What is it with the scared pansies who inhabit the great IT city of India, Bangalore? There is rampant overcharging of milk packets in the city, and yet nobody raises a voice or complaints. Every retailer charges 50p more on the pretension of "cooling charges". Does anybody say that they wont pay? Does anybody protest? No. Like quiet sheep they pay up.
Not my wife, who by the way is not an IT person. Thank God for that.
On 5th Feb, the Cauvery verdict was announced. A local KMF retailer in my neighbourhood overcharges each time there is a hint of trouble in the city. At 8:30 in the evening, my wife went to buy milk from this chap. As usual he was demanding more money than the MRP. She brought to his notice that overcharging is illegal under the Packaged Commodities Rules (PCR), which state that any trader charging more than the MRP mentioned on the package can be prosecuted. Upon hearing this, he turned extremely abusive and verbally assaulted her. He insulted her, threatened her with physical and sexual harm and physically intimidated her. A crowd gathered but nary a person came to her rescue and to restrain the milkman. Like I said, pansies.
I came home later in the evening to find my wife in a heavily distressed condition. Took me a long time to get her to tell me what had happened, after which I went to accost the milkman. He was still abusive, pushed and shoved me around, and asked me to complain to whoever I would and that he would see what I would do. Since there was no point in getting into a physical fight with him, which I would of course lose, I left his shop and called up the police. The police dispatched a 2 member team who came to the house and advised me to lodge a complain in the police station.
3 comments:
kudos to your wife for standing up to the opportunists who have made life a living hell all around. It all starts with the seemingly innocuous pretence of "for your welfare" but we sure well know what is what.
As for folks who donot come in support of the truthful, they'll learn their lessons the hard way one day.
Good that you didn't try to say "chalta hai" to your wife. She would have eaten you up alive.
Instead of police, I advise going to the consumer rights forum. They have speedy disposal of such issues and less of a drag in general...
>>What is it with the scared pansies who inhabit the great IT city of India, Bangalore?
They seem to abound in every IT-city. Hyderabad is no different. Surprisingly in areas that are untouched by IT I see people with balls. What is it with IT that turns men into hijras , I have never understood.
@Tinkertoon: Well, we are following up both angles, as you might have seen in the subsequent posts. The consumer forum is for the overcharging, the FIR is about the harassment. The police have been very helpful so far.
@Pavan: Yeah, its amazing. I think its something to do with the easy life. There's simply too much of money rolling in to bother about any issues, to take action, to fight.
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