Happy Marwari

(Day 96 of 112)

In continuation with yesterday’s head banging saga, I have to report that there was no need for me to prepare speeches and practice my angry face. In fact there was no need to even think offensive. All I needed to be was honest. And that’s exactly what I did.

So I get to the phone office in the morning to meet someone the uncle said would sort out my billing issues. The first thing I told him, while sounding all hesitant and confused (it was more the result of trying to find the right words in Hindi actually) was “uncle, this is the bill and since I don’t understand Hindi very well, I’m thoroughly confused about it. Could you please check and let me know."

That was all I needed to do. ‘Uncle’ took all the bills, went through them, and as I suspected, confirmed that there had been some error in the billing and that in fact I owed the phone company nothing. After suppressing a whoop of joy (at the fact that my suspicions had been confirmed) I went on to the next task at hand – another bill!!

Now this bill had an additional charge included which didn’t make any sense to me. The Fellow had told me to stop being neurotic and just pay it (hmph). But as usual, I decided to ignore him and take things into my own hands. Good for me I say. Because after talking to about 4 people and asking them what this charge was about (in my most polite and confused sounding voice) they agreed that it was a mistake on their part. And so this other bill was also reduced by half.

One bill that had an outstanding amount of zero and another which was slashed by half. You can’t imagine how happy the Marwari in me is today. Thrilled and grinning I tell you.