We Indians as a country just love to shirk responsibility of almost everything wrong  that is occurring around them . We Indians just like to live life in our daily restricted cocoon & turn a blind eye to crimes , discrepancies & injustices in the society .

For e g policemen are blamed for every crime that occurs . Lower rung government officers are blamed for petty corruption . Crime & corruption that exists in the society is because of our irresponsible attitude  & not because of individual policemen & government officers.

Because of our irresponsible attitude a very large amount of our taxes in fact go down the drain. Our  irresponsibility is in fact very expensive for us .

Somewhat  similar occurred in the society here I practice .

My society was formed in December 1992. I started practice on 10^th June 1990 . So it means I have started practice around one & a half year before the society was formed .

Now right since the day the society was formed the society has been levying commercial charges on me This was grossly against rules . There are numerous judgements from the courts from all over India which have clearly ruled that doctors should not be charged commercial charges . The practice of dentistry is not a commercial activity. It is a therapeutic profession.

Besides

1 ) Mine is an OPD practice and not a nursing home.

2 ) On the ground floor

3 ) I am practicing before the society is formed .

So there is no way that my practice of dentistry attracts commercial charges.

But against gross violation of all rules commercial charges were levied on me. And I committed a bigger mistake of paying it . I thought that lets maintain good relations with our neighbours & why create a dispute . Committing an injustice is a crime but tolerating injustice is an even bigger crime.

So I paid commercial charges which were illegally imposed on me .The  intention was to maintain harmonious relations with the society .As it occurs every time my noble intentions were construed  as dim wittedness & dumbness .

And the office bearers took undue  advantage of my noble intentions & kept increasing the commercial charges .  I took it in my stride & kept on paying the illegally imposed commercial charges on me .

Also note that the commercial charges were increased haphazardly as per the whims & fancies of a few office bearers who took advantage of my noble intentions .

I repeatedly offered to pay reasonable commercial charges but it was replied by abuses , bad words & invectives .

Not only this they paid property tax by residential rates . This I found out by on RTI .

The most unfortunate paid was that some neighbours knew the  illegality of commercial charges imposed on me but kept quiet .

Finally I had to approach the courts.

Now the hard earned money of my beloved neighbours  will be wasted on frivolous litigation

To summarize :-

1 ) The practice of dentistry does not attract commercial charges .

2 ) Society has taken commercial charges from me & paid property tax by residential rates .

3 ) They increased commercial charges as per their  whims & fancies .

I intend to fight this injustice till the very end.

Towards this end I solicit blessings of the reader in my fight against injustice.

Indian society is one of the most messed up and corrupt  society in the globe . Indians in spite of being fiercely patriotic could not correct many of the discrepancies which exist in the nation .

Politicians extract money  from businessmen , senior bureaucrats extract money from junior government officers for plum postings , lower rung  government officers extract money from whomsoever possible who have to visit the government office  , hoodlums extract money in the name of organizing festivals and the  list goes  on & on .

Right since the initial days of my practice I encountered patients who would bargain .I  actually don’t blame them . Most of the time it was because the patients felt that doctors overcharge & hence they tried their luck in bargaining .

My strict attitude , courteous firmness, my unrelenting  passion for academics & towards improving my clinical skills & finally making the patients aware that dentistry has very high outgoings made the situation manageable .

The one which became unmanageable was the attitude of some members of the society where I practice to extract money from me .

Related link :

Not only did the office bearers wanted to extract money from me but the current chairman Raja Balmiki also threatened me with assault . I had to approach the police who filed a non-cognizable complaint .

Related Link :

https://drdarakh.com/raja-balmiki-threatens-me-with-assault/

 The societies  office bearers :

1. Levied frivolous fines an me,

                Related  Link

: https://drdarakh.com/dadagiri-of-office-bearers

• Did not give me receipts for the payments that I made & showed it as dues in my account & unknown credit in the societies balance sheet.

Related Link :

https://drdarakh.com/the-sordid-saga-of-my-maintenance-cheques-in-sangli-bank-account/

• Levied commercial charges on me when the law explicitly states that no commercial charges can be levied on the practice of dentistry.

Please see the following image of March 22 maintenance bill :

Please also note that from April 2022 the society office bearers have stopped sending me maintenance bills and also the receipts for the payments that I have made.

• The money that I paid towards maintenance was shown in same other account
• Did not accept maintenance cheques from me  for 2 years ( January 2020 till December 2021 ) and then levied penal interest for that period.

• Did not carry out repairs & did not reimburse me for the repairs that I had to do .

The list would go on & on . And then finally I had to approach the law.

The other aspects of my story are in other blogs on this website & on www.medicalmarketingtoday.info

Doctors are soft targets in India. There are a few more like school teachers etc .

Once I approached the law, the office bears  panicked & the other neighbours  went into a shell . My beloved neighbours were left twiddling their thumb and they saw their hard earned money wasted on frivolous litigation. But they are too dumb founded to speak against the office bearers.

With the grace of God the first two orders came in my favour.

I will continue to practice with passion , determination & precision . Also I am mentally prepared to be assaulted , stabbed & even murdered   .

Let us see how much money the office bearers can extract from me .

Wishing them all the best !!!

I think there would be very few human beings who actually like cacophony of any kind . Even if they do it would only be for sometime .Being a workaholic I never missed my clinic and even if I missed , it was because of some compelling reason .It was very rare that I took a day off . However , in retrospective I feel that any kind of addiction is bad . If alcoholism is bad ,so is workaholism .

Anyway , one occasion for which I used to miss clinic or leave early was for my children’s annual day function of the school.

One good thing about schools now a days is that there is more emphasis on all round development of children . In my children’s school most children were given  an opportunity to participate in some cultural skit or a play etc.

