{"id":316438,"date":"2019-11-06T04:58:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T04:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=316438"},"modified":"2019-11-08T05:47:32","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T05:47:32","slug":"surviving-in-pakoda-industry-is-like-living-in-a-frying-pan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/surviving-in-pakoda-industry-is-like-living-in-a-frying-pan\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving in \u2018pakoda industry is like living in a frying pan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/surviving-in-pakoda-industry-is-like-living-in-a-frying-pan\/29a\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-316441\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-316441 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/29a-218x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/11\/29a-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/11\/29a-305x420.jpg 305w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2019\/11\/29a.jpg 456w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/><\/a>It was a great day when I heard about the big \u2018Pakoda\u2019 industry. No one could imagine about this multi-million dollar universal venture till one of our today\u2019s erudite leaders gave call to our unemployed graduates to start this most flourishing business. He was sure that with this business, our country will be able to eradicate the menace of unemployment. And India will be the first nation in the world to do so. It gave me immense pleasure and relief. I haphazardly started the search for my orphaned Bachelor degree lying for years somewhere in the heap of waste papers. With great efforts and lot of sweating at last I found it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">My business was ready at the runway to take off. I selected a roadside place and started putting my gas stove, utensils and material to prepare Pakodas. No sooner I gave first pump to my kerosene stove; our duty-bound police party under the command of a Head Constable surrounded me as if I was a terrorist. \u201cWhat are you doing here on this precious government land?\u201d roared the mustached head constable. I was shocked. I said, \u201cOn the call of our worthy leader, I am starting Pakoda business to eradicate the curse of unemployment.\u201d Head Constable became apprehensive with my reply. Then he fired another salvo, \u201cDo you possess proper papers to run this multinational, multi-cultured and multi-linguistic business\u201d? I was confused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">I did not know what he was asking for. He again said, \u201cDo you have any Bachelor Degree from some recognized and prestigious university of the country\u201d? My answer was affirmative. Then he asked me to show the licence from industrial department. \u201cIt is not an industry, then why should I take any permission from department\u201d? I argued. \u201cDon\u2019t try to teach us law I read in the newspaper the other day that Pakoda is a great industry. And industry needs all the permissions and licences. Where is NoC from the Pollution Control Board? Permission from the Electricity Department, copy of your agreement with the truck operators\u2019 union for transporting you the raw material and permission from water works department.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">\u201cBut sir I don\u2019t fall in that category\u201d I tried to convince him. \u201cSir I think he is an ISI agent trying to penetrate in our city though Pakoda business,\u201d a constable instigated the head constable. I pleaded, \u201cNo sir. I am a poor educated unemployed youth trying to start this business on the call of our worthy leader\u201d. That constable again intervened, \u201cHazur you remember all the terrorists arrested or killed in encounters recently were \u2018unemployed\u2019 youths. He can be from that gang\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">Before I could utter a word another constable raised a point, \u201cSir he could be a member of land mafia. He must be sent to take the possession of this piece of land\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">\u201cSir I am a gentleman, I have no link with terrorist or land mafia.\u201d I pleaded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">\u201cOh! You might be right Ramphal we cannot take chances. Take him to police station for further investigation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">No one listened to me and I was put behind the bars with other hard core criminals and some \u201cHolymen\u201d who were cooling their heels. The next day\u2019s news headlines read: \u201cA hard core terrorist in police net\u201d.\u00a0 The sub heading was: \u201cpolice party under Head Constable Durjan Singh showed great courage and risked their lives in arresting this terrorist. They all will be honoured on the Republic Day. All the top leaders have appreciated the wonderful work of our brave policemen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\">letters@tehelka.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a great day when I heard about the big \u2018Pakoda\u2019 industry. No one could imagine about this multi-million dollar universal venture till one of our today\u2019s erudite leaders gave call to our unemployed graduates to start this most flourishing business. He was sure that with this business, our country will be able to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":316441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[11980],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316443,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316438\/revisions\/316443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/316441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}