Monday, July 5, 2010

Inflation


"I am Leaving for some party meeting,would be back by evening." Ramesh tells his wife.

"Who will take Rahul for his Exam? He has his Entrance today." Sudha asks Ramesh.

"Arey..Arey i forgot ..Acha do one thing keep Rs500 and please drop him at the centre.
I am getting late ..i'll leave now."

"500Rs won't do...I'll need more."

Ramesh grudges a bit and then hands over a 1000 Rs note to Sudha.

On his way to the meeting he is visibly frustrated and irritated as he has no idea of what was expected of him in the meeting.
On reaching the meeting ,his party leaders tell him about some BANDH today.
He was given the responsibility to stop the METRO train.
Being a loyal worker of the party he accepted the responsibility and left for the metro station.

He had to wrestle the security officers but he overpowered them and managed to enter the Dwarka Metro Station.
Without wasting any time he jumped on the track ,followed by hundreds of similar clueless party workers.

Train entered and around 500 passengers had to be evacuated as Ramesh and comrades were lying in front of the train.
Ramesh was dancing in front of the train.

Amongst the passengers were his wife and his son.
Rahul had prepared very well for this test and there he was almost..about to miss the test and that too because of his father.
He was petrified at the mere thought of missing the test and ironically Ramesh was busy in his bhangra on the track.

Sudha and Rahul somehow forced there way out of the station.
They had to take an auto and paid Rs 250 to reach the center(150 more than the normal).
The autos were charging exorbitant rates as they had to circumvent these dharnas and the bandhs.

Exam finsihed around 2:00 in the noon but by then Delhi had been brought to a complete halt.
Metro Service was disrupted,buses were punctured ,effigies burn't and all this was done by people like Ramesh.

It took around 3 hours to reach home,the auto guy charged them 350 on their way back.
Both of them were cursing the people who had disrupted the metro service.
The trip which would have cost them just 60 Rs had cost them a hefty 700 Rs .

Reaching home..they saw that all the vegetable vendors were also made to close there shops.
They couldn't buy any thing for the dinner.
Moreover these bandh people closed down only the small small vendors.
Five star hotels and the other big eateries were wroking routinely.

Sudha thought of ordering some food from the nearby three star hotel.
Rahul and sudha had there dinner .

Ramesh came home at around 10 in the night.
He loved the dinner..it was delicious.

Before sleeping..he picked up the diary to write today's expenses.
He was shocked to see his wife's entry for the day..

5th July 2010
---------------------------
Auto to Exam Center --Rs 250
Auto Back  home - Rs 350
Dinner  - Rs 1500

Total - 2200

----------------

He took a deep breath ....
and sighed ...
"My god ...how expensive this city has become? I don't know where this country is heading?"
and then he SLEPT....

7 comments:

Shamail said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shamail said...

Did you know how much is the net loss the government has to bear with this BANDH?

More than they can earn with the fuel price hike in 6 months.

I just pray that it comes back to normal, or else the efforts of Ramesh will go worthless and he has to pay
20(extra per day)*365 = 7300 Rs per year more to the bullshit government rather than spending 2200 for this day.

No offence, but this writeup is just an expression because personally the price hike has not affected the author.

(Above factual assumptions are for a two wheeler driver travelling approx 40Kms daily. It doesn't look good, but for 4 wheelers price reaches to a figure which is more than 15,000 per annum)

Who is at fault? Government or Ramesh?

Saurabh Singh said...

Mast post hai.... lol :D

All governments, even the fictional perfect government, are in a spectrum which has anarchy and dictatorship at the opposite extreme ends. Our government is definitely closer to anarchy, as people can resort to hooliganism whenever they want.

I don't really agree with Shamail's comments here, but maybe I will comment in a few days when I have some time.

Shamail said...

Just adding a small quote to let Saurabh agree with it ;-)

"Sukhi, zindgi jeene ke 2 he tareeke hote hain, ik te jo ho raha hai hone do, bardaash karte jao, aur duja jimmevari uthao, age badho.."

Or

"Hum se to ummed he yahi ki jati hai, aam admi ki tarah raho, aam admi ki tarah jiyo, aur aam admi ki tarah he mar jao"

Gotcha?
Government is doing a dictatorship, and they need an answer like this.
I am not personally inclined towards any party or something, I am well aware that the prices which are prevailing, even after a raise, are lesser than what they were in the term of the government which is opposing it. (Petrol was 52 Rs per liter as compared to 47 which is prevailing rate). But what is the point? At the end of the day, I am going get 7.4L petrol for the same price(400/-), for which I was getting 8.35L.

Any justifying reason on why?

And you know, at the end of the day, who suffers, its the stupid common man. As Gaurav already stated, major restaurants were plying, because this hike is not going to affect them at all, and their pockets are full enough to "fill" the pockets of executioners or cops.

So in a nutshell, main tahe dil se is post ki ninda karta hun..

With best regards

(@Gaurav, please don't take this personally, I know you are a brilliant writer, but sometimes you should consider the other side of the story as well :-) you've explained your point really well, but it was not worth an explaination)

pranav said...

hmm, inflation managers are at the root of inflation. bands the so called `BHARAT BAND' is the perfect example of this, complemented by ironical statements like '' TO CONTROL THE PRICE HIKE'. parties for people (bharat) hav nothing like 'BHARAT' in them. "we-the people, HYBERNATING LIKE ANYTHIN', let's wake up, and stop watering the poisoned roots.

pranav said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Very nice post -- sahi .. jaise acclaimed writers likhte hain .. with such consummate ease you put the point in a manner that doesn't least offend anyone! Brilliant!

:)