Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Thoda Aur...


I was accompanying one of my friends to his job interview in South delhi.

The day started with the normal haggling with the Auto Driver.
If we went by the meter it would have cost us around 100Rs...but as usual Driver quoted us a higher price.

And the age old classical haggle began...

He says 170 ..

We refuse and ask him to leave..

then he says 160 ..we say 110
He keeps judging our expressions,keeps reducing the price as he knows the exact expressions that precede a YES.

finally we move at 140.

At all this, my friend was getting furious on the Driver. He threw all kinds of pejoratives on to him...
Cursed the whole Driver's community...

When i tried to calm him down, he tried to justify his outburst.
"You don't know yar... these people are here to ROB you. They'll not ask for the actual worth of their hard work. Isiliye gareeb hain saale...Gareeb hain aur gareeb hi rahenge."

I nodded ...not because i agreed to what he said but because of the reason that this was not the best time to disagree.

Where he was seeing a Robber,i was seeing a normal human tendency to get a little bit more out of every opportunity.
Driver also knows the ideal price should be 100 but he tries to get that "Thoda Aur..."

Still i didn't raise the point and asked him to calm down before the interview and focus on the interview at hand.

After 5 mnutes or so..he starts again..
"Yar i am not sure what they are going to ask me?"

I asked for his skill set..

"Yar i was on bench for the last 1.5 years and i am not in touch with things anymore.
I am banking on the last companie's(Sapient) Brand name to work for me. Aata to jyada hai nahi."

Hmmm...

then I asked about his expectated salary?

"I am getting 3.6 in my last company and i have 2 year's experience also. So i think i'll ask for 5 atleast."

I nodded and started looking at the buildings outside ...Thinking about the "BENCH"marking experience he was talking about..

After 5 minutes he starts again...

"Yar don't you think 5 is too less, i think i'll ask for 6 lacs. Who knows ...they are ready to give 6 and i am just asking for 5 lacs."

I just smiled in response..as again the "Thoda Aur.." phenomenon was at work.
The phenomenon made him think himself to be worthy of a lakh more in the last five minutes.

I wished him good luck and prayed to god that he doesn't haggle like this with the interviwer.

It would be really bad if interviewer said somethng like....
"You don't know ... these people are here to ROB you. They'll not ask for the actual worth of their hardwork.
Isiliye gareeb hain saale...Gareeb hain aur gareeb hi rahenge."


P.S.: "Thoda aur..." can be 70 Rs for the Auto walah, One Lakh for my friend...,few  Crores for Mr. Kalmadi.


10 comments:

JP said...

One of the basic human tendencies...
You have nicely named it "thoda aur" phenomenon... :)

Shamail said...

:-)

Shveta said...

:) Life's biggest confusion is what is enough? "thora aur kitna;)"

Saurabh Singh said...

Clever article, Gaurav.

Kitna aur? Jitna mil sake in a given situation, as long as you don't become corrupt like Mr. Kalmadi.

In presence of other autowallahs or over-qualified interviewees, the quoted price comes down by itself. So, the converse should also be justified.

Taking advantage of the lack of competition is simply economics.

An (A)mateur Beginner... said...

:)

Saurabh Baghel said...

Article Glorified ..... U make me cry some time or the other!

Shoaib said...

Well... aapka article padhte padhte i forgot ki kya google karne k lie new tab khol rha tha....
Kash "Thoda aur" yaad rakh pata.... :)

Gaurav Vashist said...

@JP -- Thoda aur...but we have to draw a line when we start becoming a Kalmadi.

@Shamail - Sweetest comment ever KKA. :P

@Didi - Yup didi... that's open to interpretation. That's why i didn't take any stand in it.

@Saurabh - Very Valid point
Saurabh...I mean when the competition increases the subject of competition gets in the "Thoda Aur" position.. ya but a distinction has to be made where simple economics starts the metamorphosis into corruption.

@Swati - Thanks :)

@Baghel - thanks bro for taking my blog into the ministry of railways.

@Shoaib - Thanks bro...for giving me one more reader...apart from that you don't need to remeber anything to search google.

Try Google Instant. :D

Anonymous said...

hmmm :)

MOST (not ALL) human beings exhibit this tendency -- very true :)

Manoj K said...

Think, "Thoda Aur" phenomenon is good also at times.
"Thoda aur wish karo..DiSH karo.." :P