Festival Bonus

 

                                           Festival Bonus

Mohan was on his regular evening walk to Tower Park. There was an unusually huge crowd in front of the Ration shop. No surprise, it is the month of January and Pongal festival days are ahead starting next week onwards.

The shop distributes the extra quota of rice, sugar, and other cereals at controlled rates, to the BPL card holders during the Pongal celebration. In addition, they supply two varieties of clothes- dhoti and saree wares in Superfine and Fine qualities. Fine quality, one can see thro' whole of Tamilnadu whereas  Superfine is like a Chinese fishing net, you can see the whole of India, somebody said jokingly,  because it is so thin and refined.

The Ration shops are under the Block Co-operative Society. The Shop owner is responsible for maintaining records and has to submit monthly reports to the president on the stock of rice, sugar, and other items and the period's profit. The present President was removed by the Board due to corruption charges. A  retired Major in the area was made President at a shareholders' meeting and the idea was to control manipulation and black marketing of the products.

 
Once settled, rice, wheat, sugar, and other cosmetic items started moving to Major’s house from the Ration shop at lean hours or under the moonlight. Once the stock had become surplus, his house became a parallel society godown and a few friendly merchants took advantage by clearing the stock at a profitable price to them and the Major. 

As days passed, the Ration shop owners joined to discuss their margin loss despite giving the share to Major and made a complaint to the Board. The Board after due deliberation removed the President. Next came a more experienced retired Manager working in a Supermarket chain as the New President to clear the mess and improve the distribution system. He assured a positive change to the consumers but discreetly announced that he would take only half of the commission being paid to the ex-president.

While returning from the walk another day, Mohan saw there was a huge crowd shouting and howling at the Shop owner, and surprisingly the President was among them asking the reason for their agitation suddenly. One of the agitated complained about not issuing the superfine clothes to them and told the shop owner was hiding the clothes in the Almirah. And on a query from the President, the shop owner stated that it was wrong and he had only Fine clothes. Further, the President went inside and checked, and to his surprise, he noticed the super fine clothes were wrapped in separate bundles behind Fine quality clothes.

The public complaint was true and he came out and announced: "See folks, what you were saying is correct. Let me tell you from my experience. Fine clothes will last longer and the prices are also lower. Whoever wants the Superfine variety can buy them at a higher price.  Anyhow, the shop owner who lied and created a problem for you all is transferred to the Kattumedu Shop with immediate effect and he will leave tomorrow ".

There was no more demand for Superfine clothes and the President was seen off by departing crowd with  Zindabad and Jai ho sooner. 

The same day evening the shop owner met the President at his home and thanked him profusely for arranging his transfer to his hometown so quickly and handed over a bundle containing five Superfine dhoties!.

And roared, " Happy Pongal ..Saar !".

 

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