Whom to be blamed?

Me: Hi uncle, How are you? How is everything since this dreaded COVID came about? How are you managing?

Ilaiah: What is there to tell? Everyday I’d start my day going from one house to the other, from one street to the other across the town, selling leafy vegetables. This job would end by 10 o’clock in the morning. Then I’d join my next shift t a theatre where I’d work at the counter by selling movie tickets. This was my daily routine. My son meanwhile works at an private engineering college as an accountant with some respectable salary which was enough to happily manage the household.

Since march 14, theatres have been shut. So I’ve not being paid. College too has been shut since then. The theatre owner paid me my salary for the March-April months but stopped paying since June. Usually in the summer months when the college would be shut, we’d manage without any discomfort but this time it’s very different. I’ve been trying to sell those leafy vegetables again but hardly anyone purchases. So I lose out on that in a big way. 

Since the college is shut, God knows till when, my son is at home all the time. On top of this, my daughter who was pregnant, gave birth to a child. The hospital expenses for that was nearly Rs 50,000. A few days later, even my daughter-in-law had to deliver and gave birth to a child. This meant additional hospital expenses in this crisis situation. Thus expenses have only been shooting up each day while sources of income are disappearing rapidly.

Thinking out of the box, i decided to switch from usual vegetable crops and grow some new crops. But now due to the heavy rains in the last two-three months, i am afraid the crop has been spoiled and i incurred a significant loss. This has put me in dire straits. What more can i say? Even for the theatre owner, it’s a loss. For him to sustain his livelihood, theatre has to run right? Only then will he be in a position to pay us all. That hasn’t yet happened.

The college has to function to be able to pay my son his salary. Even that hasn’t yet happened. If my son-in-law wanted to take my daughter and the new born child back to his home, he too would need some proper work and money in his hand to sustain their family right? Being a farmer isn’t easy anymore. I thought of making money by cultivation and the rains had wreaked havoc and put me in losses. I don’t know what has caused all this. Do you?

Imagine how many millions of agricultural workers and farmers are undergoing what he’s undergoing, across the big nation. Who’s going to take responsibility for all this? Despite all these problems that still manage to smile and try moving on. So, what’s stopping you from doing the same?