That Time Of The Year

Its that time of the year....which makes every Indian wonder...No not about the date of arrival of the rain laden monsoon clouds....Well we Indians are an agrarian society so we do think about the monsoons. But this time there's something else coinciding with the thoughts of the approaching rain. Its the rain of money......Yes...u heard right...money....... the time of the year has finally arrived when every Indian dreams that he will be washed with this rain of money....free money at it.....On Second thoughts, well not completely free, the damn government will take 30% of it....but that still leaves enough.....for them to become the next rich man/woman.

You can feel the buzz in small town India like the distant rumble of thunder marking the onset of the monsoons. KBC and Big B are coming back on Television.  Yes, KBC is coming soon and the lines have opened for the initial round of questions which need to be answered by SMS. The last year was especially good for KBC with Big B coming back after a hiatus. The show was catapulted with stratospheric ratings. The sight of the common man coming into the show with nothing and going back rich became an all too common site. Big B with his baritone and the ubiquitous Computer ji won everyone heart. One episode that remains stuck in my mind had a young marwari stapling of a boy who had come on the show last year. He had taken a loan of 17000 bucks from his uncle so that he would spend it all on sending SMS's to the show. Before Big B had even asked the first question, the boy had said, I am a marwari and I will make a profit on my investment of 17000 bucks. Profit, he did make a handsome profit by earning 25,00,000 bucks. The boy, I can say in a way showed the way to play the game show.

Last year, I had been lucky in a way because I had taken ill and had been hospitalized when the show, KBC, began. This meant I was bedridden and with no other work, got to see all the episodes of KBC. I had been an avid quizzer all throughout my life, including un-disputed champion of university for 3 straight years. My wifey had been very busy those days, what with office as well as all household chores. But she did find time to watch the show on some of the nights. She was mighty impressed with me when I used to answer the questions asked during the show. But I had forgotten my wifey is a Sindhi and Sindhi's are second only to Marwari's when it comes to money acumen. She has taken the onus of sending me to KBC this time around and this means she stays awake till midnight everyday to listen to the daily question of KBC qualifier which comes sometime around midnight everyday. This despite, she has to wake up at 7:00 AM in the morning to go for office. This a big and by big, I mean really BIG deal because my wifey loves her sleep. She waits patiently for the question and then after deciding on the correct answer begins with her ritual. Yes, a ritual, every day 10 SMS's are sent from my mobile numbers in response to the questions put forth by Big B for the KBC qualifiers. This means my phone bill increases by 50 bucks daily for each SMS costs 5 bucks. I am a relative low user of mobiles (many of my friends would vouch for this... ;-) ) that means my phone bills are shooting off the roof these past few days......

I am sure, the white collared IIM boys on the payroll of Mr. Sunil Mittal while performing the month on month graphical analysis of my mobile phone bill this month would be very happy. I shudder to think, if wifey had watched the episode of the Marwari boy who had taken the loan to send SMS's, what my bill would have been ......