Three Pinches of Salt.

This is an article I have written long time ago. You may remember those days as well.

“There will be no salt in our country anymore.. what?” I heard a passerby talking in disbelieve over the phone, “Keep me five packets… what… Nu. 60 per packet!” he continue, “that’s insane, anyway I will collect from you later”.

                                           from:Google

 It was an usual Thursday and I was on my way to work, when suddenly I encountered one man talking over a phone. Well I didn’t mean to hear him but he was loud enough to be heard. “There will be no salt in our country anymore ya… what?” the man exclaimed in disbelieve, “Keep me five packets… what… Nu. 60 per packet ya!” he continued, “that’s insane, anyway keep me five and I will collect from you later”. I did not ponder much on his talk, however I wished he has been little low with his voice. I thought he must be talking about a different kind of salt.   

After a while I realized that he wasn’t the only one talking about the salt. When I reached my work station I heard all my friends talking about the salt. But this time, I couldn’t resist asking them about what was really happening. “What? You didn’t know about it?” Nima said with his eyes wide open. “There is a rumor that our neighbor country is not going to export salt to our country and there are already limited salt in the market” he continued, “And even if there is, it cost around Nu.100.” “What? It was just Nu.60 five minutes ago?”, I interrupted, “Why no salt?”. “Well, not sure man, a political reason maybe” and he stopped.

That was so ridiculous. I did not bother much about that topic and we were back to our usual routine work. I hosted a show called, “Music fusion”. As I was home early, I decided to prepare my meal at home that evening.  I usually have my dinner and lunch outside. I took scooped some rice and let it cook in rice cooker. Then I started peeling two pieces of potatoes, chopping onion, and cutting chilies and tomatoes. Everything was set for curry. And guess what ... my salt jar was empty. I have totally lost track of how much salt was left. I went to one of my neighbor and asked for salt. To my surprise, she dipped her finger in her jar and hesitantly pinched out three pinches of salt. Yes, three pinches of salt in a piece of paper. I asked for a little more, “I heard there will be no salt anymore, and this is all we got la” she spoke in a decent voice. I was thankful for that three pinches of salt. I can still feel the taste of that curry.

That very evening I visited some grocery shop in search of salt.  The salt which cost Nu. 10 is now Nu. 150. It was so astonishing to see how shopkeeper have raised the cost of salt as per their will. I was dishearten to see how one can be so selfish taking advantage of others difficult situation. “Take it or else leave it”, a woman in her mid-forty murmured with her eyes still on the phone. ”One customer took 20 packets a while ago paying Nu. 200.” I left the shop without a word.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I went through my Facebook feeds and saw lots of post discussing on ban of salt. There were literally chaos in social media. People were discussing about salt, searching for salt, demanding salt, and asking for salt. I heard some people brought 50 packets of salts and some shopkeepers selling one packet of salt at Nu. 100 to Nu.200.

That time I have learned that we Bhutanese can be selfish sometimes. I have also learned that we Bhutanese can be diffident.  Firstly, why did we the Bhutanese believed that rumor without clear evidences. Was it not ones responsibility to warn one another to convince each other that the rumor can be fake instead of spreading it further? To my surprise and you would be shocked to know that the rumor were made viral by educated people like us. Secondly, where was the integrity of all our shopkeepers that time? Isn’t it so disheartening to see Bhutanese people robbing Bhutanese during hard times? Most of our Bhutanese shopkeeper have raised the cost of salt. Nu. 10 costing salt was raise to Nu. 100, almost 1000% marked up prize. Shopkeepers sold their self-respect and integrity for just Nu. 100! What a shame! Thirdly, one person buying 10 to 20 packets of salt? If I have it, why bother about others mentality ruled that moments. Is it that we Bhutanese are only united during celebration and good times? That moment I felt that we Bhutanese are divided within. Just calculate, one packet of salt can serve a family for a month or two or for some more than that. I remember how Japanese people have shared their resources during their time of crisis. They took what was just enough for themselves, believing that other person may need the same.  But we demonstrated a little differently.

I did not buy a salt but I was thankful I had three pinches of salt that evening. The next day, it was broadcasted in a media that the rumors were fake. After my usual evening show, I was back home with one packet of salt which I paid Nu. 10 only. I still wonder what that costumer did with those 20 packets of salt which he paid Nu. 200.