Fire On The Ocean
Introduction
So here I was waiting in the queue at McDonald's, the
world just goes around and these are the one’s you call friends, people who
never call you up and never call back, so these people, eh ? These people you
wait for at fancy restaurants to have a nice quaint evening with, did that hash
brown make you happy, did that new SUV give you happiness, so these are people
you call friends !
“Listen,” she
said, “I am in bad shape today, it’s a long road home and don’t see anyone even
remotely close to a friend around me.” She was used to doping and drinking local
liquor, it kept the depression and unhappiness away and there was plenty of it,
no matter how hard she tried, in the night when she slept the nightmares were
ending.
Even when the going looked good, it was back to the
local shack, have a cup of tea, pay Rs 5 and get back home, she earned Rs 1400/
pm, “Really?” they had asked, “You mean a paltry $25.” She just nodded her head and said, “Yes.” She needed help but would never beg or ask,
it was way beyond slavery, she would never be a slave again.
“Thank You,” said the bartender, “that will be $200
for the night,” ah, and I flashed my credit card and signed up for $225. Life was easy and the going was good, that’s
when I heard the whistle blow, there were lots of folks like me around me, all
smiling and happy with there lives.
She wanted to
die and yet there was no place to go die, heaven or hell, it didn’t matter
anymore, Jesus or Allah, they were just imagery, creation of minds that were
dreaming and stomachs that were too filled with pastries and refined bread.
“Whoa,
I got a love as big as Mississippi, I am going to catch a prey.”
The Road Map to Freedom
My current focus group stays with Sefali Marik and Group
from the Magrahat Village from the 24 South Paraganas District in West Bengal.
Sefali Marik and her group of friends wanted to buy DC
Lighting systems for their homes, “What no Inverters?” my colleague asked and
they snapped back at him, “Inverter based systems are too expensive, give us DC
costing not more than Rs 15000/-.” What
batteries will you install in the
system,
“Eastman Batteries,” my colleague said nervously, we were a small company waiting for the right
contact and we had to talk straight to this lady, Sefali was hell of a lot
smarter than a lot of women we had met in the city.
She was
savvy, intelligent and down to earth, her eyes shown bright, “I will buy this
if it is quality stuff, the Lanterns you sold us earlier don’t even last 2
hours, I want a system that will handle lighting for 4 hours in the evening.”
We could
do that system ma am, it will cost way less than Rs 15,000 and will meet the
specification.
