have you been good?

While I was a kid and growing up, I thought I am the one child every parent would like to have. I am the kind of kid every parent asks his/her child to be. Reason, I never fought with anyone, I never snatched chocolates from another kid's hand, I never ran away refusing to come back, I never wrote on anyone's white shirt, I rarely did anything which would annoy my parents. My wrong doings were limited only to distaste of food, occasional obstinateness over some toys and some harmless things. I thought this is how everyone should be. And those who were not, were bad boys and had unfortunate parents.

Few years later the definitions of the bad boy changed. They used to throw chalks at each other, call names, cheat comfortably in small exams, argue with teachers, tease friends, and a lot of things I can't recall. There parents often got called and were let known that their son(forgive gender discrimination, I have practically been in boys schools here, here and here, until now) wasn't being good. I silently felt proud of not letting my parents go through the humiliation. I wasn't one of them, but many of my friends were. I had started to see the fun in what they did. I could vicariously feel the pleasure they derived. But probably I didn't dare be like them.

Now I can say that we are grown ups, and personality and character wise we have quite become what we will be for times to come. Now when I look around to find out who are the interesting ones in the lot, I realize most of them are the bad boys. When 4 guys sit together and talk about their school days 95% of the talk is about how they gave the authorities a hard time. How they bunked school, how they came back jumping walls, how they avoided home work, even how they were beaten up and were still laughing before the executor. Most of the lines which I say in such meetings start with "you know in school my friend did...", "some guys in my neighborhood used to...". I don't have a story of my own, I didn't do any such thing as I was busy being the good boy.

And its not just about we telling stories about each other. When you meet a school teacher after years, either he will remember you as the class topper, or as a naughty little kid. Other wise you are just another character from the drama played long ago. And when he talks about a naughty kid, he will not be angry on him anymore, he will have a hearty laugh about those times. Perhaps teachers also don't take the stupid mischiefs to their heart. Maybe at some levels they enjoy it too, at least in retrospect. I should have known it then.

This is true at least for the parents. Unless you were daily visitor to the principals office and your diary was full of expulsion threats, any pranks would only give your parents memories for ever. Incidents which they will refer to when talking about you, or to you all your life. "how funny it was, when he used to run to the guests to show them his new underwear", "remember how he used to come home all dirty" There are 100's of examples you can think of and your parents won't wish any of them never happened. They will love it anyway. I should have known it then.

Maybe I could have afforded living a different life...

tag#1

I am thinking about: the end terms, just 3 days away

I said: i am not hungry

I want to: manage my time better

I wish: i found what i want in life

I regret: not trying a lot of things i could have

I hear: "juda hoke bhi, tu mujhme kahi baaki hai"

I am: not really what you think

I dance: all the time, you can say

I sing : and i am awesome, just ask my neighbors

I cry: mostly when watching movies

I am not: really what you think

I write: to amuse myself

I confuse: others by trying to hide something when they can't find their phone, pen, etc.
[as if i have actually taken that]

I need: someone, but who?

Funny professors

I don't know whether this blog is a place where I should post this but I don't have any where else to go. I have a lot of fading memories about my teachers in school and even college which cross my mind every now and then. Will just try to pen(kbd) them down for public use.

One history teacher in my school used to take a long time in checking the answer scripts. If you know about the West Bengal board syllabus I don't have to tell you about the number of pages the students are supposed to write there. A rough estimate will be 27-30 foolscap pages. Now Paritosh-da would read each and every word of those answers, something you might not expect from a history teacher, leave comments, underline points, strike out mistakes, etc. Ultimately a student would have more red ink on his paper than blue. One of my friends who was quite like me when it came to history (read miserable) probably thought he should take cues from the corrections in his answer sheet and improve. There was one comment scribbled illegibly which he failed to decipher. After giving it some thought and consulting with mates he decided to take up the matter with sir. He went to him and asked what he had written there. Paritosh-da took the script. Strained his eyes and said, "It says... bad handwriting" :D

Cought with pants down(the climax)

So this is how I got my leave approved. Taking such leaves has its own disadvantages. You can't risk being seen outside. Its like a house arrest. I had heard about it from seniors, now it was the time to experience it. My days only began after 8.45 am. Time at which all the Maruti employees are inside, or late. Before that I couldn't even risk being seen in the balcony. Not that I am a camera shy superstar but one little glitch could ruin it all. I had a good reputation in the company you know, to live up to.

