A master stroke of Amit Shah to terminate Congress in Delhi....

Amit Shah was quite sure that BJP alone on its own wouldn’t have succeeded in washing out Congress from Delhi, hence chose to facilitate victory to AAP!!

This is how he managed it…..

BJP was confident about it’s traditional voters not going away from it. However the challenge was to convert AAP’s and Congress votes to BJP’s advantage.

After a while during the campaigning, he sensed that the people of Delhi still had a soft corner for Arvind Kejriwal and preferred him to be the Chief Minster, though didn’t favour ‘AAP’ as a ruling party as such.

By this time Amit Shah had learnt a few lessons from Congress defeat in the Lok Sabha election. One of the lessons was from the fact that the Congress had gone all out to malign the image of Narendra Modi in the campaigning; which had miss-fired. In the bargain Modi had won voters’ sympathy and eventually the election.

So now he developed a plan….

First step that Amit Shah took was to have a cover-up for Modi, just in case the plot worked and BJP had to lose. So he brought in Kiran Bedi as a Chief Ministerial candidate.

Second step, BJP used the Congress strategy and went all out against Kejriwal personally by talking all rubbish things about him and his funding.

This was to ensure that no ‘non BJP’ vote would go to Congress. People had already perceived Kiran Bedi as an opportunist, hence wouldn’t have voted for her.

Just with a bait of CM’s position, she had moved her loyalties; otherwise just a year or so ago she was with Anna Hazare shouting her throat out to describe BJP and Narendra Modi in the dark shade.

Third step, He portrayed AAP as the only competitor in the election.

The traditional Congress voters got confused. Their heart wanted Congress to win but the head said that BJP was likely to win. So they decided not to waste their vote and give any chance to BJP, hence went out and voted for AAP.

So what was the outcome??

Bigger turn around of voting in Delhi.

BJP retains it’s vote percentage. Kiran Bedi owns up the responsibility for not converting it in to a winning number.

AAP gets a thumping victory.

And most importantly Congress is washed out.

The game is over!!!

Though Amit Shah would have said to himself that BJP won at least three seats to save it's skin; otherwise in the process it too would have got washed out!!!

And Narendra bhai would have said, “unka supada bajate bajate tumne to apna hi……!!!”

(Please note that it is a satire and in a lighter vein too.)

The option of NOTA vis a vis AAP

In this election, pressing button meant for (NOTA) is as good as wasting your vote; this will not work. Even if you feel that no candidate is worth your vote, please understand that there are many others who would vote for them and one of them is bound to win.

Look at it from the perspective of these candidates.  They would absolutely not care if you vote for NOTA as long as you are not voting for their opponents. As a matter of fact they will smirk at you by calling you irrelevant to the system.

It would have been a different picture had there been an option to say that a particular candidate is not wanted.  It would act as a ‘negative marking’ system in an exam. To explain it let me put it this way…. If a particular candidate gets 100 votes in his favor and gets 40 votes against him, then the total votes to his account would be 60.

In this situation candidates would be scared of the voters. It would make them more sensitive towards public in general.

Anyways that’s a different topic for discussion. 

Pressing NOTA would be equivalent to an invalid vote in the olden days on account of not properly putting a stamp against any one candidate.  This doesn’t help the cause of rejecting candidates.

Few people rejecting the candidates will not stop one such ‘not wanted’ candidate to win.  Let us accept this fact that one such candidate will occupy the chair of power; and then decide what we should do.

It is often said that a Government can work responsibly only if there is a strong opposition party.

Today it is widely accepted that Narendra Modi led Government will win this Loksabha election. Hence effectively you are wasting your vote if you give it to any other candidate. 

So if you are likely to waste your vote this way, then let us think in a different way….

There is not going to be any party with major numbers to sit in the opposition and act as a watch dog in the parliament.  The in-fights amongst rest of the parties will not allow them to unite in order to put up a strong opposition.  Besides most of the leaders of these so called opposition parties have grey track records that is often used by the parties at the centre to silence them.

