By Manash Pratim Gohain
Be it 100%, 51% or 26%, in the political circus of wholesale FDI market, the common man has been reduced to a clown and forced to pay the price, and a retail one at that.
The idea is to sell us milk by milking us; sell us ghee to burn our pockets; sell us high calorie chips to make us obese; sell us aerated drinks and then force us to fight the ill effects. The inconclusive debate that this is a STATE subject is ultimately a ploy to keep our wallets lean and thin.
FDI lets you live in a fool’s paradise: you think you’re gaining, but in reality, it’s only draining you out. It’s a move to flush the urban middle class of their disposable income on a monthly basis, just like the ‘flushmatic’ (an instant toilet cleaner by Harpic) offers in departmental stores where you’re offered a freebie if you buy two of its kind. Two flushmatics were good enough to keep our toilets clean for 45 days; it required one to buy four pieces to keep their toilets clean for three months. Now, the same job requires nine pieces, given the fact that the freebies are now offered in terms of packets, not pieces. The logic: you need to have a ‘big’ heart to shop in these modern ‘big bazaars’.
There was a time in the recent past, when with a take-home pay of Rs 25,000, I could afford a lavish lifestyle and buy comforts for my family, repay a car loan in small EMIs, pay an FD of Rs 3,000, pay my medical bills in cash (without a sweaty brow), and still save enough to go out for a drink on weekends.
Today, my modest income of Rs 75,000 barely keeps me afloat for a week or two. Inflation is not to be blamed (UPA, thank me if you’re listening). The magnanimous big bazaars don’t keep 1kg atta, so they force me to buy those big 10-kilo packs. I buy a litre of mango juice and also end up buying apple juice and orange crush (COMBO is the mantra you need to remember) without caring two hoots about the unhealthy elements in those packaged drinks. And yes, the Pepsis, Cokes, Limcas and Sprites fill up the shopping cart as the “discount” offers go up. The triple pack (bound together post factory packaging) means I’m eating three times more. And then, the antacids fill the vacant spaces to come in handy later.
Then the oodles of noodles, and frozen stuff in dozens have made life so “easy” you know. ‘Simple’ 250gm frozen food packs costing Rs 50 have now replaced the papayas, boiled eggs, bread-butter and milk breakfast or even the boring roti sabji. The dosa and idli mixes have suddenly become messy, and MTR is the ‘in-thing’. For us fresh mutton today comes for a whopping Rs 350 a kilo; yet we will not crib paying Rs 50 for 100 grams of month-old frozen mutton. And no one is complaining, for, we need to have big hearts to shop at the big marts.
This retail boom has also affected my fridge. The vegetable cabinet now hosts ready-to-eat Manchurian and kofta curry. Frozen items have replaced fresh items, and with it, my body’s immunity, too, has frozen. I go bananas visiting hospitals, as ailments are quick to catch me, for the fresh bananas and apples are long gone from my diet. In the hospitals I am from the upwardly mobile class needing healthy intervention. Result is that the gallons of carbonated drinks, frozen fast food is now costing me Rs 25,000 to get lipid profile, LFT, KFT, ultrasound, and some more latest test done which makes me sound that I will fall dead before I complete this sentence.
The marts are profiting; everyone else is profiting here, except me. And I wonder where all this is headed. As for me, I have a feeling that in the US when the news broke that India is laying the red carpet they simply smirked “FDI --_ F*** D Indians.”
Be it 100%, 51% or 26%, in the political circus of wholesale FDI market, the common man has been reduced to a clown and forced to pay the price, and a retail one at that.
The idea is to sell us milk by milking us; sell us ghee to burn our pockets; sell us high calorie chips to make us obese; sell us aerated drinks and then force us to fight the ill effects. The inconclusive debate that this is a STATE subject is ultimately a ploy to keep our wallets lean and thin.
FDI lets you live in a fool’s paradise: you think you’re gaining, but in reality, it’s only draining you out. It’s a move to flush the urban middle class of their disposable income on a monthly basis, just like the ‘flushmatic’ (an instant toilet cleaner by Harpic) offers in departmental stores where you’re offered a freebie if you buy two of its kind. Two flushmatics were good enough to keep our toilets clean for 45 days; it required one to buy four pieces to keep their toilets clean for three months. Now, the same job requires nine pieces, given the fact that the freebies are now offered in terms of packets, not pieces. The logic: you need to have a ‘big’ heart to shop in these modern ‘big bazaars’.
There was a time in the recent past, when with a take-home pay of Rs 25,000, I could afford a lavish lifestyle and buy comforts for my family, repay a car loan in small EMIs, pay an FD of Rs 3,000, pay my medical bills in cash (without a sweaty brow), and still save enough to go out for a drink on weekends.
Today, my modest income of Rs 75,000 barely keeps me afloat for a week or two. Inflation is not to be blamed (UPA, thank me if you’re listening). The magnanimous big bazaars don’t keep 1kg atta, so they force me to buy those big 10-kilo packs. I buy a litre of mango juice and also end up buying apple juice and orange crush (COMBO is the mantra you need to remember) without caring two hoots about the unhealthy elements in those packaged drinks. And yes, the Pepsis, Cokes, Limcas and Sprites fill up the shopping cart as the “discount” offers go up. The triple pack (bound together post factory packaging) means I’m eating three times more. And then, the antacids fill the vacant spaces to come in handy later.
Then the oodles of noodles, and frozen stuff in dozens have made life so “easy” you know. ‘Simple’ 250gm frozen food packs costing Rs 50 have now replaced the papayas, boiled eggs, bread-butter and milk breakfast or even the boring roti sabji. The dosa and idli mixes have suddenly become messy, and MTR is the ‘in-thing’. For us fresh mutton today comes for a whopping Rs 350 a kilo; yet we will not crib paying Rs 50 for 100 grams of month-old frozen mutton. And no one is complaining, for, we need to have big hearts to shop at the big marts.
This retail boom has also affected my fridge. The vegetable cabinet now hosts ready-to-eat Manchurian and kofta curry. Frozen items have replaced fresh items, and with it, my body’s immunity, too, has frozen. I go bananas visiting hospitals, as ailments are quick to catch me, for the fresh bananas and apples are long gone from my diet. In the hospitals I am from the upwardly mobile class needing healthy intervention. Result is that the gallons of carbonated drinks, frozen fast food is now costing me Rs 25,000 to get lipid profile, LFT, KFT, ultrasound, and some more latest test done which makes me sound that I will fall dead before I complete this sentence.
The marts are profiting; everyone else is profiting here, except me. And I wonder where all this is headed. As for me, I have a feeling that in the US when the news broke that India is laying the red carpet they simply smirked “FDI --_ F*** D Indians.”
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