A contagion like the coronavirus and accompanying lockdown of an entire can lead to shortages of short or long duration – as in any wartime – and trigger off all kinds of acts of cheating, lying, outright crime (hard to pin down oftentimes).
So it was the case with Shyamji who runs a local grocery store at Tonca Junction called Jack-of-All Superstore. He got a surprise one morning when he turned up at the store a little late to be present for the early morning Goa Dairy delivery of eight crates of packaged milk. The delivery truck guys usually leave the crates at the door of the store between 6am to 7am regardless of whether any store staff employee is present or not. Goa’s public transport system is nothing to write home about at the best of times and these were stressful times with everybody worried the coronavirus contagion lurking everywhere.
Everything worked normally till the coronavirus shortages hit town. That day when Shymji hurried in a little after 6.30am he was surprised to see – no Goa Dairy delivery of milk crates as per standing routine order. When customers started coming in for milk packets a forlorn Shyamjee still standing at the entrance of his store confided, “Koi mera doodh ke crates choora gaye!” (Someone has stolen my crates of milk!”) So no milk today, sorry. Maybe tomorrow.
Something like this had never happened before and he said he couldn’t even suspect anybody. Who would do this to him, steal his crates of milk? An amiable, trusting fellow, he was overwrought with the day’s loss and checked several times with Goa Dairy if their truck guys had done delivery that morning? Yes, yes and yes. Stolen or not, he would have to pay the Rs5,000 for the milk, his daily billing.
“But I didn’t get the milk,” protested Shymji, how can I pay for something I didn’t get? It was a stalemate and until he paid up the company refused to do any more deliveries. Since this incident there has been no more Goa Dairy milk packet deliveries at Jack-of-All Superstore and after a day or two he started stocking Warana, Amul and other milk packets coming from out of Goa. This is to say ask around and several stories of theft, loss, overcharging, sheer cheating on recycled goods are making the rounds.
One friend exclaimed that even the sugary Jery biscuit packets of Indonesia have gone soft within, although the outer wrapper look very new. She had come looking for Indian Nutri cream crackers, “But only the foreign biscuits were available in plenty and no Marie or Cream Crackers…” She was quite disgusted with the Indian love for “phoren biscuits.”
Coronavirus or no coronavirus something is wrong with how we do business in India! Do we blame the people or the government or both? Trust is no longer legal tender and are there any ethics around, or have we reduced life to riding smartarse merry-go-rounds of you cheat me-I cheat you and so on in a vicious cycle of vengeance! Call it a crisis more serious than any viral epidemic if you like.