Opinion

There is something called a free lunch



Let’s be honest. When you read and hear all those homilies today celebrating 78 years of freedom – from the top of this pink page or the ramparts of the Red Fort – you’re not really going to be thinking of freedom fighters or White people in black-and-white film reels, but of the value of the free-dom. Not liberation, emancipation, non-dependence – no, no, but the other variety of free-dom: that phenomenon where you can get something free. Don’t you believe the cynics – or the economists – when they say that there is nothing called a free lunch. Rubbish! When you’re standing in front of a spread of office samosas, biscuits and coffee that you’re not paying for, economic theories seem a bit academic, don’t they?

Even today, on Independence Day, despite it being a dry day, you must be going in the evening to a friend’s place – for drinks and khana that you won’t have to pay for. Ergo, free. The trick to enjoying a free lunch is to embrace the guilt-free delight of getting something for nothing. No need to consider that maybe the ‘tandoori treat’ could be the bait for yet another ‘team-building’ exercise. Or that a free I-Day gift will mean listening to a bureaucrat speak about the nation, or – god forbid – the future of this country. But free things do exist, even in an India’s generosity that is dependent on your credit worth and standing.



READ SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.