MY LOSS, MY GAIN
By T Kannamala

The way my wife Susan started analyzing the incident, I knew I was conned.
We were traveling alone in the a/c bay of a Chennai bound day train when
the incident happened.

The train was on time, we had a nice home made lunch, and was generally at peace with the world while the train glided to a stop at Coimbatore junction.

This is one of the busiest rail junctions of the Southern Railway in India.
Sitting in the ac comfort, I gazed  at the crowd jostling in scorching
summer  on the platform and beyond. The hawkers calls, shouting and
the railway announcement blaring over the public address system
scarcely reached inside the well insulated coach.   I could hear the muted
all clear whistle from the train guard and was mentally preparing for
the slow pull out  when an excited man poked  his head through the
thick door curtains.

He shouted something at a person possibly standing in the corridor and turned to us. "Sir,  you have change for Rs.100. I have to pay Rs.20 to that damn porter". Simultaneously, he pulled out a Rs.500 note and thrust it in to my hands. I could see some 100 rupee notes sticking out of his wallet.
The train blew the whistle preparing for another long distance run.
I prided in taking snap decisions. Leaving the 500 note in the book that
I had been reading, I pulled out two ten rupee notes from my wallet
and gave him. He almost snatched it from me, and disappeared behind
the curtain. The train shuddered slightly under the initial 3000 horse power exertion of the diesel locomotive.
Even before Susan had time for her usual comments, the gentleman
reappeared excitedly, and wanted to know if he gave me a 100 rupee
note or five hundred rupee note.
I stretched the book towards him with the 500 rupee note sticking out. He grabbed it, thanked me and said he would be back with my 20 rupee as soon as
he got change.
I thought I had a glimpse of the man hopping on to the platform, as
the train was gathering speed. All this happened  in less than two
minutes.
Susan who was watching the entire episode in silence started with an
innocent comment "he could have got the change from the pantry man".
I was wise enough not to react and pretended to be watching the slowly
disappearing suburbs.
This time, the question was more direct "do you think a man coming
with a porter will go to every passenger bay seeking change?"
"At times, it can happen"  I was very philosophic and continued to
look at the scorched earth. The train was picking up speed and I hoped
the rocking of the bogie would lull her in to a nap. But a casual
glance in her direction told me that all those mega serials on TV and
`how I was duped'  stories in women magazines were slowly coming alive
and she would soon pick up a case that resembled our situation.
As expected, the opening line was very casual  "This man had a 500
rupee note and few hundred rupee notes with him. Why should he need
change for 500 rupee note if his intention was only to pay just 20
rupee to the porter."
I nodded such a way that any onlooker would think either I am sleepy,
or the train was rocking too much. But Susan thought I agreed with
her. All the while, I hoped that the man would again thrust his head
through the curtains and return my money. Otherwise, I would end up as
a dunce by the time the analysis finished. So the best way out was to
play for time.
"So what do you think of him", I asked.
"I am sure he is a cheat" this time Susan was very forthright. She was
getting emboldened with every passing minute. I found it difficult to
concentrate over the rolling landscapes.
"Is it not possible that he is still trying to get change",  I asked.
Suddenly the curtains parted and to my disappointment the ticket
examiner walked in. While checking our tickets, Susan asked him if any
new passenger had boarded the coach.
"No Mam"  he said. Before I could interfere, he asked that fatal
question "Why?".
"Sir, You see, a man came here asking for change to pay the porter……"
"Pulled out a 500 rupee note?"….it was the turn of the ticket examiner
to complete the story. Even before I could pull back my dropped jaw,
the ticket examiner filled in the finer details. "I have heard this
story before. Don't feel dismayed. You lost only Rs.20. If you had
given him the change for the 500 rupee note, you would have ended up
holding a fake note",  he signed our tickets and went out with a grin.
Before Susan could start the third part of the analysis, I brightened and assured her that we were in fact richer by 480 rupees.
"How?", she asked incredulously.
"Don't you remember those `how I was duped'  stories  with Rs.500
reward for the published ones. I am sure this is much better story than most
of  those cooked up stories", I declared confidently.
For the first time, I saw  an amused smile crawling up towards her eyes.

Wrote in May 2006