy would anyone leave all that and lead a dog’s life in this god forsaken shithole? Cultural issues? A family feud maybe?
Nope, none of the above, His brothers love him, they want him there so that they can all live together. No cultural issues either. The reason is that in Bihar his children will not get proper education and they will be mocked even if they try. Also one of his children is a girl, she would be an outcast if educated.
Given a choice he would love going to Bihar, if only it weren’t as backward as it is. So Mr. RT, if you know who I’m referring to , no one comes to this idiotic place because they want to take your jobs, they come here because they want a better life. They hate this place more than you hate them, But they just want the best for themselves and their children, Wouldn’t you?
So instead of damaging public property and using the unemployed youth to do your bidding, why don’t you try and do something for the lesser fortunate states. It will solve both problems, Yours and theirs.


Part 3: Holy Crap!!
22/06/2010 HI TECH COMPUTER SERVI MUMBAI IN
INR 2,800.00 DR

INR 2,800.00
19/06/2010 GAME SHOP RETAI MUM IN
INR 1,398.00 DR

INR 1,398.00
19/06/2010 HYPERCITY RETAIL INDIA THANE IN
INR 454.80 DR

INR 454.80
19/06/2010 1% SUPERVALUE CASH BACK
INR 13.98 CR

INR 13.98
18/06/2010 NILKAMAL LTD HO MUMBAI IN
INR 2,540.00 DR

INR 2,540.00
18/06/2010 1% SUPERVALUE CASH BACK
INR 25.40 CR

INR 25.40
13/06/2010 GAME SHOP RETAI MUM IN
INR 998.00 DR

INR 998.00
12/06/2010 ROCKPORT MUMBAI IN
INR 2,297.00 DR

INR 2,297.00
12/06/2010 14CREDIT CARD REPAYMENT
INR 10,000.00 CR

INR 10,000.00
12/06/2010 1% SUPERVALUE CASH BACK
INR 22.97 CR

INR 22.97
10/06/2010 SHREEJI FONES MUMBAI IN
INR 10,000.00 DR

INR 10,000.00
10/06/2010 1% SUPERVALUE CASH BACK
INR 100.00 CR

INR 100.00
08/06/2010 STOP N SHOP MUMBAI IN
INR 950.00 DR

INR 950.00
03/06/2010 AROMA CAFE AND LOUNGE THANE IN
INR 550.00 DR

INR 550.00
24/05/2010 THE BOWLING COMPANY MUMBAI IN
INR 287.00 DR

INR 287.00
23/05/2010 EYECON OPTICALS THANE IN
INR 350.00 DR

INR 350.00
14/05/2010 SONY WORLD THANE IN
INR 14,900.00 DR

INR 14,900.00
14/05/2010 1% SUPERVALUE CASH BACK
INR 149.00 CR

INR 149.00
10/05/2010 TRFD FROM 5546232910208106
INR 9,026.00 CR

INR 9,026.00
02/05/2010 MAINLAND CHINA POWAI MUMBAI IN
INR 6,331.00 DR

INR 6,331.00
Total Outstanding 27800.00
In-case you haven’t already guessed, this is my credit card bill !
How this is connected to the above article is that I just told you the monthly income of a lesser fortunate individual than I. And yet there are those of us that don’t even have a monthly income and still end up spending money that we don’t own. If you notice all the expenses given above a totally unrequired. And this is just the tip of the iceberg; there are people I know who are worse than I am.
I understand that just because someone else doesn’t have the money, we need not live like them even if we have it. But I think it’s time people like us started valuing the money more than what we currently do. That said I think it’s time for me to bring a closure to this article.
I’m off to get me a PS3 !!
Just Kidding !!