On the first day it seemed like I had zillions of days ahead of me to prepare for the dreaded exam called CAT. I decided to do something I always wanted to do but couldn't because of lack of enthusiasm and initiation. I took up some book, I think it was the Alchemist, or was it the brief history of time? I don't remember. Because I didn't finish the book. I read a lot of newspapers. I realized how long 24 hours can be. Lunch and dinner was supplied by my food caterer (dabba wallah) at time, so I didn't even have to walk out of the house for any thing at all. This is something I was very particular about. I didn't even open the door when someone rang our bell. Reason being, most of the time it was for my land lords downstairs, apart from that I didn't want to come out and sign any courier receipts which will leave a sign of my presence at the scene of crime. So this is how I passed 4 days, locked up inside the flat.

I think it was Wednesday night when my cousin-sister called me up and said she needed to hunt for flats in Gurgaon. That meant I will have to accompany her. That's fine, but I was on Agyat vaas. But what the hell. I was safe to move out of the house as long as it was between 8.45 am and 5.30 pm. All the people I worked with were too busy to come out of office during these times.

So Thursday noon it was the first time I ventured out of my flat after Saturday. I and didi went to n number of property brokers and saw n^m number of flats. It was horrible. Some places were actually not worth living. And the good ones were out of budget, whatever. Soon it was past 3. Even though my deadline of getting back into my shell was quite away I started feeling like a nocturnal vampire before sunrise. We wrapped up for the day. We were in the middle of the busiest market in that area then (sector 14). I was walking, and what did I see? Actually, who did I see? 2 of my dept seniors walking towards me with hands full of packets from Omjee sweets. One of them lived upstairs and knew my little secret. The other one was even more senior and I mostly worked under his guidance. Both of them smiled at me, as I was at them. One of them had the expression saying, "Ab tera kya hoga kaliyaaa, huhaha". The second one was just ."achchha, to ye baat hai!!!". Anyway we stopped and greeted each other. The first thing he asked me was, "aa gaye?"I told them we were looking for a flat for my sister and even asked the second senior who had just married about options to look from. In a minute I came to know the reason they were here. It was about a dept mates farewell party. They were having it today in tea time. And they had come to collect the food. Of all the days they had to have it THIS day. And of all the days I had to come out here THIS day. And of all the hours I had to come to THIS place at THIS hour, THIS minute. What are the odds?

After they left all i could think of the worst repercussions of this which went to the extent of me having to resign before I had planned to, owing to strained relationship with my department. After seeing off didi, I was soon at my room when I got a call from a colleague in Maruti. This is exactly how the conversation went. "Hello", Hello, Rohit?" "Hi, Naveen! :( " "Kya kar raha hai?" "Kuchh nahi, time pass" "Kahaa hai?". I knew by this time his intention behind the question, still I said,"Ghar pe" and he said, "Kaun se ghar? HAHAHA". He was an addition to the number of people who knew my secret. And now I had no control on the population of the species! In my imaginations I could see it growing at a wild pace.

The next 3 days were spent by me in terror. I was too scared to even try finding out the damage that had been done. I just kept mum and imagined the worst possibilities. That's almost all I did at home and soon I was in my office on Monday morning. To give credibility to my well thought of, faultless conspiracy I was carrying some Prasad which didi had brought from Muzaffarpur. I was greeted with smiles. I reciprocated. In some time i realized that only three people knew about this episode, the number had not grown. I was relieved, but also realized probably I had taken a huge risk. And the whole week I didn't even study, out or boredom and fright. Basically on returns for the risk. And using the theories of financial management a risk which wasn't worth taking.

SIPping joy out of life

For the uninitiated, SIP stands for Summer Internship Process. To get placed for summers we recently had our own summer placement sessions. From the outside it may seem that being in a premier B-school and carrying a lot of brands of previous education and work experience, getting placed must have been a cake walk. But it wasn't. The worst part is I don't know why. Okay, I was under prepared, I am casual at times, I don't take load (worry about: kgp lingo) of things much. But I was surprised how the companies could make that out from just my CV!

I will try not to focus on the big names which visited the campus and the process so that I am not convicted of revealing too much info to outsiders. It's supposed to be a serious offense in a B-school. However the importance will be on the emotions I(more generally, We) went through and the reasons behind them.

