19 April 2011
I was waiting for my connecting flight ( for all those who HAVE to know- to Barcelona at the Geneva Airport) when I was reminded of something as I watched travellers browse through the various high-end shops.
Some years ago on a rather dull evening I was sitting by the Masunda lake popularly known as TALAOPALI in Thane. Just for you to know, it is a noisy place buzzing with traffic and people- children who have come for motor boat rides, street food vendors selling everything from tangy bhelpuri (now served in thin paper plates) and spicy chana chat wrapped in the pages of some old magazine to bright yellow coloured popcorn and dark pink candy floss. From beggars and balloons, cheap Chinese toys, a tiny aquarium selling fish in tiny plastic bags, small merry-go rounds and other manually operated rides, Tongas ( horse carts) hustling back and forth, bubbles blowing out of a 20 Rupee bubble making set to gajre walis and pavements littered with wrappers and leftovers, the place has it all. And well, for couples young and old it is like Thane’s very own Bandstand. So one day as I was sitting by the lake munching on some chana, a couple came and sat next to me. The boy was conversing in Marathi about weather and work and then he said something to the girl that caught my ear. He lamented, “You know, I have always wanted to buy a branded shirt- Arrow or maybe Louis Philip. The material is so good and when the shirt is expensive it shows. I wonder what it must feel to wear branded clothes. Just now it is impossible to buy such a shirt in the salary that I earn. But there will come a day when I’ll actually buy one”.
Different people, different aspirations, different dreams. At one end there are children who cannot have enough of their Barbies and i Pads and Gaming stations and at the other end there are children who save every penny to buy a candy or a balloon. On one hand there are women eyeing the latest Prada purse or the new Omega watch and on the other hand there are women toiling hard each day and treating themselves with only a gajra or bangles on festivals. There are people for whom going on a holiday means an evening at ‘Chowpatty’ and there are others who travel to exotic locations three times a year. While for some eating out means having a wada-pav and a cold drink, for others it is dining at the finest gourmet restaurant.
Such are the inequalities of our desires and needs.
