We the mango people

An aam aadmi wakes up every morning determined that he would make the most of his day. That he will not let anything bother him. Even before he has finished his thoughts while brushing his teeth, the tap runs dry. “Shucks. Not again please.” Damn the water cut.

He hurriedly somehow gets ready for office, is about to gulp down his glass of milk, when his eyes catch the headline in the newspaper “Adulterated milk floods Mumbai.” He gives his glass of milk a thoughtful stare and decide he is ok without actually drinking that slow poison.

He jumps into an auto, “Andheri station.” He looks at the meter reading, which changes at a dizzying rate. “ Aapka meter bahot tez nahi hain?” he asks angrily. “Aaj tak to kisi ne nahi kaha.” Unable to stop himself he gets into a tiff. The autorickshaw driver smiles at him, stops his rickshaw and asks him to alight. He walks down to the station.

Still recovering from the harrowing experience, much to his dislike, he realizes four trains have been cancelled. “Not today, please”, his heart cries. After 45 minutes he is able to somehow force himself inside the local. He gets out of the local, his once perfectly ironed suit now a crumpled nightmare.

As he gradually settles and begins his day in office, he gets an sms alert. “ You have 0 balance in your account. Kindly recharge.” He is shocked beyond words. “But I just charged my phone with Rupees 400 last night. Where did the money go?” The answers to such questions are never found with the sales executive. He spends a large part of his day asking, requesting and finally pleading with them to resolve the problem asap. But you know such things take time.

At 8 p.m he finally wraps up his work and leaves for the day. In the train he scans the classified ads just in case he comes across his dream home. 2BHK, 750 sq. Ft, good locality, 25th floor of a 42 floor building, parking space separately. Rs. 65 lacs only. If interested, contact so and so. Excited he calls up the number mentioned only to learn that the actual area is 500. 750 is the super built area. “ But why should I pay for the super built area. Didn’t the supreme court says that a builder was supposed to charge as per the carpet area?” “Flat chahiye ki nahi bolo?” and the discussion ends there.

He finally reaches his home- his heavenly abode. Switches on the light. Power-cut. The power company informs him there has been a major fault in his area so it could take anything from 2-4 hours for the electricity to be restored.

Exhausted, he wants to call it a day. But before that Dinner. He opens the fridge, sees fresh juicy mangoes. “Aah finally.” Greedily, he digs into the mango, wanting to savour all the sweetness after such an awfully sour day. He can’t taste the sweetness. He digs digger yet what he gets to taste is something bitter. He looks down at his mango and realizes that what he has been digging is actually the seed. The juice has been happily sucked by someone else.