Free poppers
The season of fresh fruits is here.
But the prices have also skyrocketed. Guess which is the most expensive fruit today? Papayas of course! A papaya weighing not more than half a kilogram sells at 120 Rupees.
Then there are grapes, strawberries (but the recent hailstorm has spoilt the entire strawberry farms) watermelons, citrus fruits including gooseberries…you name it, you have it.
But how many can afford to buy fruit.
So expensive are fruits in Shillong that vendors won’t even let you taste a measly grape!
Although there are professional tasters who go from shop to shop asking to taste grapes and ending up not buying any!
But guess who controls the fruit market and why we are paying more.
If there is dadagiri in Mumbai the same operates here as well.
Hafta is collected without fails and the collectors unfailingly defend their actions by saying that they do it for the “cause of their people.” Patriotism sure has downsides here.
Issues like the ILP are great for terrorising the non-tribal vendors.
The result? Shillongites end up looking at the fruits with mouths watering but cannot afford to buy them.
It is only the ‘high class’ people who can afford anything today, complained the fruit vendor.
Prostitution alive and kicking
A lady complained to the local police that she kept getting calls repeatedly from a mobile number, 94367-03581.
The caller, a male, obviously got the wrong number because he spoke to the lady with familiarity, asking her to meet him at a certain hotel and telling her he would pay her the amount she asked for.
He must have recorded the wrong number of his paramour/mistress/commercial sex worker.
The lady requested the police to find out the name and address of the man which they promptly did.
But this just goes to show that men solicit sex workers as much as they are ready to oblige, ‘for a price.’
This is perhaps the most lucrative business around. Everything else is affected by the economic downslide.
Domino’s Pizza and traffic jams
Domino’s Pizza promises delivery within half an hour but in Shillong’s traffic jammed hours the messengers on motor cycles often bang into people’s vehicles from behind because they are in a tearing hurry.
If this happens too often Domino’s will lose all its profits in compensating angry car owners who hate their cars being kissed in the “backside.”
A case of too many thieves?
A visit to Vishal Mega Mart in downtown Shillong is always full of surprises. If you are a lady, sometimes your handbag is turned inside out.
At other times you just enter without much fuss. Last Saturday there was a new method of preventing pilfering from this overcrowded supermarket. Two lady security staff not only checked the handbags but also sealed them off with plastic cords (like the ones that are used by airlines to lock the suitcases left unlocked).
An irate customer asked why this punishment and how was she going to take out her purse if her bag is sealed. The smart security personnel told her to go to the payment counter after the end of her shopping and the accounts clerks behind the counter would help open up her handbag. Later they told the lady customer that there are too many thieves (nongtuh) who enter and supermarket on a daily basis and pilfer off a lot of goods. “But don’t you have CCTV cameras all over?” asked the customer. “The CCTV cameras are rewound and checked at the end of the day. So even if the shoplifter’s face is seen how do you track him/her considering people come from all over Meghalaya to shop at Vishal’s,” retorted the security women. That’s the price Vishal pays for big sales and ‘buy one get one free’ deals. Incidentally, the security women informed that women are the biggest culprits as far as shoplifting is concerned.