A Debt Pared

I was on an evening walk with a friend today, when I decided to pare off a long-standing debt, small but weighing heavily whenever I remembered it!

A couple of months back, while on an ATM errand in our Galleria shopping complex in Hiranandani, I was tempted to eat that irresistible and 'can't be found anywhere else in the world fiery delicacy' - pani puri! 

I ate a portion at the crowded stall and walked off without realising that I had not paid, nor probably did the pani puri walla notice. Remembered later at night when it was too late to do anything about it, so consoled myself by saying will go pay him in a day or two. Never happened to go to Galleria all this while and everytime I passed a chaat stall anywhere, this debt of Rs 30 would leave me with a pang of unease!

Today, walking close to Galleria with a friend, I decided to go and pay this off. So I promptly went there and told the chaatwala that I had forgotten to pay for the pani puri some time back and would like to settle that. He of course didn't remember but was suitably impressed along with a few customers to see this semi comical sight!

After paying, as I walked off, pleased with myself nonetheless, my friend asked me how fixed or flexible was my integrity! Said he, what if the sum which I owed to anyone was in multiples, like say 300 or 3 K or 30 K or 3 Lacs....I proudly told him that the answer would be a resounding 'yes', yet he went on...or 30 Lacs or...3 crores or 30 crores or 300 crores - I asked him to stop as I have multiple problems with multiples like that. Apart from the difficulty, it causes in counting zeros, my heartache exponentially increases with each zero!

But I told him that the "hypothecatility' (err - will Shashi Tharoor forgive me fo

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r so ruthlessly twisting her majesty's language ), of anybody transferring me such sums was so remote as to be non existent, and further, in the unlikely event that this occurs, the onus of integrity won't in any case lie with me as they would recall the money with alacrity!

And then I shyly remembered, to my consternation, that our netas & jewellery tycoons and liquor barons, many currently in care of her majesty, won't be caught dead with chicken feed (or bat soup or snake schezwan, going by the current flavour) scams as measly as Rs 300 crores!

And then I remembered an iconic scene from one of my most favourite movies, the immortal 'Anari' (*ing Raj Kapoor, the ethereal Nutan and the majestic Motilal). In a scuffle with goons who steal from him the 'athanni' which he is going to buy dinner with, Raj Kapoor, a poor jobless struggler, accidentally collides with (the Pharma magnate) Motilal's passing limousine near the Starry restaurant he is going to dine in. As Motilal gets down and chides him, his (Motilals's) wallet (batua) falls. Unaware, Motilal goes into the Restaurant. Saving the wallet from the goons, beaten black & blue and in tatters, Raj Kapoor enters the rarified place and hands over the 'batua' to Motilal. Impressed, Motilal asks him to sit and join him for dinner, which he refuses, completely awed by the fine gentry present. Then, Motilal says something which I will never forget... Says he, "tumhe pata hai ki ye kaun log hain? Ye woh log hain jinhe sadakon par batuwe mile aur jinhone woh wapis nahi kiye" (do you know who these fine people are ? These are the people who found loaded wallets on the streets and who never returned them)!

p.s. The friend walking with me today was an ethereal being - my own conscience !