e-Nagar

Ever wondered why your doctor/mechanic asks for insurance before treating your/your car?
Let me illustrate.
Here is what happened to me 2 weeks ago.
My car (maruti alto k10) developed a problem because some rain water seeped inside its clutch. The mechanic (maruti authorized service center) was ready to repair it in 2 hours and would cost me 150/- and 350/- to tow the vehicle. He additionally recommend me to get my upholstery cleaned which was smelling due to water stagnation.
Since it was a brand new car, and the cleaning of carpet would take 2 days, I thought of claiming insurance (Tata AIG)

Net result was that instead of the 2000/- that i had to clean for the entire process:
The total mechanic bill came to: 5200/-
Insurance paid 2500/- (3000/- – deduction of 500/-) and I had to pay 2,700/-.
On top of it, I lost no claim insurance bonus worth 1500/- and had to shell out another 300*7 days = 2100/- for autorichshaw charges to commute to my office. (even if i deduct for the fuel, i lost 1000/- and an added inconvenience of 9 days)

without insurance
mechanic: +2000
Myself: -2000 – 450 (auto – fuel) = -2450 and I would have got my car on the 3rd day.

with insurance
insurance company: -2500 + 1500 (no claim bonus) = -1000/-
mechanic: 5200/-
myself: -2700 – 1500 (insurance) – 1050 (auto) = 5250/- and I got my car on the 9th day.

During my MBA classes, I was told that options, like insurance, are a zero sum game. No wealth is created and it is just transferred from one account to another. (usually from the client to the broker)
Out here, it seems that the only person who gained was my mechanic.

You could have argued that I should have contested the excess charges. Well when one claims insurance, the mechanic provides you with itemized billing and with physical and photo graphical evidence of all the work he/she does. So it becomes very hard to contest.
I have heard of so many cases where some hospitals also inflate the bills when the client has insurance.

I wonder when will the customers realize that because of this malpractice, their insurance premiums are higher. Hence it is they who ends up paying 2-3 times for the same service.

Hehehe, well I won’t bore you with the cliches you hear on this topic. But what’s making me laugh is the specific incident which caused my quitting. Wish I could say that it was something trite as a parent’s scold or a girlfriend’s emotional blackmail. It was the police, and no, I wasn’t caught per se…well almost.
I was at the pragati maidan in delhi during the India International Trade Fair this winter’s start. For the last 3 months, I had forgotten what a weekend was, so standing there at my company’s stall watching families, friends and couples enjoy the atmosphere was beginning to tell on me. To say that I was pissed off was to say the Bay of Bengal is damp.
So, taking a cigarette break at every possible excuse to leave the stall, I would stroll to a convenient, private corner while listening to the continuous announcement – this is a no plastic and no smoking zone…like I gave a damn. Well it turns out I should have – given a damn.
This particular constable is slim for a change. God damn it, he is fitter than Me! This must be a new joinee, untouched by the system and ready to change the world. And here I am, unexcercised since, well, forever. And I have smoke in my lungs. With less than fifty feet between us, I ran. Didn’t see where I was heading, didn’t see who I was bumping, just made Forrest gump proud. When I finally merged into the crowd and started panting, my thought train started chugging. If it wasn’t for the cigarette, I could have excercised and be fitter, and run better without feeling nauseated and pukish. To hell, if it wasn’t for the ciggy, I wouldn’t BE running.
Chuck the damn thing, along with any thing that makes me move my a.., ahem, feet at such a rapid pace. Laziness is too great a feeling to be wasted on any damn thing.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(sociology)) Trust is a measure of the belief in the honesty, fairness and benevolence of the other party. It is also dependent on the competence of the other party in delivering what is expected or promised. However competence is secondary because failure in competence is more easily forgiven than failure due to lack of honesty and benevolence. Everybody believes that honesty is very important for trust; however the question is what comes first.

Let me use the corollary of a house to explain how relationships are formed. A complete stranger would not be allowed even inside the main gate of the house and would have to yell from outside to be heard. There is a well defined and known protocol for treating guests and based on how much one trust a person, he/she would be allowed access to the front gate, porch, living/drawing room, kitchen, bedroom etc. A stranger cannot walk into the bedroom without being labeled as an intruder and similarly the host cannot welcome a stranger to the bedroom without raising suspicion about the sly intentions of the rendezvous.

In a relationship one has to pass a serious of hurdles before being trusted and unless there is trust, one is scared of telling the truth and revealing oneself. Even if you visit a hospital and ask strangers “How are you doing?” chances are that the response would be “I am fine.”

Everybody is economical with truth and honesty often makes one feel naked and vulnerable. Hence we create secrets and sharing secrets is a way through which a lot of people (esp. girls and kids) communicate to others that they are trusted and also check their trustworthiness. Hence my assertion that contrary to popular perception one has to build up trust before they can expect honesty in most relationships. However once the trust gets build up, there is no faster and irreversible way of breaking it than dishonesty with malicious intention.

On a lighter note, I have known couples who have problems telling their spouses that they are fat or what they truly feel about the new home décor. In most cases, their spouses know the real answer/feelings of their partner and this white lie does not bother them or damage their relationship because the intention was not malicious.

PS: I have had no formal education in sociology.