Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Coffee Boy

I am used to going for coffee breaks during my office hours, and I go to the refreshment room more than often. Sometimes, I go all alone, and sometimes with my peers / colleagues. This time, I went to the refreshment room alone, and I noticed the coffee boy sitting over there. Though, he sits there everyday, as that is his duty of continuously sitting on same chair. However, that day I noticed him particularly because the room seemed to be empty compared to before. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Hello, sir.”

I looked at him. He had a short height, and was wearing his uniform, which the Coffee Vendor might have given him as the dress had a label of Coffee Vendor. He also had a glow on his face which was different from other coffee boys.

I smiled at him, and replied with a warm hello. I asked his name, and he said his name was Ram Saran. Then, I asked, where was he from? To this, he replied, “I am from Bihar.”

Then, it all started the saga of conversation. We started our conversation with the victory of India over Australia. He said, “Cricket has become rather a boring these days due to its excessive coverage with due respects from IPL and ICL” At first, I was a little amazed with his state of awareness. But, after a moment, I also joined the discussion by replying to him, “Yes, the craze is now all gone with heat of IPL and ICLs. At this, he said, “BCCI should spend money in venturing in other sports as well such as Hockey, Athletics, and so on.”

He said, “Hockey is our national game, and its state is no less than a mere beggar on streets, and the players have to pay themselves to be in the hockey team.”

I was again amazed to see how aware he is on the current affairs. He went on to talk about how media uses the news item to earn money, and how did the media used Saurav’s retirement news and flashed it on the news channels for 2 respective days, asking the viewers to SMS their views on whether Saurav should retire at this state. He also said, “It’s the same media that were against Saurav Ganguly when he wasn’t amongst runs, and was demanding to announce his retirement.” I kept on listening to him patiently, and realized that how much aware is the common man today, and it’s not a question of interest because it has become a necessity for a common man to be aware about what’s happening around the world.

At last, he said something, which moved me really. He said, “Poor is becoming poorer, and rich is becoming richer.” And, this is an underlying fact, which the Government hasn’t realized or is blind-folded to this realization. With the current market getting downsized, it may not affect the Tata’s, Birla’s, and Ambani’s to a large extent but it will certainly affect the common man because they are not the richest people on earth. Instead, what they need is twice a meal in a day. That’s, what they are looking for. Of course, they want to live life king-size, but their first priority to feed their family. I wonder sometimes that the difference between the rich and poor will finish, and poverty will be really eradicated as our dear politicians promise every time there is an election.

2 comments:

Nitin Mahajan said...

great to know that the common man is so aware of the current affairs, the problems, and their impact on our country and the countrymen.

Anonymous said...

yes poor r becoming poorer n rich people r getting richer.but the same can be eradicated by education.though u will be surprised that as per a survey only 2% of the people in the entire world r earning Rs 10000/ per month.so the gravity of the situation can be understood.
jafar mustafa
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