Urban woes: About tea and evil taxi fares

I have been an avid lover of tea right from my school days. We Indians consume so much tea that I always thought that it was us who had invented the beverage in the first place.

My assumption was shattered the day our history teacher told us the story of the Indian connection to tea. Back in 2727 BC the emperor Shen Nung of China discovered tea one day by accident, while drinking hot water in his garden. At the time, China was the only nation with tea plantations, until 727, when Japanese Emperor Shomu received a gift of China tea. Shomu was extremely impressed and soon started cultivation and consumption in Japan. Later, Elizabeth I promoted tea in Europe in 1600 and by 1652, tea was introduced to England by the Dutch East India Company.

During the British rule in India in 1834 the massive “Tea Committee”, appointed by the Governor-General Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, reported that tea can be successfully grown in India and then started tea plantations in Assam and Darjeeling.

It must be noted that we Indians had no clue about tea till this time. The British wanted us to consume it but we didn’t want to pay a price to consume something which was foreign. So the British cooked up a plan. They used to keep a coin in the tea cup while offering the drink to us so whoever consumed it would get that coin. This way, many slowly started drinking tea. But the crafty foreigners started reducing the value of the coins and soon, despite no coin one fine day, we kept on drinking. You see, the Indians were addicted to tea by then. And they started paying for the drink.

This is the popular story explaining how we Indians were introduced to tea. This kind of marketing trick is used worldwide. The latest adopters of this brilliant plan are app-based cab services like Uber. These players entered the Indian market with extremely low pricing, free rides and discounts. We soon started using these cabs frequently due to the convenience and soon the demand reached a high and the ‘coin shift’ happened. The cab companies started charging us two to five times the normal rate and called it ‘Surge or Peak time’ rates — be it during early mornings or even past midnight. Most of us had no option but agree to additional charges.

We are so occupied with our lives that we just see this as a small matter of a few extra rupees but let us at least acknowledge that surge pricing hurts pockets over a period of time. Bengaluru has banned surge pricing. In New Delhi too, the government came down heavily on cab firms who tried to profit during the odd-even days. Instances of surge pricing were detected in cities that had suffered terror attacks! Cab companies allegedly charged panic-stricken citizens a higher rate as they struggled to find safety. This is not done and it’s not as simple as tea. It’s time we raged against this practice.

The author can be reached at padmajap1602@gmail.com