No candy for the candy man

“Something has gone wrong; people hardly come to my shop anymore. The kids say that they don’t get money anymore from their parents”. These are the words of an old shopkeeper, who is lovingly called chacha (uncle) in his neighborhood. This old man has a shop within his house, because he can no more move around a lot and can not afford a shop in a market.

Little does he know that the entire world is going through economic recession. And this slum “guju mata” in city Lahore where he lives is suffering from severe unemployment. People are losing their purchasing power with every passing day. This is a trickle down effect of the large scale downsizing .The bare foot kids standing outside his shop with wishful eyes are as clueless as chacha.

This isn’t it chacha is thinking of getting rid of electricity, something that was celebrated by the slum when it came to them for the first time. Because he can no more afford paying electricity bills that go up to 25 USD whereas the worth of all the goods in his shop is worth 20 USD. He hardly earns anything now, making the ends meet is going beyond this old man’s capacity.

His shop was also used as a place for general forum; people of all ages come to discuss their problems. During these discussions they would buy something to munch on, but its no more like that people avoid coming to him now .Because spending on candies has become as difficult as to see this adorable old man suffer .

This is just the beginning for a new and worse level of poverty for the already poverty stricken people. What has started to happen to the candy shop will soon happen to the grocery stores. Kids wishing for candies will soon start wishing for bread…the kids who should wish and aim for stars.