Bribing

Bribing is fun. Not because you have to pay money but because you can make the person stoop in front of you. I have reasonably good ethics and values and have bribed people only a few times. The first time I bribed someone was when I was just out of school and just 16 years of age. There was a long queue at the SIES college for admission forms for the First Year Junior College. Trying to break in into the queue had had disastrous consequences and a constable hit me(I was a minor at that time) with his cane.It did not hurt me but was fun and an incident to proudly tell to all friends. The next thing we did to break the queue was to bribe the chai-wallah(tea chap). He was given 20 bucks extra to get us ten forms which were later sold to friends and people at Rs 27 which included the 2 rupee premium paid for bribing the chap. The other incident of bribing was when I have paid 20 bucks to the constable at Shaitan Chowki Police station for police verification, a requisite in getting the passport. Here the police chap had to fill some form which otherwise I would have to fill up myself. I offered to fill the form myself, but the police guy offered this extra service for the 20 bucks he would be getting. When he demanded the money from me, I asked what the money was for and he coolly said that it was for the form. Now that form was a photocopy that would not have cost the police even 50 ps. Let me clarify that these incidents are unethical and I do not see any heroism in offering bribe to anyone and I feel sorry for what has happened. I should not have had broken the queue and bribing the constable was probably okay considering they work for extraordinarily long hours and get underpaid. But one thing that I have noticed is that once you bribe someone you no longer need to respect that person. It is great to see how that person avoids eye contact with you while accepting the bribe. It gives you the authority to boss over the authority.