Preparations began quite sometime before the annual day & children enjoyed it .

As a parent I enjoyed  all the skits ,cultural events etc . But the most enjoyable part was this cacophony of children in the lobby . This was the cacophony which actually relaxed the mind & calmed the heart .

I hardly missed any annual day of my son & daughter . Even if I had to it was due to some very compelling reason .

It is only after time flies that we realize that time has passed  & children have grown up. My son has already left school & will graduate this year .

This is my daughters last year in school & in March 2024 we will finally bid adieu to Bombay Cambridge school where my children grew up and studied.

Unfortunately ,this year I missed my daughters annual day function due to an entirely avoidable reason . I  was looking forward to it since this would be her last annual day function in school. The regret is compounded by the fact that the reason was entirely avoidable and this was the last and the final annual day function of my children that I as a parent would get an opportunity  to attend.

Anyway life does not give everything to everyone and but still I regret missing the last annual day function of my daughter.

However  I will always look back  at the cacophony of children in the lobby with nostalgia.        

Now as I wind up the blog I wonder if I ever would experience the same cacophony once again .

When my children were in kindergarten the school had organized a grandparents day with some skits by tiny tots.

So now looking forward to it .  I have no idea where life takes my children & where they settle and which will be their children’s school and whether their school would organize a grandparents day.

However , we always need something to look forward to.

The  society office bearers had levied frivolous fines or me and were overcharging me with illegally imposed commercial charges. Many times I tried to reason with them but all they did was to abuse, use bad words  and invectives and throw me out.

It was not possible for any decent person to negotiate with them. They were not even taking routine maintenance cheques from me.

There was society resolution dated which said that any member could directly deposit the maintenance in the sangli bank account of society. See image below.

So accordingly I started depositing maintenance dues directly in the sangli bank account of the society. From 12/01/1998 till 26/02/2001 I deposited Rs. Rs.28,250/- in the Sangli bank account of the society. See the images of bank receipts below. PLEASE NOTE THAT TILL DATE i.e TILL 12 FEB 2023 I HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN RECEIPTS FOR THE SAME and THE AMOUNT IS BEING SHOWN AS DUES IN MY ACCOUNT.

And lo!

The office bearers showed it as

1. Unknown credit in the societies bank of accounts. See table  below.

2)  Showed it as dues in my accounts.

3) Levied interest on it.

Then on the bill dated they levied an ad hoc interest of 11.5%. See image below.

On my other dues they have levied interest of 21%

After sometime Sangli bank closed down and it was taken over by ICICI bank.

In Sept 2002 I went to the new office bearers to ask him about the new bank account of the society.

He

1) Did not give me the new account number of the society

2)  Did not accept maintenance cheques from me.

Then using the choicest abuses & bad worlds he threw me out of his house.

The incident is described here :-

Furthermore, there was no society resolution which started that members could deposit maintenance cheques in the new  society account.

The other relevant links are as follow:-

https://medicalmarketingtoday.info/harassment-by-neighbours/

https://medicalmarketingtoday.info/mr-x-smiled-mr-y-smiled/

The year was 1997.

One fine day I got a notice from the society office bearers  that I will be fined Rs 500/- for electricity misuse.  It was dated 29/04/1997

The plain truth is that I had not misused any electricity. The society did not give me any opportunity to present my case.

Now even if I have misused any electricity the society can only complain to the police.

They have  absolutely no power to impose a fine on me.

Now I draw the attention of the reader to the actual fine imposed. On bill dated 18/05/1997 they imposed a fine of Rs 1000/-.

I had replied to the notice through my lawyer. However, family & friends read that let better sense prevail & perhaps the office bearers may withdraw the fine. So I did not approach the law.

Till date as I write this blog this illegal  fine has not been revoked & I am being charged interest on it.

So now I have decided to fight a full fledged legal battle & I solicit the blessings & good wishes of the readers for this purpose.

The office bearers of any co-operative housing society are meant to work for the benefit of the society and not to create problems. However, the plain truth is that most office bearers think and behave that they are the owners of the housing complex.

The other members of the society are fully aware of this wrongdoing but lack the courage to speak out against the office bearers. Part of the reason is the real danger of physical retribution by the office bearers.

This is a part of the large malaise of the Indian society . Our elected representatives be it a municipal councillor, MLA’s , MP’s and ministers behave like they are kings of their constituencies and have a dictatorial attitude.

This must be challenged and fought at all levels.

I have always believed that every low abiding citizen should contribute to the upkeep of the facility where he is staying and working . Contribution is not only paying the monthly maintenance dues but also taking active interest in its developments

Now this is possible only if , in the neighbourhood there are  sensible individuals. More often than not there are always some or more individuals who instead of working for the development of the facility well create all sorts of problems even in routine maintenance .

I have experienced this in the building where I practice for a very long time (more than two & half decades).

To being with society office bearers levied frivolous fines on me & they have not been revoked even after 25 years. And then they charged interest on it. They stop accepting my monthly cheques.. Finally I started depositing my monthly  maintenance dues directly into the society bank account.

And lo ! they showed this amount as UNKNOWN CREDIT in the societies balance sheet & dues in my bill & charged interest on it.

There on the advice  of my legal team I started sending maintenance cheque directly to the office  bearers by registered post.

Even then they did not accept it & they have the audacity to charge interest on it.

The Indian society prides itself in troubling there best citizens ,caregivers, low enforcement agencies etc.

Read more about my experience with the society in these blogs.

1. Harassment by neighbours:

https://medicalmarketingtoday.info/harassment-by-neighbours/

• Mr. X …….smiled, Mr. Y ……………smiled

https://medicalmarketingtoday.info/mr-x-smiled-mr-y-smiled/

In a few days time I well describe more of my experiences with the office bearers of the society.