Fast life

I normally pay all my bills within a few days of receiving them, but last month, through an oversight, the phone bill was forgotten till almost the last moment. The 29th of the month is apparently the last date for paying this sort of bill without a fine. The payment office is virtually next door, so I dropped in twice, on the mornings of both the 28th and 29th, and came away scared by the long queues - it would have entailed standing for an hour at least. 

This morning I went again, and there was nobody else, so it took me less than a minute to get the job done. The price - a fine of ten rupees.

There are so many hundreds of people around who can both afford to and are quite comfortable with standing in long queues for hours on end so that they might not have to pay ten rupees extra. These people are all more than well-off, it goes without saying - the ruling party calls this a rich man's neighbourhood! - and they all sing in chorus at the appropriate places about how terribly busy they are, what a fast life this has become...