Over 20 years ago, I had written an article in AmarUjala, the popular newspaper in North India and I remembered this when I was reading the headlines in the Times of India (ToI) on 22 March 2025.
What do these headlines say? The same things—a Supreme Court judge has been caught with nearly Rs50 crore in his house; there have been some murders in Manipur with two clans fighting a war that never seems to end; a student at a coaching class in Kota commits suicide; a 17-year-old from a small town has been accused of rape and has been caught after a chase of a few weeks etc, etc.
And what I had written about 20 years ago is still happening, in one form or another.
Near the gate of our office building, a makeshift tea stall has been set up. It just appeared overnight. Few planks of wood, a kettle, a stove and a few cups. In a short time, he was doing a roaring business. Many auto drivers stopped by, causing a minor traffic problem. Many others passing by stop for a cup of ‘hot chai.’
The little boy who helped in the stall (and to hell with child labour) washed the cups continuously in the already dirty water in an unsightly, smashed-up bucket. And then, at regular intervals, he would empty out the contents of the bucket into the open gutter. This is in addition to emptying out the dregs of tea from the tea cups, into the gutter, as customers finished with the ‘refreshing cup’.
The gutter, which was once clean and dry, is now filled with dirty water and solid waste. It is a black stream with nowhere to go. A fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and for the propagation of malaria, in all its deadly forms!
If any of us reports the tea stall to the municipal corporation, the inspectors will come. They will be paid off by the tea stall and they will go away. One complaint achieves little, except to give the inspector a chance to visit the offender, refer to the complaint, and extract a pound of flesh.
The problem remains firmly in place- tea stall, dirty gutter and all. Filing a complaint is therefore a choice between the devil and the deep sea. If you do something about the problem, nothing happens. If you don’t, nothing will happen.
At regular intervals, there are reports that a tax officer has been arrested for having assets disproportionate to known sources of income. It is a pity that income tax, excise, customs, sales tax and other such services have acquired such a bad name. To most of us, such designations immediately denote corruption. And why not?
My friend, who does a lot of consulting work internationally, was being literally harassed by an income-tax (I-T) officer (ITO) who insisted on disallowing a certain portion of his expenses abroad. Raj blamed himself because he considered himself foolish to declare all his income from abroad, and then got caught up with an ITO keen to extract a bribe from him. It was a payment required to be made to prevent ‘nuisance value’.
But Raj refused to bribe. He had done no wrong. He was scrupulously honest. He told his tax advisor to fight the case to the bitter end. He went on appeal. Finally, Raj won. But the tax adviser's fee for the four hearings worked out to a larger amount than the amount hinted at by the ITO! What Raj had gained in the swings was less than what was lost on the roundabouts. Either way, Raj was bound to lose. It was a choice between the devil and the deep sea.
It is monsoon time and, naturally, a time when we have sessions of continuous downpour for even four to five days at a time. It is also a time when telephone lines are disrupted and when the State-owned telephone company could demonstrate how a monopoly should act.
Our telephone is not working. We submit a complaint to the telephone company. No one comes for a whole day. We complain again. We refer to the earlier complaint docket number. ‘Oh yes, we will attend to it. But you must realise that 40,000 lines have been affected. We cannot attend to all at the same time’.
Finally, the repairman makes an appearance on the third day. His demeanour is of an independent consultant who is attending to this matter as a favour, not his job requirement. He checks the line. Then checks the telephone. He says the instrument is faulty. He will come back in the afternoon with a replacement.
He keeps his promise. He brings an old battered piece to replace our new and shining instrument. My wife catches him in the act of making the switch. She said she will not accept such a replacement. We want a new piece directly from the company.
The repairman has his own agenda. He was doing a quick switch as a personal and private deal. A few currency notes would have reversed the process. We would have had a new phone in working order and all would have been well. However, the question is: Should we encourage such extortion and have a smooth flow of service? Or should we stand by our principles and have a non-functioning instrument staring us in the face? The choices between the devil and the deep sea.
We bought a photocopier three years ago. A well-known brand at a premium price. We wanted to buy something that was very good and which would not give any trouble. Unfortunately, we did not realise that such items are not built to last a long time. Now the salesman of the company comes to us to say that a new model is available and the company can take back the existing machine and replace it with a new, larger one. The new one costs much more. The company would give a small discount for the return of the old machine.
Our office does not need a larger, better, faster copier. We are quite happy with what we have. So what if we do not accept the replacement? Well, they cannot guarantee spare parts will continue to be available for the old machine. In a few years, our existing machine may be worth nothing. The marketing concept of creating product obsolescence!
Choices, choices, choices within the public sector or the private sector – we are often pushed into making choices between the devil and the deep sea. It is so difficult to win!
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, international conference speaker and has been visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.)
