"Ek rupaye kilo aaloo................
Do rupaye kilo pyaanz.................
Panch rupaye kilo tamatar.............
Chaar rupaye kilo phool gobhi...............
Chaar rupaye kilo band gobhi.................".
Hollers the aged man, well dressed in a navy blue blazer and a grey cap, he talks to himself a little too loudly. Curious passers by stare at him momentarily before going their way. I have seen him walking through my block off and on. He is not one of the block residents. Hence, a stranger. But his loud announcements invariably attract attention whenever he passes by. One of the onlookers cocked his eyebrows, knocked his right temple and whispered, " something wrong in the upper storey." I can't make out whether it is a general statement or specifically meant for me standing in the balcony and gaping at the man.
The stranger looks well into his fifties, perhaps retired, normal by appearance, till he opens his mouth to make the weird announcements. If he is a little unhinged mentally I can make out without much difficulty the cause of his cerebral disturbance. With the increasing inflation, the middle class seems to be oscillating between survival and sanity. Dancing to the Onion Song first and then the Tomato Tango (the cost of tomato went up to Rs. 50 a kg just a week or two back), the middle class has perpetually puckered brows contemplating how to make both ends meet.
But the sabziwallah looks bored when he says," Ab toh didi, bhaav gir gaye. Pyaanz tees rupaye aur tamatar paintees." Yes in comparison with the exorbitant hike, tees/paintees seem very reasonble. I sigh. My aunt in Kolkata has this habit of blaming the government even if her kitchen stove does not burn properly. I wonder what she will have to say about this fiasco?
The government is sadly non-committal. A quote comes to my mind " In this world you have to create your own miracles because God is busy elsewhere." Of course! Survival itself is a miracle. Applied to our country, it will read as "The subjects have to grope in the dark for their own survival solutions because the rulers are busy bickering elsewhere."
The man-on-the-street is still apprehensive and waits with bated breath, "What next?" He surmises in vain what the next catastrophe will be like. Perhaps it is best to be prepared for the worst. At least it lessens the momentum of the attack and dilutes the astonishment quotient. Or does it?
The old man with his quaint prophecies has not been seen lately.
I wonder what has happened to him....................!
Till then a calm prevails (before the storm?)
God! Again a round of brain scratching to fish out a miracle. The common man is on his guard. And this time the best of miracles is gonna be patented for posterity.
But the only problem is one never knows whether the same solution is going to work for the next or the next or the next time!
Happy brainstorming over that!!!
