Yesterday evening when i came back from office, Mom said the geyser had stopped working! Now that was scary news for me as i just cant bathe in cold water!! But there was no way i cud have got an electrician at that hour and hence decided will call one the next morning. In the mean time, being an electronics engg, and having that curiosity to open up any electrical/electronic gadget i get to, i thought i'll give it a try and see of i can replace it. ( Normally i am the in-house electrical consultant cum toilet flush consultant cum electrician cum repairman that my mom has! ) So i took a screw driver in hand and went about opening my main board as the main switch appeared to be the problem. After 2 screws and a close look at the high voltage area i decided it would be better managing Human Resources than managing 240 Volts of electricity, that too at a place where one goof up could blow up all the circuits of my home. So then i gave it up.
Today morning somehow i gathered courage and poured a bucket of cold water on my body, followed by a second one and slowly managed to take a quick and shivering bath! Then i called up an electrician and he told me he will be there later. So i told mom about it and left for college where i was eager to attend the HR Faculty feedback session! On my way to college, me being a rash rider, i managed to run over an area on the road which was almost a bed of nails! So i managed to get one in my tyre and voila! had my 2nd puncture in as many months :|. Some how managed to drag the bike to a mechanic and got my tyre tube replaced. The cost when i enquired was 200 bucks! Now only last month i had got it done for 170 bucks! Now my frnds know how cranky i am when comes to being overcharged! So i tried to argue but then the mechanic managed to get the 200 out of me after lot of arguments. I had no MRP to look at so i could not argue much and so i gave it up as i had already missed the college session and din wanna be late to office.
When i come back home later in the day, i am glad to see a new switch that was fit to solve the geyser matter. I asked mom what was the charge and how much he took for the spare part and the service. So mom said its Rs. 150! 110 for the switch and 40 for the Majuri ( as they say ). Now its understood that these fellows, be it electricians, service guys, mechanics or whoever, they try to overcharge you and specially when they see a lady they know they can overcharge for electrical stuff! So i asked mom for the empty box which contained the replacement switch, and as expected, the MRP tag was scratched off! Now after having faced a similar situation in the morning this put me off! So i took the box and hurried to a shop to enquire about its MRP. As expected, it was not 110 but Rs. 70. So then i went to the shop from where the electrician had come and got an opportunity to let my steam off! ( Its no secret that i only need a small trigger to verbally blast people :P ) So after a lot of arguments and calls to that electrician finally the shop owner gave in and told me that they sold it for 85 and hence they can only gimme Rs. 25/- as refund for the switch!
The whole episode reminded me of the regular "Jaago Grahak Jaago" ads that keep coming on the TV and i handed over that 25 bucks to my mom as if i had won 25,000/- from somewhere!
But the moral of the story, no matter how much my frnds call me a miser, but i always say that its not that and its more about value for money and about not being cheated! In the past many times it has happened that a ppl have overcharged me, or more so when mom's alone as ladies are soft targets for these thugs and they get away with it. The matter is not of Rs. 25/- but teaching the guy a lesson and trying to do your bit to do away with such practices. I am sure next time that electrician will think twice before overcharging. I know that its nothing great that i've done, but what the hell.....
