One night, Rohit with his mother was returning from the city railway station back home, after having dropped his younger sister. It was pouring cats and dogs and looked as if it would continue into the night. His watch had both its hands pointing towards twelve. They decided to hire the second auto-rickshaw as the first guy demanded an outrageous sum. The fare was fixed at twice the meter.
Rohit was feeling terribly upset and low. Earlier that day before Sahana left for her boarding school, all her cousins had been home to say goodbye. Rohit was normally very sportive, but for that day, when his cousins ridiculed at him for being vertically challenged during a game of Pictionary, lost it completely and picked up a rather needless fight with them. It all added up to his agony of having lost his bike the previous night. Everything just kept flashing as they were in the auto for the next 45 minutes. Also, the possibility of his exam results being announced the next morning loomed large in his mind.
By the time they reached he felt like a slimy worm gnawing at his existence. “Saab, ek sou tees matlab do sou saat hua”. Rohit who was not his alert and smart self that day, took what he thought were two 100 rupee notes and six tens; he had exchanged one hundred with appropriate tens earlier at the station knowing how rude auto guys generally are and gave it to the auto wala. He almost instantaneously turned back saying “saab aapne sirf ek sau sattar rupaiye diye hain”. Rohit was startled for a moment as he was quite certain what he had given. The auto wala insisted that Rohit had given him only one 100 and seven 10’s. Then this episode transpired into a mild argument during which Rohit also saw that this guy was nearly twice as vertically challenged as he was but was seemingly a lot more confident. His mother was a mere spectator as she had not seen the transaction. Finally, Rohit gave him another 100 as he took back his 10, now almost certain that he in his state of mind must have goofed it up.
Three days later while he was calculating his expenses for the month on the 30th, he fell 100 bucks short. Rohit laughed hysterically as it was the first time he had been duped………
