The moment Bujhaavan
pulled up the shutter of his shop, a strong whiff of rotten vegetables
shattered the olfactory receptors in their noses. Bujhaavan’s wife; Lalita
covered her nose with her dupatta but could not stop a strong bout of coughing.
When she was through with a round of coughing, she just wailed in anguish, “Oh
my God! Look at this! Our shop is devastated. Almost all the vegetables have
rotten completely.”
Lalita started to wail
uncontrollably. Bujhaavan was trying to console her. Their son and daughter
were looking at them with a sense of bewilderment. Bujhaavan could muster up
some courage to say, “Don’t worry. Have faith on me. I will once again bring
our life back on rail.”
After opening his shop,
Bujhaavan sat on the steps. He was sitting on his haunches; with his head
resting on his palms. His wife was filling plastic crates with rotten
vegetables; in order to clean the shop. Her son (who is about 12 years old) was
helping her. Her five year old daughter was playing with an orange as if it was
a ball. After looking at Bujhavans’s gesture and posture, anybody could easily
tell that he was not enjoying the sunshine on a winter morning rather he was
feeling highly dejected.
Bujhaavan was spotted by
Rahul. Rahul was a regular customer for Bujhaavan. Rahul works as software
developer in an MNC. He is quite friendly with most of the people and does not
mind talking to people even from the lower strata of socio-economic ladder. Looking
at Bujhaavan, Rahul said, “Hey, Bujhaavan! What happened? Your shop was not
being opened since so many days. Is everything alright? Anybody is sick?”
Hearing that, Bujhaavan
raised his hands over his head to offer a silent Namaste and said, “No Sahib,
nobody was sick. I was just getting negligible customers on a daily basis so
there was no other way out. It was better to keep the shop shut.”
Rahul sat beside
Bujhaavan and said, “Don’t be a pessimist. I know that sales have suffered a
bit. But it is a short term dip. Everything would improve in the long run. A bright
future awaits all of us. Have people stopped buying vegetables?”
Bujhaavan gave a wry
smile and said, “Yeah, you are right. Earlier, you used to buy at least one kg
of cauliflower at one go. But now, you are not buying more than one-fourth of a
kg. Earlier, you used to buy at least two litres of milk on a daily basis. Now,
I have seen you carrying a half litre pack only. Sir, I have to think about
paying my rents. Add the electricity bill to it. Keeping the shutter down would
at least help in saving on electricity bill. Nobody has cash so everybody is
cutting on spending. I had to stand in queue for four days. After that, I
became successful in depositing my money in my account. Now, they are not allowing
us to withdraw the money. The bank on
the other side of the road has not received cash after the nineteenth November.
How do I buy fresh stock? I need at least twenty thousand but ATM is just
giving two thousand.”
Rahul took out a
cigarette and offered another to Bujhaavan. After lighting up their cigarettes,
Rahul took a long puff of nicotine enriched smoke and said, “Don’t worry my
friend. You must know about the great work being done by our government. It has
changed everything in one stroke. Now, every transaction is going to be online;
through internet. You can make all your transactions through your mobile phone.
For the time being, you can use check or DD to pay your suppliers. Haven’t you
heard what the Finance Minister had said a couple of days ago?”
Bujhaavan exhaled a sharp
jet of smoke towards the ground and said, “Do you know my landlord? He appears
to be highly educated. When he refuses to take payment through cheque, then
what do you expect from farmers who come to sell in mandi. Even the wholesalers
in the mandi are refusing cheques now-a-days. One of them was telling that he
does not have time to stand in queue just to deposit cheques. Our Finance
Minister was talking about DD. Is he going to pay for the commission on DD? Cannot
he see the huge crowd in front of every bank? Which staff in a bank is free to
make a demand draft?”
Bujhaavan was unable to
dampen the optimistic spirit in Rahul. Rahul said, “You already own a
smartphone; if I am not wrong. I have seen you forwarding messages. Making a
payment is as easy as forwarding an MMS.”
Bujhaavan said, “I know
that if I make a typo error while using WhatsApp then it is not going to make a
difference. But if I will repeat the same mistake in my bank account then I
will lose my hard-earned money. What happens when someone steals my password? Sahib,
we are much smaller in size. We are not in a position to withstand such shocks.
To add insult to my injury, the landlord has created a new problem for me.”
Rahul asked, “What
happened?”
Bujhaavan said, “I had
been to meet my landlord. When I told him that I am not in a position to pay my
rents for the next couple of months, he handed an eviction notice to me. My shop
has a good client base but he is hell bent to destroy my business. It takes
years to establish a business at a new place.”
Rahul said, “Why don’t you
set up your shop on the sidewalk. You can shift later to a new shop after
finding a suitable place.”
Bujhaavan said, “It is
more difficult to do business on the sidewalk. One needs to bribe the police. The
local muscleman also takes his share. There is additional risk of theft. I was
able to protect my dignity by keeping a shop in this shopping complex. I have
enquired in nearby shopping complexes, but there is no vacancy. A shop is
vacant near another apartment but they are asking for a hefty advance.”
Rahul said, “Your shop
must be quite old; at least five or six years old. I think it is as old as this
apartment. You must have saved enough money by now. You can easily pay the
advance.”
Bujhaavan said, “I also
overestimate people who live in high rise apartments. But you are
underestimating my expenses. I need to pay eight thousand as rent for this shop
and at least two thousand as electricity bill. The beat constable takes one
thousand and the municipality staff takes five hundred. I need to pay at least
five thousand in a year as donations for pooja and bhandara. A stray food inspector
may rob me off a couple of thousands in a year. I pay two thousand as house
rent and pay one thousand five hundred as school fees. Now, you can easily
calculate that I hardly earn enough to make a saving. Nevertheless, I have
saved about one lakh fifty thousand during this period. I was planning to buy a
small plot. But even a fifty yard plot is costing around seven lakh in this
area.”
Rahul said, “Don’t worry,
everything would be alright. The moment we shift to cashless economy, no food
inspector is going to disturb you.”
Bujhaavan laughed and
said, “Don’t underestimate an illiterate person who is in business for so many
years. When everything will happen through account then I will get another set
of greedy officials to satiate. The guys from sales tax and income tax would be
my new tormentors. My hands were already full with constable and muscleman. You
mean to say that I need to increase my business related expenses. I need to pay
taxes as well as hefty fees to the chartered accountant. Wonderful.”
Rahul asked, “What have
you thought of future?”
Bujhaavan said, “I don’t plan
for future. Let us leave it to the almighty. But the present is looking scary. All
the vegetables have rotten; setting me back with huge loss. I am not left with enough
strength to stand on my feet. Add the ultimatum of my landlord to this. I am
packing my bag and baggage; to go back to my village. I will once again work in
the farms; the way I did it when I was much younger. Farm work comes for only
four months in a given year. But I will have the solace to be with my own
people. It is better to die peacefully in my own village than facing the
endless agony in this big city. I migrated to this city in search of better
opportunity. I had dreamt of a better life for my children. Now, I can only
look at a blank screen ahead of me.”