What is needed is an option that has clean record and honest intentions.    

This brings us to a party that is new but inexperience to fight and win against the existing set of cunning leaders.  Yes that is ‘Aam Aadmi Party’.

Recently we have seen how the chatoor leaders from BJP and Congress trapped AAP in Delhi and finally managed to eliminated it.

There can be a lot of points of debate in favor and against this party but one thing that no one will challenge is the honesty of the leaders of AAP.

Both the main frame parties of India i.e. BJP and Congress were shocked to see the vote share captured by AAP in Delhi.  Immediately both of them ran into action to marginalize AAP and how cleverly they managed it!!

Let us not debate on this particular issue but a point that I am trying to drive is that the major parties of India are worried of the emergence of AAP.  It would not be possible for these parties to buy out AAP leaders and suppress all the possible scams and corruption scandals of the past and future.

All of us know that like any other non BJP party, AAP cannot win this Loksabha election.  Hence one may say that giving vote to AAP is like wasting your vote; just like I claimed in case of voting for NOTA.

But here the difference between voting for NOTA and AAP is that a signal will be given to the rest of the parties that AAP’s vote share is increasing.  If they continue with their corruption recklessly, a day will come when AAP will get a majority of Indian vote share.

This will prove to be a deterrent for them.  This is the message we should send out to them.

In fact I would go a step further and say that even if one wants Modi to become the prime minister, he should give his vote to AAP.  The logic is that in any case Modi and his candidates are going to form the Government. What possibly will happen is their margin of win will be reduced but the inflated vote share of AAP is what will keep Modi and his Government on their toes.

PS: This is not any attempt to campaign for AAP party.

A debate - Do sports help in building self confidence?

The other day we had a very good playing session of a new sports called Pickle Ball.  After the game, around five of us, settled down for a re-energizing session in a hotel and were discussing sports in general.

Interestingly one of us, Ashay Mahajan, a Chartered Accountant, said that sports had given him confidence that he could not get from education.  I heard somebody saying this for the first time in my life and he meant it too.

This statement, though strange to my ears, propelled me into my past.

Let me share one incidence of my school days.

In our school a peon used to circulate notices in all class rooms during the lectures.  On one such day, a peon entered our classroom with a notice that announced an oratory contest in the school and solicited participation from students.

The class teacher read out the notice and asked the students to volunteer their participation by raising hands.  To her surprise not a single hand was raised.  She repeatedly appealed for three times but the response was the same.  The furious teacher said, “What is this? You, otherwise a class full of mischievous students, continuously chattering in the class and how come no one has courage to participate in this contest?”

Still there was no response from the students.

Finally she roared, “Alright I shall give a final opportunity.  If no one raises hand in the next one minute, then I shall on my own select few of you and that will be the final list.”  

And the inevitable happened.  Not a single hand went up and the teacher called upon names of students who according to her were the brats.  It was as if she got another opportunity to punish them.

As expected my name featured in her list by default.

Few of us started grumbling by saying that they would not be able to speak in front of a big gathering.  That further made her wild.  She immediately yelled, “You cowards! you all are such a noise in the classroom. You don’t stop chattering despite stern warnings and now you are trying to say that you cannot speak?  I don’t buy this.  If you are not able speak at the contest then you will say what I tell you to say, but no way you shall not participate.”

The speech prepared by the teacher was as follows and according to her each one would go on the dais, say that and return.

“My name is so and so, I am from division ‘C’ of the seventh standard, my roll number is so and so, and I cannot speak in front of you hence I am withdrawing from the contest.” 

                                                                                                   

Everyone of us was determined to give it back to the teacher by saying just the same and leave the dais. 

