An Outlet: Part 5

25 December, 2018 - NM #11

Merry Christmas everybody!

I didn't do anything Christmas related tho. I didn't even wish people for some reason.

But yesterday, I had finally replied to some people whom I had ignored for quite some months and today I feel so much more refreshed. 

In the evening I went with my dad to buy my birthday gift- a charger. That's right. I think the best gifts are the ones you need. And what I desperately need right now is a charger so that's my gift for this year. I have no regrets.

Well at least not yet. If the charger ends up not helping me, that's when I'll regret my choices.

Nostalgic Manuscript #11

Last year, when I was the Vice President of my club, we had gotten an opportunity to participate in a couple of writing contests held by a Consumer Forum Committee. One of the contest was to write a short story highlighting one of the 'Rights'. I chose 'Right To Know' as my topic.

I remember being very hesitant when I turned this story in because I was insecure. I was the Vice President of a literary club but had no writing experience. Ultimately I did send in my story. I didn't win anything but I guess it felt nice finally getting out of my comfort zone and submitting one?

Here it is:

Sunita was born in a small village called Hudlila and had lived there for the entirety of her schooling years. She had been selected by Froopa Private Limited Company, a profound food and beverage company in Mumbai, as a sales assistant. She had got this opportunity through the company’s CSR activities.

Although her family was very excited about Sunita’s achievement, they were worried about her too. “Sunita..” her dad said, “Take of yourself. Mumbai is very different from this poor village. Please do not forget your values in Mumbai’s fast pace life”.

“Don’t worry baba, you have raised me well. I am sure I will make you proud.” Sunita reassured. And then she left for the ‘city of dreams’.

A few weeks after Sunita joined Froopa, the company launched a new snack called ‘Froyola Chunks’ which promised various nutritional values. It claimed to have ‘secret’ ingredient that would make their snack the tastiest food product ever manufactured. Froyola Chunks was a great success in the market and it boosted Froopa’s profit rate to a marginal extent.

Sunita hadn’t tasted the product but was obviously elated when she heard this news. One day while shopping, she picked up a few of Froyola Chunks packets to try it out. It was in fact one of the best ready-to-eat food products she had eaten. This made her think about the ‘secret’ ingredient that the company claimed to use in making these Froyola Chunks.

The next day, she tried asking her seniors about the same. But the response she got was unexpected. “You village girl, know your place! Do not meddle your nose in unnecessary areas and only focus on what you were hired for! If you ask us about this ‘secret’ ingredient, or even speak about it to anybody one more time, we’ll make sure you get fired and sent back to that little village of yours!”

Sunita was very disturbed after that incident. She had an intuition that something was wrong but decided to let it go. “Maybe I am really not supposed to ask such questions. Maybe this is how Mumbai works.” she thought.

In the next couple of weeks, she befriended her neighbor Akash, who was a lawyer by profession. They would spend their evenings together and ultimately became quite close. One day while having an intense discussion, Sunita opened up to Akash and told him about the entire ‘secret’ ingredient episode. Akash listened to the entire situation and said, “If you really think something is fishy, you must exercise your ‘Right to Know’.”

“Right to Know? What is that? They never told us anything about this back home.” Sunita asked, confused.

Akash then explained, “Right to know, in this case, gives any consumer the right to know about all the health hazards that they may be exposed to, on consumption of a certain food product.”

Sunita gave it a thought for a few days. “Please don’t forget your values...” her father had said. She ultimately made up her mind and decided to exercise her right. After doing so, she realized that the ‘secret’ ingredient was an illegal taste-enhancing drug, which would be very harmful to the consumers in the long term.

Her superiors tried to subordinate her but Sunita did not back down this time. With Akash’s help, she brought the entire scam to the forefront and finally banned the product in the market.

“Tasty as it may be, no company must be allowed to produce a product without disclosing all the information that the customer is required to know” was Sunita’s statement to the press post the entire debacle.

Back at Hudlila, Sunita’s father said, “Daughter, you’ve made me proud.”