10 Lakhs Burger

It was a pleasant evening in the market of Sector 17 of the city beautiful: Chandigarh, in Punjab in Northern India. The place is known for its cleanliness and considered to be one of the best places in India. People come here in the evenings for a stroll , do shopping in various shops and refresh after a days work. The market contains every thing for the rich and the middle class. There are huge showrooms and the hawkers too including balloon seller for the kids who carries a long bamboo with lot many coloured balloons tied to it on his shoulders. I along with my friend, Harish were also having a stroll on that summer evening with the pleasant wind blowing and freshness in the air. We went from place to place, shop to shop, visited the Reebok, the Woodlands, the Macdonalds, had those spicy sweet corns, the delicious juice and then stood at a corner of the market watching beautiful peopleof the city beautiful. As we were standing a lottery seller came to us and stood smiling in front of us prompting us to buy a lottery ticket. He said smilingly, "Sahib lottery le low kismet chamak jayegi" (Sir buy a lottery ticket your luck will shine) Harish replied, "Hamari to aaj tak tambola mein kismet nahin chamki isme kya chamkegi"(Our luck did not turn up in the game of Tambola how can it shine in a lottery) The lottery seller said, "Sahib naseeb ka kuch bhi nahin pata hota kab, kahan, kaise aur kiska chamak jaaye koi nahin keh sakta"(Sir no one can predict luck. when, where, how and whose luck shines no one can say) I asked him the cost of the ticket to which he replied that it is for Rs 100/-only. I then asked him what money will we get if we win the ticket as it was written in big bold letters ‘RUPEES TWO CRORES' and followed by very small letters "worth of prizes". When we both saw the lottery ticket closely it was written ‘First prize Rs 1 crore'. After this the discussion between me and Harish started as follows which the lottery seller was hearing with full attention. Harish said that out of two crores we will be getting only Rs 1 crore since it is a marketing gimmick to attract the customers by displaying Rs 2 crores on the ticket so there is a clear loss of Rs 1 crore straightaway. I agreed and continued the discussion that out of Rs 1 crore left and after paying 30% as income tax we will be left with only Rs 70 lacs. For collecting this amount we have to hire a security group for bringing it from Assam where the lottery ticket will have to be claimed or by a bank draft in which the bank will charge 2 % commission so 1.4 lacs are gone further with remaining amount as 68.6 lacs. Seeing this money our children will stop studying and would plan their entrance to medical college based on capitation fee which is 30 lacs for the medical leaving us with Rs 38.6 lacs. We would have to give a lavish party to everyone in a 5 star hotel which would reduce the expenditure further by 3.6 lacs so now we are left with only Rs 35 lacs. If we get a lottery of Rs 1 crore we will definitely go in for at least a Mercedes Benz 250 D model which is itself of 25 lacs. Now we are left with Rs 10 lacs only. If we do not go around the world with our family after winning Rs 1 crore what will the people say so that would finish our 10 Lac rupees and we are ‘Than Than Gopal' now (Left with nothing) and back to square one. But to keep our self respect we will have to gift something to our near and dear ones, if to no one else but at least to our wife with an ornament worth about a lac . This is from our pocket and lot of other things also which we have not even catered for the unforeseen contingencies. Harish further substantiated the statement by saying that the risk of our kidnapping by the goons would be in addition and carry unnecessary tension. So it will be a heavy loss rather than a gain. When the discussion finished . Harish shouted at the lottery seller in Punjabi; "Too sada nuksaan karaan aaya hai ? Pajh jaa iththo di nahin te maar maar ke kookar bana davaanga" (You have come to put us to loss? Get lost from here or else I will hit you so hard that you will become a rooster) The lottery seller did not speak a word and vanished in thin air. We proceeded to have two chicken Mc Grillburgers of Rs 50 each from the MacDonalds once again out of that Rs 100 with which we were planning to buy a lottery ticket worth Rs 2 crore because anything spent on yourself is never wasted. A burger was thus of Rs 1 crore which we had that day with no tension involved in it . A wise decision which we took on that day indeed, of which we are proud of till date.