I have recently moved to mumbai and joined a new company and have ample time to myself being on float to be able to write a blog for the first time.
Let me start with an incident. I use my office bus to commute. It was my third day,on my way back,a Rickshaw driver stopped our bus saying his Auto got some scratches.He was a young guy around 20 yrs, He was gutsy enough, inspite of the fact that the bus was full with employess, he picked up a big stone as big as two bricks combined together.He threw the stone at the conductor, luckily the conductor had a narrow escape. I saw  few of my bus mates( all guys) getting up from their seats and getting down from the bus.I thought probably they are getting down to sort out the problem. Little did I know, that they were getting down from the bus to get some other mode of conveyance and get to their sweet homes. Situation worsened when 3-4 auto guys joined and  starting hitting the conductor with a belt. I was unable to understand what best could be done but could not stop myself and got down to help the conductor.I was the only girl.The rest of the girls sat in the bus silently. When I started talking, they were like madame aap bich main mat padiye. I said bhaiya, aap log unko kiu marr rahe ho, it will no solve the issue why dont you talk it out.After some altercation,the auto driver said he wanted 200 bucks for the damage done to his Rickshaw.I said fine, I will give the money, if that was all that they wanted. But why did they have to beat up the conductor so badly. I had been travelling in the same bus for 3 days and somehow felt bad abt the conductor. It must have been an embarrasing thing for him.Before I paid the money and I told the auto guys, keeping the money in my hand....aapko do sau rupiye chahiye the woh main de rahi hoon lekin aap logon jo hamare conductor ko itna mara uska compensation( i didnt know the  hindi word for it) kaise karenge.I told them now I am ready to pay 2000, ten times what they wanted lekin aap logon jitna inhe mara hai,woh bhi marenge.  I turned towards the conductor aur unse kaha bhaiya aap chaho to jitna aapko inlogon ne mara hai utna mariye, ya phir ek slap dedijiye...jaisa aap chaho...I asked the auto guys if they were ready for it.They didn't say anything for some time.But I  could see that our condutor had forgotten the pain he had been through and could see in his eyes that he was feeling a  lot better. I do not believe in ' an eye for an eye' but what I saw in his eyes was really worth it. ............