But I decided otherwise, I wanted to show that I was bold enough to address big gathering.  I accepted the challenge and started mugging up a story of a boy who sold sweets during the day time for earnings and studied in a night school. Eventually he became a successful man.  I practiced in front of a mirror for a few times.  Then I was all prepared and ready to fire guns.

On the day of the contest the auditorium was packed with students and teachers.  It was as if the entire school had descended in the auditorium.  The look of it made us skip a couple of heart beats.  Anyways I didn’t allow it to deter me. 

The contest began.  Initially it was a turn of other divisions.  The students came one after another, spoke confidently and went.  Then was the turn of our division.  The names were announced and one after another they went on the dais and said exactly the same that the teacher had asked to say and withdrew from there.

The entire auditorium burst into laughter.  All started booing my mates.

And my name was announced.  A teacher sitting at the edge of the dais sarcastically asked me if I were to follow the same suit.  I just ignored the taunt and walked pass him and took position on the dais.  The moment I saw the gathering, my whole self immediately became numb.  I could not remember anything.  I didn’t know what to do. Like a paralytic person my eyes rolled and fixed at the ceiling, my hands began rolling the bottom of my short pants.  I became complete blank. Somehow I started speaking but could not progress much.  To my biggest embarrassment, I withdrew from there. The teacher who had forced my name gave a victorious smile to me. I had lost. I had lost because lack of confidence to face a big gathering.

Time passed by… After graduation I pursued my studies further.   We were a big group of friends that joined a library where we used to study rigorously.  After completing our respective professional qualification, we had organized for a thanks giving program.  We had thought of showing our gratitude to the trustees and management of the library for offering an excellent facility.

One of the trustees was a renowned political leader Ms. Mrinal Gore, popularly known as Mrinal Taai / Paaniwali Baai.  She was on the dais amongst other distinguished invitees. The program was to conclude with her speech but at last moment, one of the trustees invited the audience to share their views before she began her speech.

My friends nudged me to go on the dais and in a split of a second I rose and reached the dais.  I must have spoken only for five minutes but received loud applause from everyone including Mrinal Taai.

Coincidentally the auditorium was the same.

That time I had experienced evolution of self confidence.  I personally have always maintained that education gives you confidence in life.

Sports definitely contributes a lot in building a person. It certainly develops one's personality. It teaches to digest defeats and wins.  

However Ashay had given a different angle to sports.

एका म्हशीची गोष्ट / A Story of a buffalo

माझ्या लहानपणीची गोष्ट आहे. शाळेत जाताना गोरेगांव रेल्वे स्थानकाच्या बाजूला असलेल्या म्हशींच्या बाजारातून आम्ही मुले चालत जात असू. एके दिवशी बघितले तर तिकडे एक मोठी लॉरी उभी होती. तिच्या मागच्या उघड्या बाजूला एक रुंद लाकडाची फळी लावली होती.  त्यावरून म्हशींना लॉरीवर चढवत होते.  त्यांना दुसऱ्या बाजारात नेण्यात येत होते.

काही म्हशी शांतपणे फळीवरून चढत लॉरीमध्ये निमुटपणे जाऊन उभ्या राहत होत्या परंतु काही म्हशी फळीवर चढायला तयार नव्हत्या. त्यांना फळीवर चढवायला चार पाच भैये प्रवृत्त करत होते तरीसुद्धा त्या ऐकायला तयार नव्हत्या. शेवटी भैयांनी त्यांच्यावर जबरदस्ती करायला सुरुवात केली. प्रथम त्यांना फळीवर ढकलू लागले पण म्हशी फळीच्या दोन्ही बाजूने खाली उतरू लागल्या. भैयांना ते सहन नाही झाले. दोन भैये फळीच्या दोन बाजूला उभे राहिले व जश्या म्हशी फळीच्या बाजूला सरकायच्या तसे ते हातातल्या काठीने त्यांना मारून ठुस्कावून परतवू लागले. म्हशींजवळ आता काही पर्याय उरला नव्हता. फळी वरून परत फिरले तर मागे दोन भैये, बाजूने पळायचा प्रयत्न केला तर दोन्ही बाजूला एक असे दोन भैय्ये उभे. म्हशी त्यांच्या माराला घाबरून शेवटी फळीच्या चौथ्या दिशेला म्हणजे लॉरीमध्ये जाऊ लागल्या.