Two days before the process begun shortlists started coming from companies we had applied for. I was there in the first 2 which were published and there were people who were in none. Pity! Poor guys, not getting even shortlisted. Not even getting the chance to show the hirers their worth. At least I wasn't one of them. Still I was not very excited either as none of these companies offered me what I wanted... something called hardcore finance roles (I don't know what that really means, please find out yourself!). As I was basking in the glory of getting a high number of shortlists other companies kept pouring with their lists. Something changed. My name wasn't appearing in any. And that became the norm. Out of the 15 odd companies which published their shortlists before the placement process started I had my name in TWO of them! That did some damage to my self confidence. People always say, these lists are random. That is a truth but not completely. Some CV's are excellent, and they get max no. of shortlists. They are easy to spot. Few peculiar ones are relatively easy to reject / ignore from any companies point of view. But the big lot of decent CV's are where the randomization occurs. I don't know which case I was. An unlucky member of the decent CV group or a lucky one from the peculiars who still managed 2 calls.

When the process starts almost the whole batch sits in a hall fully dressed up in formals to be called for the interview/ group discussions from time to time. Good thing is, I didn't have to. Didn't have that many calls :D So, after reporting to the placement people in the morning I came back to my room and did what I love to do, till 2.30 pm. Sleep. I even skipped the lunch hour. After that I came to know of 2 more calls I had taking my count to 4.

That didn't make me feel any better? You know why? Since 3 of them had group discussions. Something I haven't really cleared in my whole life! Nor did I hope to in a place full of MBA students. You know how fiercely aggressive and competitive they can be. I had a direct interview with a consulting firm, didn't go well. Lots of ifs and buts raised, grammatically wrong words pointed out, still I didn't reject it as a lost cause until results were out. I failed another GD. Somehow a company which is supposed to offer best projects in operations in campus called me for the interview, even though I was not that vocal in the GD. I had to apply for operations in the company as they withdrew the offer of finance roles. May be someone finally noticed something good in my background. But in the interview I made it clear about the kind of project I was looking for in operations. (Un)fortunately I was asking for something they didn't have. On mutual consent I walked out of the room rejected. I don't know how I managed to take that risk. I mean I was walking away from arguably the best company in its field which was again specially interested in me. I didn't have any good shortlists in slot one. What guarantee could I have for slot two. What if I end up going to a company selling FMCG. The bigger issue was, companies I am interested in don't shortlist me. How and why will companies which go against my career interests select me. I can't bluff in an interview. There is no way I can convince some one that I will sell all the soap or paste or cream or drink or newspaper you want me too. No way. Basically when I walked out of the room, I walked precisely into nowhere. Needless to say I got rejected from all the other GDs I had and was out of the race. By this time all the glorious $ stipend companies had announced results and there was a lot of hugging, shouting and clapping. Whatev'

Into slot two. This is the interesting part. You have independence of applying to companies in slot two right-on-the-spot, because most of the people shortlisted originally have been placed. So it seemed like finally we would get a chance. But that was just what I was thinking. At the end of first day of this slot, I only had one bad telephonic interview(no GD for this company) and few GDs (all rejections). In fact the calls were so few that I even stopped asking people if my name was on any list, as I would assume otherwise and just cross check to confirm later. I would start reading about any company in advance and stop reading as soon as the shortlist would publish. I was pretty cool until now. I was just taking it as another practical joke. No company wants me, haha. Any company doesn't even wanna see me, hahahaha. But i knew it wasn't funny.

Day four (slot 2, day 2). Things were getting out of hand. It was important for the school to get everyone placed and for that it was important that I get placed. So I could see my name on every other S&M company list now. I don't want to go there. I will not only ruin my summers but also theirs, to my full might. I wanted to try something in finance. But at the same time I was applying to almost every company now. It was a desperate situation. 3 1/2 days gone, nothing yet in hand. I was cursing myself. At what point in my career did I go wrong. No gaps or breaks in education. IIT Kharagpur - Mechanical Engineering. Couldn't have been better. Then a job in arguably the best manufacturing set-up in India, that too in production. It was all so smooth and meant to be. Then suddenly to MBA? That too looking for finance? and applying to S&M. Boss, things are really out of place. Me and a lot of my friends with similar qualms had formed a well and were cursing just anything and everything, starting with ourselves. It seemed like coming to do an MBA itself was the biggest mistake. Some of the girls had already started to cry and guys had become obnoxious. And the people who had already been placed became angels. They would console us, teach us, feed us, encourage us. They were doing a good thing but sometimes it did make us feel like piteous. You can't even refuse their services as you not only need them but also don't want them to think "bhalai ka to zamana hi nahi raha". I took undue advantage of the situation as well. When else would I get the opportunity to be served by the prettiest and the nicest of the girls in the campus. I even behaved like a kid who is hungry for anything being served and would make demands of his own, ("nahi... humko chocolate khana hai, uwaaan, uwaaan"). I don't know what people thought about me on that, but I was given all i wanted :D

