A family dining out in Noida came to blows with the restaurant staff for having the temerity to automatically add a service charge onto their bill. A mere Rs 970 addition on a total bill of Rs 12,000 ended up causing a roaring fracas. In the shocking video floating around, both sides can be heard hurling abuses while punching and slapping each other. Eventually, five people were arrested of whom two were customers. It’s accepted practice for restaurants to levy gratuity for their workers (ten per cent is the norm for tipping in India) though by law, service charge is not mandatory and is a voluntary contribution.
Irrespective of who was at fault, this would have been a harsh lesson in humility for these customers. It’ll be hard living down the embarrassment of getting into fisticuffs, and jail, over a few hundred rupees. The word “tip” comes from the phrase “To Insure Promptness” and the practice traces its origins to Tudor England, when guests drinking at taverns left a little something for the people tending to them. Even if not strictly lawful, gratuity built-in to the bill is absolutely necessary because of a widespread problem—that Indians can be shamelessly thrifty. Wherever they can unscrupulously get away with saving a buck they’ll go to any lengths to do so. It’s become a cliche to point out that people driving in the fanciest of cars will haggle with a bedraggled, roadside fruit seller but it’s a cliche precisely because it’s true. Speak to any service provider, Uber drivers, Amazon courier and Zomato delivery agents, they’ll attest, tipping is non-existent in this country.
I had a boss who used to throw wrappers and cigarette butts out of a moving car, saying there should be work for everyone, including sweepers and the municipalities entrusted with upkeep of the streets. In India there’s no social censure for participating in petty and small injustices. Cunningly working the system to casually exploit someone lacking power is completely normalised. Scamming waitstaff is par for the course here but the same people wouldn’t dare try it abroad. Etiquette demands that the perpetually hassled, lone waiter in European cafeterias be acknowledged; 15% service charge is locked into the bill in France. In America, one needs to have the hide of a rhinoceros to withstand the looks of withering contempt waiters throw back, for a poor tip.
“Noblesse Oblige” is more like a threatening command there, it’s not seen as a guest magnanimously bestowing a favor on a minion. However, one must philosophically accept that when in Rome do as the Romans and give in to the “recommended tip”, often, more than 20% of the total amount.
What would happen if everybody broke the unspoken social contracts that bind and connect us? Human life would be solitary, and lonely, with everyone mistrustfully sizing each other up. It’s only by surrendering a little to our fellow citizens in the interest of the greater good, that civilisation can truly flourish.
The writer is director, Hutkay Films
