Salt Pangs

At most times there was alcohol in the house if not salt. Not that he was a big alcohol consumer but he liked to show off his wares in that segment. Partly it was to make a statement that he has tasted all the varieties and partly it was to have a pompous display. At times he did take a peg or two but that he took it from the cheapest brand and left all the costly brand bottles untouched for display to his friends. Now why would a person accumulate the best bottles if not to consume or sell them at a later date. The second option had never crossed his mind. One day his son asked him half seriously, "Hey why don't you give me one of your best bottles. The father jocularly remarked "Will give you the best bottle when you get a good job". Having failed in his graduation 3 times, this was a big blow to the teenager's ego. Now about the salt. Both parents had BP and they shunned salt and that partly established the reason for the low salt storage at home but not quite fully the truth. The actual reason was not known to anyone but family lore says that the great grandfather lost all his money in the salt pan auctions and hence salt was considered bad for the family.

The young son after several attempts, did not make the college examinations and as chance would have it, decided to invest a little money that he had borrowed from his friends into a business and it was all about retail salt selling. The nature of the business was unknown to the family and the only thing that the parents knew was that he would travel to Gujarat often for a week and the reason given at home was that the travel was to procure stock for the business. The family's attempts to unearth the nature of business bore no fruit. Very soon the business went from retail to large scale whole sales and to the young man's luck business kept prospering.

Very soon a house, a car and another house followed and along with it soaring expenditure patterns and pleasure activities of which liquor was one of them. Soon he was becoming a victim of alcohol and the father saw before his very eyes, his son's rise in the society and also the fall in his personality and economic status. One day, the father called the son and asked him, if he could do anything to help the situation. The son stared blankly at the bottle that was denied to him a few years back. He kept his stare on the bottle for some time and then said, "till date I don't have what it takes to get that bottle."