Ah, net pay—now there’s a subject that makes you count the coins twice. In my last posting at the Secretariat, my gross was ₹14,200 in 1998, but after GPF, GIS, and the co-operative society loan I took for my sister’s wedding, the hand I held was just ₹9,800. I remember the thattukada uncle would always know my exact take-home because I’d order only one parippu vada and never the second. Nowadays my pension arrives at ₹18,500, but they deduct the mutual fund I foolishly signed up for in 2004—only ₹8,200 actually lands in my bank, and I still laugh at my younger self for trusting those big promises.

My grand-nephew was asking for Commonwealth Games on the television the other day, and I had to tell him it was cancelled. I saw the cost in the paper, numbers so big they could have paved every village road here to the *thattukada*. They will find the money for stadiums, but my sister still waits three months for her knee scan.