Does everything need a greased palm ?

Now that is a topic everyone has an opinion on, greased palms, the infamous "chai pani". Well had to give in twice today, and it has got me thinking about what we as individuals gain by the "chai pani" episodes we face every day.

Well the doc at the institute gave a couple of days of medical leave today, coz i was not feeling ral great (now the doubter will start "You fell ill coz you have taken a house far away" / "How will u travel by locals",) for gods sake the swollen cheeks are due to an infection of the salivary glands, not caused by my misbehaving with a lady on the train.

Now for the greased palm episode, the Reliance Energy guys had promised me that the electricity connection to A-16 would be restored latest by yesterday, and infact the person actually came and reconencted the power to the house, alibet to A-15, damn 15 and 16 are two different numbers, the security guard at the quarters knew the difference, so I am sure the technician must have known it, so there i was at 2:30 in the afternoon (is it the curse of Willis Haviland, for abusing his invention that we would need to be out in the scorching sun atleast once in a month ?) at the reliance energy office, only to find the guy missing and be given an assurance that he would be at my residence by 4 pm.So the wait ... and eventually the fans started spinning, and there was a momemtary lapse of reason when I opened the door and the guy standing there gave me a long winded talk on what all "torture" he had to go through in order to fix up my connections so that there is no inconvinience to me, and I asked him "Do i need to pay u anything ??" (DUMB, real dumb ravi)... pat he replies "Chai Pani sir", i am like ok what have i gotten myself into now, fished out my wallet and handed him a note, which he was not too happy with, "only 50 rs. sir" he asked .. and shrugged and walked away.

Came home to pune for the 4 days of rest the doctor advised, more free time to get some work done. Mom is relieved, she will see me for a couple of days and if she sees me step out, she has a simple solution "Arent u supposed to be resting ravi she will ask" ... i shrug and walk back into my room.