Anyway finally the calls started coming. I had 2 more telephonic interviews which I thought went well and a series of GDs, all of which bombed! I was still stubborn enough not to apply to many companies and was kind of readying myself for a possible slot three. After 930 pm, there were no activities. Some lucky ones were going through the process and we were just waiting for the results. Results were then announced, alphabetically. I got placed. In fact the company was at the top of my priority list. At that moment I couldn't have been happier. What also made me happy is that many of my friends got placed in fin roles as they would have liked to. Finally they had a reason to smile. But what made the celebrations dull was the fact that there were a few friends still to be placed. I know it would happen soon, but still... So this is how yet another eagerly awaited and anticipated chapter ended. As a friend rightly said a game full of bargaining and auction, a once in a lifetime experience. Actually it will be a twice in a lifetime thing. Having gone through the SIP I am only waiting for the CRP to come.

No smoking

We were at the Muzaffarpur Railway Station waiting for Vaishali Express. My parents had come to see me off. There were quite a few other relatives too, although I am having a hard time recalling who exactly they were. At the station I found another friend of mine also waiting for the same train. Jai.His father and brother had also come to the station. The train must have been at least half hour from then to arrive. I don't know what my friend was doing there. He had a habit of leaving his house only when he got the information that the train had reached the previous station. And the best way to get the information was probably just to peep out of his rear window. I am not making this up. Trust me. He left his quarters in Ramdayalu Singh College campus only when the train approached Ramdayalu station. Unfortunately the station wasn't important enough for the train to stop.
Enough about my friend and his JIT habits, it was the regular phenomenon of waiting at the station. Nothing exciting or worth mentioning about it. All of a sudden I saw a girl walking on the platform across with one of those trolley bags along with her parents. I knew her. And somehow I also knew that she was traveling in the same train as us, alone. I don't know how I knew that. Any way I waved my hand at her and gestured her that the train is coming at this platform and not the one they were on. She understood my signs and took a U-turn to come to our platform. All of a sudden the platform became crowded. And without any warning, the train arrived. That too at another platform. It was all so confusing. Anyway we(Jai and I) loaded all our baggages in a Jeep to go the platform where the train had arrived. After both the families took seats in the Jeep, there was hardly any place for me to sit. Still I managed to squeeze myself between the driver and the co-driver.
The driver drove carefully to our train and we boarded it. After adjusting the luggage, I remembered the girl. I wasn't sure if she had made to the train already. I was kind of worried. At the same time I felt like meeting her. So I left my bogie and walked along the platform to find her. After walking a few paces I saw someone at a distance looking quite like her. At least (s)he was dressed like her. And lo, she was smoking! I didn't know she smoked. and wasn't she afraid her parents would see her? Come on... why was I thinking so much. I didn't even know if this is her! But I had to find out. So I walked hastily towards her. Suddenly everything started blur in front of my eyes. Was I fainting? Was I falling unconscious? On a railway station, that could be dangerous. But actually something opposite was happening. It was late morning. And I was just waking up. Not in Muzaffarpur but in Jamshedpur. Weird dream. Well most dreams are weird. They fail to make any sense, don't they? Let me know if you could guess what was going on, or if you can make any sense of any of the above.
:)

