Two weeks ago, the a big news item was the income tax department's raid in our two megastars' homes. Has anyone heard about it afterwards? Did they find proofs of tax evasion? Have they been penalized? Who knows or cares?
The reason I brought this up is because of my cleaning lady whom I shall call Chechi. She likes discussing current hot topics with me and I indulge her with salacious titbits of the day when she comes three afternoons a week. Some background info: She is a single mother of three abandoned soon after the third child was born and has been raising her kids alone since then. She started out as a day-laborer and now has several houses now on her roster and spends the whole day going from one house/business to another as cleaning/cooking help.
So, there was Chechi wielding her broom while I was ironing clothes. I told her about the raid and mentioned that a couple of elephant tusks (it doesn't become ivory till it's made into something, right? ) had been found at one place. She did not reply for a while and then she asked, what is wrong in finding those? I explained that it's a contraband item. The next question was, what is it used for? To make curios, of course. Chechi quietly swept the floor for a couple of minutes and then vehemently burst out, "Some people have so much money that they don't know what to spend it on. Elephant tusks! And here one has to run from one house to another just to make a living."
That gave me a lot of food for thought...
What must she be thinking about my ever-growing book collection???
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