By R Swaminathan
"No" and "Not now" are two terms which have come to be repeated by everyone and in every household as life becomes difficult and unmanageable each day. For the middle class living in urban slums (sorry, but I can't avoid using such a word to describe cramped old houses in narrow streets), the morning dawns with a complaint of no water in the tap or sump. Fetching water might involve a walk down the tricky stairs or even a kilometre to the hand pump or community tap.
The day starts with the summoning of children from bed and getting them ready for school. When the parents remind them of their home work, they get a reply , "No, not yet done," and "Can't do it now." The well habituated tongues of the heads of families have to compromise for a bare and simple breakfast or just bread/biscuits got from the shop. Reminding the housewife of her failure to get dough prepared for the favouite idlis or dosas brings back an immediate retort: "Don't you know there was no power throughout the day due to maintenance work?"
So the family trots to school or office cursing itself for the tragedy of the morning. At the immediate destination also, there may be hours of fretting and fuming to follow because of the power cut restrictions in force. Once the day is over and the members prepare to rush home, they have to wrangle with auto drivers who refuse to ply. They say “no” to the rate asked for by the passenger because petrol and diesel prices have gone up and a lot of diversions and traffic snarls force them to take a circuitous route to reach the destination.
'No, not now' is often used by boys and girls eligible for marriage when approached by parents for their consent and job hoppers also use this phrase because recession has put a mortal fear in them about the next vocation. No, not now is slightly different from “No, not yet” and the usage depends on details of the situation which I would like to leave your imagination.
At the beginning of the month when the house owner reaches the family head for the monthly rent, he is told : “No, not now” and “My salary is not yet credited in the bank and could you please wait for a few more days? It has been never so bad and will hopefully not be so in future.” If he is a gentleman he swallows your “no” calmly and leaves the place quietly.
Having putting up with such undependable tenants for months, one fine morning the owner might come and say, “Please try to vacate the premises as early as possible or pay 20 per cent more from next month as prices all round are going up and taxes too.” If you say “No, not now, sir,” you have to start looking for another place as early as you can.
Finding grocer's items and daily consumables like vegetables is another big ordeal when one can't but use, “No, will try elsewhere.” Here also he will soon realise that the situation is simply beyond his control and he has to relent meekly to the market forces.
Back home, if and when he is advised by friends and family members to look for a place of his own to live “for the rest of his life,” he has to come up with a stock reply like,“No, not now” because he is convinced it is not the appropriate time to go in for an apartment when prices are unrealistic and the interest rate too is ikely to be revised too often. When pink papers advise him to save for the life's big occasions and retirement (he is scared to think of that now), he simply bows his head and says “No, not now.” He finds words like “savings” and “investment” only in the dictionary.
An edited version of this article appears on Mindspace page in the TNIE today.
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