Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Dear Tropicana, I can't leave you

A small packet of juice and a plate of maggi fill my stomach every morning in the office. I know mine is not a healthy breakfast. Barring maggi, the remaining menu, yes, only the juice is healthy (I go for Tropicana always, you know brand matters). Na na, neither I am going for a zero figure nor my intention is to bore you people by discussing my diet here. But, this time I am gonna talk about some serious issue, and what can be more serious than the Budget. Yes, I will be talking about the budget, not just the country's but my monthly one as well.

As usual, I ordered a small packet of Tropicana and maggi today. After relishing my share of breakfast, I went to pay the bill.

How much Yadav jee? I asked.

42 rupees only for today and Rs 222 for the previous day, he told.

How come 42 (seems 42 was more than 222 for me)? I inquired.

Arey madam, 20 for maggi and 22 for juice, he explained.

What? 22 rupees? Kaise? How come? I fumed.

Madam, mandee ki meharbaani hai (he means it's due to the inflation, a friend of mine explained), he said.

Gosh, he knows what inflation is, I thought. And it's called mandee in vernacular (thanks Yadav jee for enhancing my knowledge of Hindi).

From 15 to 18 and now 22 rupees per packet, this is truly a height.

For the very first time, inflation hit me and has hit me really hard. I was never that sad when the price of onion sky-rocketed last month. May be I hardly consume onion, but the rise in price of juice will surely affect me a lot. This has made me think over those lot who have been suffering due to this mandee for months now.

Sipping to my favourite Tropicana juice will cost me more now, I wonder. But I promise, I am not going to stop drinking it come what may as it's a healthy practice (my dear papa told me). What will happen at the max? I may have to shell out extra money from my limited salary, right? Oh oh, this is going to be so hard...Rs 4 more I have to pay, bad and sad it is! Well...Okay, I am ready to pay it provided the rate remains constant for at least a year or till I get a hike in my salary. I wish my voice could be heard by our hon'ble Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. But he's busy thinking over onions, tomatoes, economy and the like. Will my Tropicana juice be figured on his list? I hope and wish it does.

Basically, my point is that I want this year Budget to be middle-class friendly so that I, like many others, could at least sip a Tropicana juice without paying much heed to the price and the tax and the other hidden prices amongst others.

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