Nothing Comes Free

Loosening a little

Sunil was running helter-skelter to find the CM. Being the principal secretary to CM, Sunil was directly in the fire for the happenings of the day. After going through a few rooms in the palatial bungalow his worries tripled. That was when he heard the familiar smile mixed with the sounds of cough coming out of the closed room. As Sunil opened the room, he saw CM loosening his belt and removing his pants. As Sunil approached the CM, he picked up a samosa, started eating and was talking to Sunil at the same time.

“Don’t think otherwise Sunil, the tummy was feeling bloated, so I was loosening a little”, said the CM and continued gobbling on the Samosa.

“Sir, this is urgent. Can you please look”, said Sunil and handed the CM the paper.

“I will look at it. Meanwhile, can you show the Samosa and tea bills as some other office expenses? The opposition is getting hold of Samosa bills amounting to crores and complaining”, said the CM to Suresh.

Suresh had nothing but the news in his mind. But he vaguely nodded an agreement to CM, without clearly understanding what he was agreeing to. The CM dropped the paper aside and continued devouring the Samosas.

Empty stomachs and unpaid bills

Surender forced her mother to come with him to the newly opened clinic on their street. Radha went to a hospital once during the 1984 Sikh Riots. An angry crowd going through her street. They randomly broke things and angrily wielded their sticks. A stick slipped from an inebriated guy and hit Radha. Radha had to visit a hospital for some stitches, she could only afford a bandage. Post that she had to live on Prasadam which was given in the temple for a week. The icing on the cake was, that there were no Sikhs for at least three blocks around Radha’s house. From that day, Radha promised herself she was never going to visit a clinic.

“This clinic is not like that, believe me”, Surender tried to pacify his mother. Radha was sceptical.

Surender pointing to people around, said, “See so many like us. No one here is coming on bikes or cars. All are poor like us. They are not going to charge us; it is all free.”

What Surender does not know is that Radha visited a free government clinic the last time too.

After waiting for a few hours, Radha and Surender got to meet the doctor. It did not take the doctor long to diagnose the problem Radha had.

“What is my mother’s problem?” asked Surender.

“Same as everyone living around here”, the doctor replied.

“What?” asked Surender.

“Hunger and not having enough nutrition for many years”, said the doctor.

Surender felt defeated. He had decent work and felt he was able to give his mother enough food to keep her healthy. A few tears rolled out of his eyes. The mother too had tears as she felt a burden on her young son.

The doctor gave them a prescription filled with protein shakes and health drinks.

“Don’t worry about the bill. The government covers that as well”, said the doctor.

Surender felt a little proud that he voted for the right government. He could at least take care of his mother. The pharmacy gave Surender the medicines and the shakes. In all excitement, Surender did not go through the bill. After all, he had nothing to pay for.

On the way home, he got his mother a full plate of food and a big glass of lassi.

“Mom, you stay home and have the medicines the doctor gave. No need for you to work anymore. From now on I will take care of you.”

He promised her he would not let her go empty stomach. After all, he got a job in the government office at the smog tower.

Hidden costs and a few secrets

After finishing with his samosas and visiting the restroom the third time before lunch the CM finally picked up the newspaper the secretary had given him. He was shocked by the news on the front page.

“Two hundred crore corruption was noticed in the CM's favourite clinic initiative. The doctors write tests not required for the patients and in more than nine out of ten cases the tests are never done. The government is reimbursing the doctors for all these tests. It was a complete loss for the exchequer. This is not limited to the tests. The clinics are cheating the government in medicines, equipment, and salaries to personnel etc.”

The report went on to give details of many more of the issues with these clinics. The news added proof and first-person accounts in many cases.

The CM got very angry and called for the chief secretary.

“How can you let this happen?”, the CM asked the chief secretary.

“I tried telling you, sir. But the minister is your close compatriot”, the secretary replied to the CM.

“Okay, make a call to him and ask him to be here. I want to talk to him right away”, ordered the CM.

The health minister reached the CM’s house. But was hesitating to go in to meet the CM. The CM, on the other hand, was worked up waiting for the minister. He asked the Chief Secretary to call the minister again and check. The chief secretary walked out of the room and was ready to make a call. That was when he noticed the health minister in the lobby. The CS ran to the health minister and said, “The CM wants to meet you urgently. Why are you not coming in, sir?”.

“What is the urgency? Tell me first what happened?”, asked the minister.

The Chief Secretary handed the minister the newspaper.

“You should have called me before he saw this”, said the minister in a loud tone.

The secretary wanted to say, “I report to the CM, not you. Now, go in and explain the corruption”. 

But he could not. After all, he was a minister of the state. So, he remained mum.

They both started walking into the Chief Minister’s room. The secretary was happy that finally, the CM was going to discipline someone for corrupt practices.

The minister opened the door and greeted the CM.

CM did not speak a word but pointed to the newspaper.

“Let me explain. I did not.”.

The CM stopped the minister before he could finish his sentence and said, “You said there was only a hundred crores. The report shows two hundred crores. Why are you cheating me?”

All the excitement in the face of the secretary was gone.

Everyone had to pay at the end.

Radha had run out of medicine. Sunil said he would bring them. But he does not want to burden him more. So, she started to go to the clinic. When she reached the clinic, they asked her for the prescription the doctor gave her. That was only when she remembered it was with her son. The smog tower where her son was working was not far from there. So, she decided to go there and get the prescription. She walked there and noticed some commotion. As she reached the gate, she noticed it was locked. She initially thought it may be a leave today. But her son did not tell her anything about the office leave. Instead, he packed his lunch and started to the office earlier than usual. She anxiously looked at the locked gate and the commotion. That was when she noticed something out of the normal. The battalion of police. She got very concerned. Was there an accident? Did something happen to someone? Did something happy to her son? Before she could ask anyone, the crowd started to run helter-skelter. The police started a lathi charge.

Radha did not fear the crowd. She only wanted to know where her son was. She tried going opposite the crowd. But a concerned young man in the crowd dragged her out of there to a safe place. Police came to the exact location and were hitting everyone there. Many got injured. But Radha tried to go back to the office to find her son.

“Where are you going? Don’t you see what the police is doing?”, asked the young man who dragged Radha.

“My son. I want to see where my son is”, Radha replied to the young man.

“Who is your son?”, asked the man.

“Surender”, replied Radha.

“Surender is not here”, said the man.

“He daily comes to the office. This morning as well he said he was coming to the office and packed his lunch”, said Radha to the young man.

“I don’t know how to tell you this. The government did not pay us for almost six months. Surender left from here long back when he knew the job was not paying.”

Radha was speechless.

The young man continued ranting, “This government has money for crores of samosas. Crores for advertisements. But has no money to pay the people who work.”

Radha was a little relieved that her son had no accident or anything in the job. But it was replaced with a different concern. If not in this job, how was he paying for all the food. Where was he working? With the unanswered questions in her mind, she had no clue where to go. The young man realized what was going in the mother’s mind.

He said, “A few people got a job in a close by industry. You can go there and check if Surender is there.”

Radha walked briskly to the said location. She started to search for her son. A few moments and she had a moment of happiness and heart break at the same time. She found her son working there. But she was heartbroken that a graduate son of hers was cleaning up the waste and carrying it out to the disposal.

P.S.: The mother started to work from the next day without letting her son know as she realized the son was struggling to keep her healthy. The son was happy for the free medicines even with bloated bills. He never realized that her mother can never get healthy with him unemployed.