How To Beat The Food Inflation

How To Beat The Food Inflation

It was a typical winter day in the great city. The air outside was crisp with the northerly winds which had been blowing through the night but the scent of roses which wafted in through the windows and the faint sounds of a cuckoo serenading somewhere in the gardens brought in a sense of tranquility. If one were to look out of the large picture frame windows, one would have surely found a few butterflies flitting about doing all that a good butterfly ought to do to earn its living, but no one in the group assembled in the room within was in any mood to gaze upon the butterflies nor emulate them in any way.   

There was a distinct pall of gloom over the congregation. It was probably thicker than the smog which enveloped the great city outside. The sense of doom that seemed to pervade in the room would have made the dinosaurs in Yucatan look positively ebullient as they felt the first tremors from impact of  the meteorite.

“This inflation is going to kill us,” moaned a member of the group, flicking an imaginary piece of dust from his designer kurta.

“Yes. Looks like we are all going to starve to our death. And that too, pretty soon” groaned another maneuvering his 120kg frame into the nearest chair. The chair, too, groaned but it was used to such heavy-weights for past so many years.

“Imagine. Almost 25% price increase in chicken dishes. And a whopping 60% increase in mutton dishes” exclaimed another who prided himself as a sort of finance wizard.

“How are we going to get our nutrition right?  Proteins and all that?” lamented the health expert.

“This is all a conspiracy against vegetarians” screamed another. “Look at this! 150% increase in the prices of dal and 100% for rotis!!  Far more than the increase in prices of the non-veg dishes” wailed another.

“Preposterous!” thundered a militant one. “This will hurt poor people like us. I pray to God that we are spared the calamity of foregoing our lunches.”

“We must do something,” roared a firebrand among them.

“Yes, yes” the group was unanimous in its support to the firebrand. After all it was all for common good. Nothing galvanized the group more than something which was for the common good. They may fight their turf battles among themselves, some in all seriousness, some more for the benefit of the audience and some make-believe too. But as far as the common good was concerned, this group whole-heartedly believed in the motto of the Musketeers of the Guard in the court of Louis XIII, “One for all and all for one”.  

 “Let’s all go on a hunger strike” suggested someone from the back.

“No!” everyone pounced on him. Hunger strikes were a no-no. They were only for poor people like the farmers and students who didn’t have a clue about anything and were hungry half the time anyway. No hunger strikes. Not for this group which was used to two square meals a day and that too king-sized squares duly rounded off by not-so-skimpy elevenses and high teas.     

“I have a better idea,” declared the firebrand. “This price increase is clearly unpalatable. This food inflation needs to be countered and countered quickly. We must turn the tables on whoever has dished this ghastly increase on our plate.”

Everyone nodded in unison. Even those who normally found it difficult to follow the discussions understood the mention of food counters, tables, dishes and plates from firebrand’s speech.

“Tell us. Tell us what to do.” The Musketeers of the Guard were in a sabre-rattling frenzy.   

“Let’s sanction another pay revision for ourselves. If we can’t get such a small straight forward bill passed quickly, how can we be expected get complex bills like GST and the Finance Bills passed?”

 LazyBee 

22^nd  Jan 2016

PARLIAMENT CANTEEN RATES
	2015	2016
Mutton Biryani	50	80
Chicken Curry	37	45
Mutton Curry	20	32
Dal	02	05
Tea	02	03
Roti	01	02
Salad	03	05
Courtesy : hindustantimes.com