Tomatoes

 As a rotund man of forty I wonder where life is headed. Things have been a little off the cuff and basically going nowhere. While everyone around me seems to be going places I am finding myself sinking deeper into a well. I wonder what is happening - is this how it feels when you are forty and a nobody. 

“Tomatoes?” 

I was just about filling my mouth with another spoonful of upma, still immersed in my project work when my wife pulled me out of my reverie. 

“We need Tomatoes” she said  

My heart missed a beat, I was feeling a little faint. The spoon slipped from my hand as I was brought back to the real world. 

I will save it for a different article to tell you about how unkind the real world is to an IT professional - who is living in his cocoon constantly moving from one screen to another screen to another screen. 

“The markets are falling and inflation is at an all time high, which includes tomatoes too” I retorted. 

“You know if we stop eating tomatoes and invest the same money in Asian Paints, Tata Chemicals, Tata steel or even Banks we will possibly not have to worry about the costs in the next eight to ten years” I added, chewing on another mouthful of upma after having collected myself.

“Why what have you done in the last eight to ten years? We should have been Ambanis or Jhunjhunwala, or at least been able to buy tomatoes without having to hear your diatribe” my wife snided 

“You wont understand, it takes time and patience. Stock market is not for people who lack those qualities. For example look at Mr. Naidu, he went on and bought a new car. Frankly what a waste of money. If he had instead invested in Stocks he would have been able to afford a Maybach instead” I said trying to sound smart. 

“Papa we dont want a Maybach, we only want an XUV 700” retorted my son who was contemplating on how to leave his unfinished plate of upma with as little confrontation as possible. 

“Well even Anand Mahindra has booked one for his wife and is on the waiting list. What chance do we normal people stand” I said winking at him. 

“Well In fifteen years kids would have moved out and we will be searching for a place to retire. What use will your stocks be of then?” my wife said before adding

“ …. And the way the last fifteen have passed I am sure we will still be haggling about tomatoes? ” my wife said, sounding furious. 

“I wish my father had better sense and found someone in public service. All you IT guys ever do is build castles in dreams and make excuses. Look at my sister's husband, they now have a huge bungalow. They even bought a Porsche last month. And all you have done is give us idle talks about Maybach while driving in an Alto” added my wife banging the plate on the sill. 

“Papa you never took us anywhere outside India. Look at Vindhya, her father just took them to Australia last year” my daughter chirped in helpfully.

I swallowed on my Upma and wondered how this conversation would end. There was an eerie silence as I looked from my son to my daughter and finally with some courage at my wife. None of them seemed amicable for a compromise. Well, to give them credit I should have been a millionaire by now instead of trying to add to my misley portfolio of stocks and mutual funds. I was for once quite happy that they did not insist on looking at the numbers. I wonder how all these buggers like my brother-in- law get rich. I was sure all of them resorted to something illegal, but who was going to explain that to this group? 

In fifteen years I was still trying to reach that magical one Crore while my Brother in law thought little of spending that much on his car. Whoever said that the world was a fair place? All that I did in the last ten years was to cut my budgets and hunt around for the best deals from Amazon to flipkart. The only thing that has changed in the last five years is that now I have to worry about Big Basket, Dmart, Dunzo, Zepto wondering who will give me the cheapest deal on tomatoes. 

I silently finished my Upma.    

“Honey I have added the tomatoes, do we need anything else from Big Basket please?”