Sunday, September 18, 2016

Story of two salaries

There is a saying in Odia which roughly transliterated means - One needs to squeeze only two grains of rice to enure that the full bowl of rice is properly cooked.

In that context, these are couple of true stories which might appear stranger than fictions to some, but not to those folks back home who are familiar with the milieu.

It's not a joke as I know both of these gentlemen personally, so let me call them Mr. X and Mr. Y for the heck of it. Both are currently serving the Sarkar (government) in Odisha. One of them is in the payroll of the government with half salary, the other one with full salary.

Let's talk about the gentleman Mr. X, who works for half salary. Yes, half salary, though it might sound strange. The reason - he was suspended from his job on charges of corruption, ending up staying home, still getting half of his salary (it's ludicrous for paying someone for not working, though it's another matter, he had accumulated enough for his 7 generations, per his own admission).

More ludicrous was the government restoring his job, hhile the ungoing investigation still going on, he still receiving his "Half salary" in full. More than 5 years since he boasts of making at least 50 lakh extra bucks every year, his "half salary" be damned.

Next follows the saga of the other gentleman, Mr. Y serving with "Full Salary" from the beginning. Once burglars broke into the gentelman's house and fled with about Rs.5 lakh in cash. It peeved him to file a complaint at the local police station.

The Police, a strong believer in the ethics of "nothing wrong in stealing from the house of a thief", questioned the source of the stolen cash, leading to him ending up being couphed off another few lakhs by the police to close the investigation. Needless to say, Mr. Y regreted going to the police.

There were days, when corruption was done in hush hush, as folks were less BAHIA (shameless). Now LAZZA (shame) has been shown the door, as boasting about looting public money has become a status symbol.

A la Kishore Kumar's movie "Half Ticket", I now have a script ready for two prospective movies "Half Salary" and "Full Salary". They can be billed as inspired by true indents, with an underlinining disclsimer - The characters are NOT fictional, and any resemblance to any other characters is NOT purely coincidental. Any takers ?

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