A few years back, in 2016, I was living in Chennai. One day at about 3 pm, I noticed the pipeline in my neighbour's house was leaking. It might be due to a crack in the outlet PVC pipe from the water tank. The entire water in the tank would go as a waste if the crack was not closed immediately.
The tenant in the house was new to that place. He had gone to the office and his child to the school. His wife was alone in the house. I went and told her about the leak and asked her to arrange for a plumber to arrest the leak as early as possible. She immediately telephoned her husband and explained to him the situation.
Her husband was a nice man and he was friendly with me. He asked his wife to hand over the phone to me. He then told me, since they were new to the place, they did not know any plumber. He then requested me to arrange for someone if I knew anyone. I gave him the phone number of a plumber who had worked at my house sometime back.
After an hour, a young man clad in jeans and a T-shirt came on a Suzuki motorcycle and started attending to the leak. I gave him a ladder to reach the leaking spot. His face was familiar to me. Out of curiosity, I observed, how he was arresting the leak, through the window from my house.
He cut the pipe at the leaking spot, inserted a coupling which he already had, and sealed both ends with a sealing solution. Hardly it took him ten minutes to finish the job. He got his wages from the housewife and when he came to return the ladder to me, I asked him how much he charged. He said Rs.800/
When I asked him was it fair enough for him to demand such a high rate for a simple job, you know what he replied? "Sir I am also a human being. I also have a family to support. I also wish to live like others. I have to maintain a two-wheeler to attend on-call. What can I do" Is his stand justifiable?
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