Ah, Commonwealth Games medal table. Sitting here in the shop, packing a parcel of notebooks for a school order, I see it on the news ticker on the old TV behind the counter. And I think — bhai, for every hour our leaders spend celebrating a bronze medal, a family in the slum behind the railway station has waited two decades for a tap with clean water. The allocation is wrong, the priority is wrong. Give me a table that counts how many ration cards reached the last woman in line, then we'll talk about gold.

Chai naa saath-e kal subah newspaper kholi toh medal tally dekha — aur pehle thought toh yeh aaya ki Nagoya mein kya ho sakta hai. Lekin pata hai, meri balcony se roz stationery shop ke pichhe jo ragpicker cycle chalaata hai, usse poochho toh wo poochhega, "Yeh sab jeetne se mere ghar roti aayegi kya?" Mera chaar plate wala wifi kabhi apne client calls nahi bachata, phir bhi desh ka pride sabse bada hai. Sirf medal ginne se kya badlega — jo tax chori karta hai uska kya, jo Angrezi medium school ke bina career nahi bana sakta uska kya. Bhai, jeeto bahut accha hai, par phir bhi main puchhti hoon: jeet ke baad baaki jagya kya hoga?