सर्व म्हशी लॉरीत गेल्यावर चारही भैये विजयी मुद्रेने एकमेकाकडे बघू लागले. एकाने लॉरीचा मागचे फळकुट वर करून साखळीने घट्ट बांधून बंद केले व लॉरीवर एक काठी मारून, चालकाला निघायचा आदेश दिला. लॉरी त्या म्हशींना घेऊन निघाली. चारही भैय्ये आपल्या पराक्रमावर खुश होऊन, कपाळावरचा घाम फुसत, बाजूच्या चहाच्या टपरीवर जाऊन चहाचे भुरके मारत बसले.

मी त्या म्हशींची किंव करावी कि त्या भैय्यांच्या सफलतेचे कौतुक करावे ह्या संभ्रमात शाळेच्या दिशेने चालू लागलो.

काळ असाच पुढे सरकत गेला, वर्षानंतर वर्षे मागे पडू लागली. २००५ साली झालेल्या सार्वजनिक निवडणुकीनंतर कॉंग्रेसने समविचारी पक्षांचे गठबंधन करून सरकार सरकार स्थापन केले व अचानक भारताच्या उद्योगवृद्धी दराने चढती घौडदौड सुरू केली. बांधकाम उद्योगाने तर सर्वांनाच चकीत करून टाकले. घरांच्या किमती एक दोन वर्षातच तीन चार पट वाढल्या.

मला अजूनही स्पष्ट आठवते, माझा मित्र २००५ साली मुंबईत अंधेरीला एक घर घेत होता. साधारण २४ लाखाला त्याला ते मिळत होते परंतु त्याने २२ लाखाची तयारी दाखवली. घरमालकाने २४ चा आकडा तर माझ्या मित्राने २२ चा आकडा पकडून ठेवला व तो सौदा झालाच नाही. मित्राची नोकरीतून बदली झाली व तो पुढील दोन वर्षांसाठी इंग्लंडला निघून गेला. तो परतला तेव्हा त्याच घराचा भाव साठ लाख झाला होता. आता ते घर दोन लाखासाठी सोडाच तर पूर्णपणे त्याच्या आवाक्याबाहेर गेले होते.

पुढे २००८ साली जागतीक अर्थव्यवस्था अशी काही मंदीच्या खाईत पडली की आजमितीपर्यंत ती स्वतःला सावरू शकली नाही. भारताची अर्थव्यवस्था काही ह्याला अपवाद नव्हती, आपल्याकडेही बहुतेक सारेच उद्योग अजूनही मंदीचा सामना करत आहेत. देशातील विविध क्षेत्रातील विद्वान आपापल्यापरीने सरकाराला मंदीतून बाहेर पडण्याचे उपदेश देत आहेत परंतु परिस्थितीत काही जास्त फरक पडला नाही.

गेली दोन एक वर्षे गृहबांधकाम उद्योग, कमी विक्रीमुळे शांत पडला आहे. बिल्डर्स सतत सरकारला, ग्राहकांना घरे खरीदण्याचे प्रोत्साहन देणाऱ्या योजना बनविण्यासाठी साकडे घालत आहेत. त्यांच्या मते गृहकर्जे स्वस्त केली म्हणजेच त्यावरील व्याजदर कमी केला तर घरांची विक्री वाढेल. दुसरी एकसूचना गृहकर्जे देणाऱ्या संस्थांनी मांडली की गृहकर्ज परतफेडीवर व त्यावरील दिलेल्या व्याजावर आयकरात सूट दिली तर ग्राहकांना कर्जे घेण्यास प्रोत्साहन मिळेल.