Small blunder

27th March. This is the day my IIM-I interview was scheduled. Reporting time 9.30 am. I was not completely new to this feeling. I had appeared for XLRI interview few weeks back. You know this is one of days you don't want to leave anything to chance. Normally people like us usually travel in the most inconvenient ways in NCR. Those miserable autos in Gurgaon, and the crowded DTDC buses in Delhi. But that day you need a Taxi. I had booked one too, that would take me to the centre which was in some building in the Lodhi Road. To be extra cautious I had called the Taxi at 8 and contrary to what public opinion might be, you can be late but the Taxi won't. My getting ready was accelerated by the Taxi waiting outside the house from about 7.50am. That was about the same time when my fellow inmates were getting ready to leave for jobs(which I truly miss these days). Getting ready in formals, collecting my precious certificate folder, I briefly said bye to my friends and left.
Probably the most common question you ask the driver when you start for an interview is "Bhai, how much time will it take." Only to find that even with allowances for a half an hour traffic jam, you will be there in time. But somehow you don't believe that. At every slow down of traffic, at every signal you get curious about what is happening. You don't want to get scared but you can't help it either. Specially when so much is at stake. 3 attempts at CAT and this single IIM call. This time you can't even use the excuse that you messed up a few questions here and there in the paper and that the method is not fair. Very uncertain. This time you are giving the panel some time to judge you. However small the span of interview be, it is your job to impress them. However, I was soon at the centre 45 minutes before time.
Even though I am not a very convivial person I could find 2, 3 acquaintances from the CL centre Gurgaon. That didn't make it any comfortable for me but hopefully they felt good at finding a familiar face. Most of the guys were talking about their other IIM interviews and how they were thinking of skipping this one, but then just thought, "What the hell!". All of us being early at the centre had to wait quite a bit after which some Profs arrived at the centre and we were guided to the final waiting room.
After a few minutes of further wait, one of the Profs came and welcomed us. He said he will just take the attendance and then divide the groups for GD's according to the numbers present. He started taking the attendance. It was a long list. He kept calling the names one after another pausing and repeating the names of absentees to make sure they didn't miss it. And he was soon through with the list. I found something odd. My name was not called. My only IIM call. And the name wasn't there! The Prof started calling out the names of the absentees once again. A thorough analysis of the case indicated that among the 100 reasons why I didn't hear my name (e.g. interview letter sent to wrong person, name missed from list with them, name skipped while reading out, me not being attentive enough, etc.) one strong reason was that I had read the interview call letter wrong, or rather registered the wrong date in my head. In stead of approaching the Prof with my doubt immediately I chose to verify my credentials first. Quietly pulling out the letter from the folder I read it carefully. It read 29th March. Another thing need to be checked, today's date. My watch said its 27th. I could only smile now. It was a mixed emotion with a prominent flavour of relief. Relieved I was for the fact that I was not feeling very prepared for the interview. There were a lot of topics I had thought of studying and had not covered. But most importantly because the interview was 2 days hence and not 2 days ago!
As soon as the Prof was done with attendance and left the room I quietly picked up my belongings and slipped out of the room quietly. I didn't speak a word or do a thing to attract his attention towards me as I don't wanted to look like an idiot before the person who could be my interviewer. As soon as reached the stairs I stopped. To make sure I really didn't have the interview today. I checked the papers and the dates again. I did that at least 5 times while still leaving the building. Still having made such a big mistake I was not sure of myself any more. So holding the letter in my hand and reading the date on it, I asked an auto-driver, what date was it today. He said it was 27th and only after that I was convinced enough to go leave the place.
To end the post I dare the reader to quote the most careless thing you have done in your life, if it comes close to the above, or supersedes this(that way its good to know I am not the only one!)

Robbed in Gokul

That was supposed to be a quiet and devotional trip to the Gokul-Vrindavan-Mathura circuit with my complete family uniting after a long time. My parents had come over from Muzaffarpur and my elder brother did manage to join. We started early morning from Gurgaon in a cab booked for the whole day. It took us maybe 3 hours to reach the place. But when we were there we had no idea what to do now. The 3 places mentioned were in a radius of around 10-12 kms and even the driver had no idea about the place. So we decided to take some local help. Help was all there waiting for us. Some people who seemed to be like guides hovered around our car. We had no other option other than to ask for directions.

The guides seemed to be nice. They told us about the directions in which the towns were located from that point. After proving that they are not all bad, they asked us to take a guide. In order to avoid them we told them that there wasn't much space in the car with 4+driver already seated. They suggested to take a junior guide who would fit our requirement, i mean car without using much space. The price quoted for the service of whole day was Rs 20. Much to my dismay it was decided that we will take the guide and he will travel with us hence forth practically in my lap.

