Petrol price hike, Hartal…!!

We have been expecting this for the past few days; the media have been abuzz with news of the likelihood of a hike in price of petrol by about Rs. 5. It’s as if they were preparing us for a shock; which has come out today evening, in the form of the news that petrol price would go up by about Rs. 7.

So, what do we expect next? A ‘hartal’, a general strike by leading political parties, especially the opposition parties. That too has happened, very much as expected. As people travel back home from their offices and workplaces, they get the news of the petrol hike and the hartal. Tomorrow normal life will go paralysed from 6 am to 6 pm (that’s the time given by the parties who have given the call for the strike, but in effect it’s going to be a hartal till almost midnight or day after tomorrow morning).  It’s also to be remembered that this is happening in a State where such a strike (earlier termed ‘bandh’) is banned as per court orders and where people still declare and observe it, giving it a new name, ‘hartal’!

Vehicles queued up at a petrol outlet in Ernakulam

In the evening, petrol outlets all across Kerala were witnessing long queues of vehicles- cars, motor-cycles, auto-rickshaws- all eager to fill their tanks with as much petrol as possible before the prices go up at the strike of the midnight clock.  Some petrol pumps closed down earlier putting up the ‘No Stock’ board while members of the public claim it’s all lie and that they do have the stock with them, but would prefer sell it the next day at the new price.

Well…Hartal it’s going to be. And then? Would the prices roll back? If at all they roll back, would it be a full roll-back? (That obviously is not going to happen!). So, from Friday life would just go on, vehicles will queue up at petrol outlets and we all would continue the race, to earn money…nay more money so that we can keep our petrol tanks filled and buy things (all of which are going to get dearer)…

Let’s hope (Isn’t it our duty to hope?) that the petrol price hits the Rs. 100 mark before the end of the year so that we can set a freshtargetof Rs. 200 to achieve by mid-2013. Sachin has hit the 100 mark; so now it’s petrol next.

It’s almost midnight; lemme get some sleep. Do wish me ‘sweet dreams’; because I want to dream of a bright future when tea, our own ‘chai’, sold at local tea-shops, would manage to hit the Rs.100 mark…

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