आश्चर्याची गोष्ट म्हणजे एकही माणूस बिल्डर्सना घरांच्या किमती कमी करण्याचा उपदेश करत नव्हता. सर्वांच्या मते ह्या मंदीच्या रोगाचे मूळ कारण ग्राहकच होता. जिथपर्यंत तो घरे घेण्यासाठी पुढे येणार नव्हता तिथपर्यंत मंदी उठणार नव्हती. थोडक्यात जो काही इलाज करायचा तो म्हणजे ग्राहकाला जबरदस्ती ठुस्कून पुढे ढकलणे हाच होता. सगळ्याचा कहर म्हणजे काही दिवसांपूर्वीच आपल्या वित्तमंत्र्यांनी एक विधान केले की बांधकाम उद्योग सध्या संकटातून जात आहे व त्यांना सरकारने मदत नाही केली तर तो मरून जाईल.

आणी मला म्हशींचा प्रसंग आठवला.

नजरे समोर चित्र उभे राहिले त्यात लॉरी म्हणजे बिल्डर्सचा आ वासलेला हावरा जबडा फळीच्या एका बाजूला बिल्डर्स तर दुसऱ्या बाजूला कर्जे देणाऱ्या संस्था व माठीमागे सरकार. फरक एकच होता तो म्हणजे फळीवर बुद्धीवादी ग्राहक होते. बुद्धी ग्राहकाला लॉरीत जाण्याची अनुमती देत नव्हती तर सरकार उघडपणे ग्राहकाला काठीने ठुसकण्याचे काम करू शकत नव्हते! फळीच्या दोन्ही बाजूचे कधी काकुळतीने तर कधी डोळे वटारून सरकारला खुणा करत होते की अरे बाबा जबरदस्तीने नाही तर गोंजारून तरी म्हशीला लॉरीत चढवा !!

An open letter to the Finance Minister

Hello Mr. Finance Minister,

I know that now a days you are in immense pressure of putting together budget exercise at a time inflation, current account and fiscal deficit and what not, is haunting the Indian Economy but I am sure you will come out winner with flying colours.

In the recent past you have been warning all of us about the ill effect of ‘Gold Rush’ on the current account deficit and inflation. The point is well taken.

However there is a bigger monster called ‘Real Estate Bubble’ that needs to be addressed rather than spurt in Gold prices.

Let me try to explain;

There was a general perception formed that RBI, despite so many hints from your ministry to reduce interest rates, was not obliging. Instead it continued to cite an excuse that the inflation was not within tolerable limits to reduce interest rates.

Many a times you had not liked this reasoning by RBI and sometimes you were very vocal about it too.

Most of the India’s illustrated industrialists, time and again ridiculed RBI’s thinking by questioning if RBI could tame inflation by keeping interest rates high for so long. In fact according to them higher interest rates were detrimental to the economic growth. Major capital investments were kept on hold because of the high interest cost.

Further they advocated that a better and long term solution to tackle inflation was to boost economic growth by reducing interest rates. They felt that the inflation was not too high as it looks because the major contributor to the inflation figure was food inflation. Hence the food inflation should be viewed separately and treated differently. They argued that increasing interest rates would help taming general inflation but certainly not the food inflation because the real issue was from the supply side and not demand side. Hence it was essential to improve the food supply rather than keeping interest rates high.

One cannot deny that the issue of food inflation is actually a monster in the making.

It is agreed that it is a supply side problem but what are the reasons for this? Drought? Storage facilities? Distribution Network? Or less produce? All these are contributing to it in their own proportion.

However in future, one factor i.e. less produce is going to assume bigger magnitude.

Here comes the ‘Real Estate Bubble’ into play.

Has anybody thought of the impact of the ‘Real Estate Bubble’ on the food inflation? Yes, there is a direct consequence of it.

