By Harihar Tripathy
It was on the way to Bhubaneswar. An old man with wrinkled skin was sitting by the roadside, selling brinjals grown in his own backyard. When a ‘Babu’ (a wealthy man) stepped out of his car and asked for the price, the old man said, “Forty rupees a kilo.” The Babu immediately bargained, “Thirty-five!”
Finally, a kilo of brinjals was sold. The Babu handed over a 40-rupee note and insisted on getting his 5 rupees back. The old man searched his pockets but didn’t have a five-rupee coin. He could only manage to return 2 rupees. Thus, the deal was settled at 38 rupees. For the old man, that 38 rupees was his entire day’s earning—perhaps the only means to feed his family.
Back in his car, the Babu started scrolling through the news on his mobile phone. One headline caught his eye: “Vigilance Raid: A government official throws a bag containing 38 lakh rupees onto his neighbor’s roof to hide his illegal wealth!”
The irony was sharp—while one man struggled and begged for 38 rupees to survive, another was throwing away 38 lakhs to escape the law.