Anyway he suggested that we move towards Gokul first. After some fifteen minutes of drive on the highway we entered the real Gokul. It was very sad to see that a place which is known to be a witness to all the bal-leelas and raas-leelas of Krishna in such sorry state. When we reached the residence of the Nand's who had adopted Krishna we were showed around their huge house. We were asked to bow to every other object or structure there. After showing us around the guide said took us to the door of what looked like a shrine or a prayer hall. Not much was visible inside from the entrance. He asked us all to sit down and gave us some instructions. That shrine was under government control and a freelancer guide like him wasn't allowed inside those doors while on duty. Once inside were not supposed to have the Darshan standing, our shadow shouldn't fall on the idols. We weren't supposed to throw money on the shrine, we were supposed to pay the Chadhawa and get the receipt for that. It all sounded very authentic. We had to leave the guide at the gate and as we entered the hall. It was a carpeted room which could accommodate around 100 devotees at bhajan time. At one end was something looking like a shrine behind the curtain. Near that was a small Aasan on that a Pujari. As usual a heavy and bearded person. He welcomed us and asked us to sit. He said we had come at a very good time as we were alone and could offer our Puja in peace. He repeated the exact words as said by our guide. As if they have memorized it from a common script, funny. I couldn't understand what attributed to this, strict and clear regulations or a set-up! We sat in an orientation suggested by the Pujari which was Mummy Papa sitting in front row and i sitting with bro behind, thus getting kind of getting a low preference in the process. After that he began with our introduction to the gods. Kind of went through our origins and current names and also told us about the importance of the place. THIS was supposed to be the exact coordinate were Yashoda brought up Krishna. As if it is the same house, could be. How I am supposed to know. We still have n'th generation Bodhi tree in Gaya! What's important is the sanctity of this place. Then he came to the point in a very straight forward manner. Options of Daan you can do to the shrine so that he opens the curtains for you and takes you through the shrine letting you touch the feet of the stone idols which are sitting there and waiting for people like us. The lowest would be 501/- then there were options about 2 grands and 5 grands.

I was shocked. Finally realized what the setup was all about. It wasn't flawless but we were in it. Had it not been for being with family, either I would have taken trouble with the people there, or walked out of the place fearing to get into the darker side of the whole thing. But I was sitting in that very place where Krishna was brought up(?) and with my parents who are quite religious at the same time aware of all the malpractices which go on in the backdrop. What is important to understand here is the paramount sanctitude of the place. It was an awfully uncomfortable situation. Without causing any disrespect to anyone or anything my father asked whether was any other option. That $#@$ smiled and said that you are wealthy and successful by god's grace. The contribution you make will only go to feed N poor people and M cows!!! Its all government fixed rates. Lacking experience in handling such demands shelled out the lowest fees we had to pay to see the god. The moment this happened I could feel the rush of blood in my head. I was feeling tied down on earth and being road-rolled. Awful...

After the payment was made, the Puja and the proceedings continued but the world wasn't the same again. As I was mechanically do the processes to complete the Puja I was only thinking about how we got duped. I could not hear to what people were saying around me. I felt humiliated. I could hear the Pujari laughing at his success within his own. After we were done, we left the place with a box of sweets and i was trying to divide 501 by the no. of sweets to get the how much is each sweet worth! It was expensive.

As directed by the guide we moved towards Mathura next. We had to trace back the road and we soon reached the place where we had found that crook, i mean guide. He said, please proceed to Mathura temple without me as we aren't allowed at all inside the premises of the Janmabhumi stepping down from the car he asked for his fees... 20/- My father put his point that the contract wasn't over as we were yet to see mathura and vrindavan, to which he said, "don't worry, you will find me here when you come back from mathura." And we stuck to our point that "fine, get your money then". And as the taxi moved ahead, he made no attempts to stop us. He was happy letting us go. This was the last bit of proof required of the fact that he had his fat commission in the 501/- we handed over to the fat bas**** in Gokul. No poor people and no poor cows to be fed, :D.

Well that's not the end of the story! After mathura we reached Vrindavan where we got another guide for 20/-. He took us to show a lot of places before taking us to a temple and gave us similar instructions. Well not similar, EXACTLY the same instructions! This time I was like, "oh, no, not again". Again creating a similar ambiance when Papa was asked for the option he choses to, he simply and politely said, "we have made a similar contribution already. I can't pay that much again, but will like to donate a smaller amount at my own will" :P Nice. Simply meant, we have been fooled once, not again. Just want to pay the fees which I think this temple deserves. The priest asked where we did that and then completed the rites in a haste and accepted whatever Papa offered. Obviously he didn't have to fake a receipt and note our names and address in his book as was done earlier. As soon as we walked out, he called out for our guide and in words we couldn't hear, expressed his anger. After being scolded by the priest for bringing low value customers the guide asked us, "you have already been to Gokul?" and his expression added "why didn't you tell me." We were taken to another place and his enthusiasm showed a remarkable decline. Soon we had to part, and this time the guide did make a point to collect his fees :)