I just watched Deepak Ramola's 'Allow yourself to be stupid sometimes' on YouTube, and this took me back to my most recent Mumbai - Bengaluru trip. I was at Mumbai airport trying to kill an hour or so before the flight departure from the swanky and not-so-new terminal.
I was sitting and watching a vendor replenishing the stock in a vending machine. It took him almost an hour to replace the old unsold stock with fresh stock and once done, he checked whether the controls were in place and then moved on to the next vending machine down the same aisle.
I made my way to the vending machine to see if there was anything interesting; something that would not cost more than 20 Indian rupees as I had just those two ten rupee notes in my purse. I found an item - a chocolate bar for Rs 20. I inserted the first Ten Rupee note (the old design, which is longer and wider than the new ten rupees note recently introduced). The counter accepted and credited me Rs 10. My next ten rupee note was from the new series. The moment I inserted this note into the slot, it spat out the note...it literally flew out of the machine, in a way chastising and telling me nonchalantly, "do not insert fake notes". Not wanting to feel defeated by an AI, I inserted the same note once again, but this time I was prepared to catch the note if the AI spat it out. And, it did...I was ready for it and with some awkward movements of my torso and a back-pack perched on my shoulder, I was able to catch it. I guess it was a pretty comical sight watching a 59 years old grey haired person struggling with a simple vending machine. How stupid can anybody get!!
I was now pretty confident that the new series of Ten Rupee note was not programmed in the control panel, so the next best thing was to ask someone walking past me in the aisle to exchange the new with an old note. I started asking loudly to a few passersby if they would be willing to exchange an old with a new...out of curiosity, a few did come forward to understand my problem, they delved into their purse only to discover that none of them had an old ten rupee note. I am quite sure most would have taken me for a glorified street urchin asking for money...but, it was nice to know that I had company...most people do not carry cash...plastic money has become so commonplace here in India that there is no need to make your hip pocket bulky. In a manner of speaking, I wasn't really feeling out of place!!
My problem wasn't getting solved either. I kept at my job of asking all passersby to check their purse and help me by exchanging their old for my new note. When I was finally on the verge of giving up and letting go, along came a youngster, who said, "Uncle, why don't you try with coins?" Not having cash itself was a bit embarrassing, where was the question of having coins? He said, "Uncle, don't worry, use the coins that I have!" Between the two of us we could garner Rs 5 in coins. I profusely thanked him and gave him my new Rupees Ten note and told him to keep the change!
I inserted the coins and finally saw a credit of Rs 15 on display screen! For this amount, it was only a 500 ml bottle of water that the vending machine could offer. I settled for it and was able to get a bottle of Bailey's water from the vending machine!
After all the sweat by allowing myself to be stupid at times albeit unknowingly, water was probably the only stuff that could quench my thirst and bring a smile on my otherwise stressed out face.
On hindsight, it was really nice talking to strangers and the sheer variety strange looks each one gave me...I could probably recall their expressions and write many more blogs...