Since 2005-06 due to the realty boom, the land prices have shot up beyond any reasoning. The greedy builders were on the land buying spree over the years, till may be up to last year. They thought that fatter the land bank brighter would be their profit projections and they started buying land as if there was no tomorrow.

This resulted in hefty offers to the farmers for their land. A current generation farmer felt that he would not see so much money in his entire life time, if he had to continue cultivating land for the rest of his life or may be few more generations to come. The natural option that he exercised was to sell land. He thought that if he had money he could always buy grain from the market rather than producing it himself. He chose to absolve himself from the hectic procedure of cultivating land.

The greed of builders had descended on farmers now.

They started selling land for hefty amount and realizing their distant dreams. They built bigger houses equipped with latest amenities. They bought latest and costliest brands of cars. One has to visit villages to see for himself the number and brand of cars owned by the farmers and their lifestyle. They would put an average urban rich in to complex.

However this was a one time income and one time spend. So the initial outcome was what the economist called as ‘Consumption Driven Economic Growth’. This was reflected in the inflated profit margins of FMCG companies. Not to forget there was no follow up income to sustain continuous consumption in the long run.

On a flip side, due to hoarding of land by the builders, the land available for actual cultivation has contracted resulting in lower agricultural produce. This is one of the causes of ‘supply side’ issue of food inflation.

At the moment one may debate that this impact is not much to be worried about. But if the real estate bubble continues then trust me it is the worst dinosaur in the making.

Some time ago Mr. Finance Minister, you had made a very prudent statement that the need of the hour was to release money that has got blocked in real estate. This money had to come into circulation in order to boost liquidity and improve economic activities.

Unfortunately we didn’t see any follow up.

On the other hand the builder lobby as if ignorant to the ‘bubble’, has always advocated for various ways of inducing buyers to buy their unsold inventory. One such way is to reduce interest rates. Their justification is that it would make cheaper loans with lower EMI, available to the buyers.

It is very painful that industrialists and builders are giving advice that suits their interest without giving any importance to Indian economy as a whole and people at large.

But Mr. Finance Minister, it is you who should take an objective view of the situation in the interest of the nation. You should not fall prey to such ‘interested advices’.

The common man of India is looking up to you to take judicious action to burst this bubble.

Please don’t fall into trap of the realtors grumble that real estate industry is in trouble and it needed Government to support it.

They need to be educated the meaning of ‘Industry in trouble’. An industry is said to be in trouble if there are no buyers to its products even at bare minimum prices and not when there are plenty of buyers eager to buy but because of the high prices, are not able to buy.

This is a case of ‘Buyers in trouble’.

Realtors are in financial problems because of their greed of hitting gold mine. They had initially reinvested their revenues in the land purchases and later borrowed money to pump up land bank. They chose to put money into hoarding land rather than developing it and selling the units.

I am sure you will prefer to address the issue of Indian economy as a whole than that of few interested sections.

Yours truly,

Avinash Mainkar

avi02@yahoo.com

Why do some people crave for limelight?

 

Yesterday a friend of mine introduced me to his friend named Ashok, a music composer. I was told that Ashok used to assist a famous music director of yesteryears from hindi film industry and now works independently. My friend was full of praises for him and I being a music lover was excited to meet such a person and listen to his experiences and achievements.

Listening to his praises, Ashok responded bitterly by asking my friend to stop praising and further said that it is different in Pune than in Mumbai.  In pune people would proudly say that so and so music composer hails from our Pune or he belongs to our Pune but this doesn’t happen in Mumbai.  He further added that forget people in Mumbai at large but even many of the residents of the society that he lived in, were not aware of his name despite having lived there for more than a decade.

That sent me thinking why people from filmy background are always craving for lime light and  recognition of people at large.

I felt like telling him that boss excuse me but in Mumbai there are many achievers and from various fields.  Film industry is not the only industry that exists in Mumbai. There are TATAs, Ambanis, Garwares etc. besides Bachchans and Khans.

