And now forget the joint family culture, we don't even have time to talk on call. Remember those landline days? The whole family gets to talk at once from that one relative's call. I mean we have got all the time in life - from unnecessary surfing net to window shopping online but we have got no time to even call and ask for wellness to our own family members. It suddenly hit that how I used to love to go to my Nani's place (Calcutta) and now whenever I call her ( once in a blue moon coz every time she calls me - shamefully admitting my casual attitude ), she yells at me to the maximum of her least capacity that why I don't call her (which is so true). ![]() I mean when was the last time you tried to learn some old cooking recipe from your grandma? Do you know that the more the vegetables and fruits have traveled, the more it loses its essential nutrients? Why are we so fascinated with the western culture and not ready to adapt our own culture? I mean eating ghar ke bane hue laddu still gives me more pleasure and happiness than those Haldiram or Bikaner laddu. Not to forget we have been way much influenced by the western culture and have adapted almost everything from them including the vegetables and fruits that we eat. I mean we now pay for the gym membership to exercise the same cycle exercise and brisk walking (What even!?). Like earlier, people used to cover the distance by walking or using a bicycle ( which was a daily routine ) but now we do the same activity to fulfill our necessity of being fit or if our doctor has prescribed us to do so. The way we are adopting such clothing fashion so rapidly, shouldn't we be adapting our old but logical customs with that pace? I miss the smell of the chulha and the food cooked on it.Not to forget that the fashion trends of the 60s and 70s of wearing chokers and bell bottoms are back in trend and catching up the long lost flare of sassy fashion. I just want to go back to my village once my children grow up. What do you expect from the government? I don’t expect anything from the government. Till then we have to inhale kerosene smoke and eat this mitti ka tel ka khana (food that smells of kerosene). ![]() Once my elder son (17 years) starts earning, we will buy a gas stove. But the kerosene stove can also be unsafe, can’t it? Maybe, but I don’t care because kerosene is all that I can afford. That illegal gas stove was too dangerous. I couldn’t work and I had to beg to pay the rent. It exploded one day and I was badly burnt. A few years ago, I bought a single-stove gas cylinder. I don’t have a husband and I have to look after three children. I don’t have the money to buy a gas cylinder or to put a katiya (illegal electric cable connection). But some of your neighbours have gas and electricity? They buy gas on the black market or steal electricity using cables. People like us can’t live without kerosene. I don’t make more than Rs 4,000 a month and half of it goes into kiraya (rent) and mitti ka tel. So how much do you spend on kerosene every month? Not less than Rs 1,000. So, I started buying it from another shopkeeper who charges more money but delivery is guaranteed. The ration shop man also wanted double the sarkari price for oil and he never opened his shop. Even after I paid the money, they didn’t give me the card. ![]() Everybody wants ghoos (bribe) to make a card or to give kerosene. I am from Agra and though I have been living here for 10 years, I don’t have a card. Why do you beg? Don’t you have access to the local ration shop? For that you need a ration card. Most of the time though, I’m begging others to sell or lend some oil to me. Sometimes if my luck is in and somebody needs the oil desperately, I sell it just to make some money.
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