I am sure that these people don’t crave for publicity or public attention like Ashok was expecting for his fraternity.

As a matter of fact I would say that the famous names from the film industry are a subject of general knowledge and in today’s world there are many people who don’t have adequate general knowledge.

The other day I was watching a film promo of Aamir Khan’s film, where he was asked few general questions such as who was the finance minster of India.  He could now answer one such question.  What would you say to that? Should that minister crib that he was not recognized in India? No, it is just that one Aamir Khan’s general knowledge lacked his mention. 

But what would happen if it were otherwise? People like Ashok would certainly grumble that a central minister of India is not  even aware of Aamir Khan!  

To justify his stance Ashok asked me that how many would know the names of the lyricists of the famous songs ‘Munni badnam hui’ or ‘Sheila ki jawani’.  I thought to myself that these names were better off to be forgotten like these songs would be forgotten after a while.  I for sure would want my child to remember lyricist of a song ‘Eh mere vatan ke logo’ rather than ‘Munni badnam hui’ if at all he had to remember names of lyricists of hindi film songs.

 

What do you say?

एक डिस्चार्ज  तसा आणी असाही

संध्याकाळची वेळ होती. मी माझ्या एका जवळच्या मित्राला भेटायला एका हॉस्पिटलात गेलो होतो.

इमारतीत शिरत असतानाच समोरच्या दरवाजातून एक पुरुष आणी एक बाई बाहेर आली. पुरुष एक व्हील चेयर ढकलत होता. चेयर मध्ये एक म्हातारे आजोबा बसले होते. बरोबर असलेल्या बाईच्या हातात एक कापडाची थैली होती, त्यात आजोबांचे कपडे, ओषधे वगैरे दिसत होते. जवळच एक मोटार गाडी उभी होती त्यात आजोबांना हळुवार पणे बसवण्यात आले आणि तिघेही निघून गेले. तिघांच्याही चेहेऱ्यावर एक सुटकेचे समाधान दिसत होते.

साधारण अंदाज आला कि आजोबाना आज डिस्चार्ज मिळाला होता व त्यांनी एक सुटकेचा निश्वास टाकून घरचा रस्ता पकडला होता.

मनात असाच एक विचार आला कि त्या तिघांच्या ह्या क्षणी काय भावना असतील? नक्कीच एका संकटातून सही सलामत बाहेर पडल्या सारखे वाटत असावे!

थोडा वेळ माझ्या मित्राबरोबर मी बसलो, गप्पा मारल्या. वेळ असाच निघून गेला. साधारण रात्री ९ वाजता त्याचे जेवण झाले आणी दहाच्या सुमारे मी त्याला निरोप दिला. रात्रीच्या वेळी बाहेर जाण्यासाठी मागचा दरवाजा वापरावा असे वॉचमन म्हणाला आणी मी मागच्या बाजूला गेलो.

दरवाज्याजवळ पोहोचणारच होतो कि अचानक वातावरणात भकासपणा जाणवू लागला. समोरच्या जिन्यावरून पाच सहा माणसे शांतपणे उतरत होती. इतक्यात बाजूच्या लिफ्टमधून दोन नर्स आणी एक वार्डबॉय स्ट्रेचर ढकलत बाहेर आले. माझ्या काळजात चर्र झाले. सफेद चादरीने झाकलेले शव त्या स्ट्रेचरवर होते. कोणा एका माणसाचा मृत्यू झाला होता व ती सर्व माणसे त्या मृत व्यक्तीला घेऊन हॉस्पिटलातून बाहेर जात होती.

मनात पुन्हा विचार आला ह्या व्यक्तीला हॉस्पिटलातून बाहेर निघताना काय वाटत असेल? त्याच्या चेहेर्यावरची प्रतिक्रिया काय असेल? पण आता तर त्याला काही भावनाच नाहीत!

परंतु हाहि एक डिस्चार्जच नव्हता का?