In the run up to February 28 each year (this year it is 29th), the 24x7 media brings us a lot of news on Budget expectations. Industrial honchos and sector representatives present to the Finance Minister their wish list. Now, what about the common man’s wish list? “That depends on how you define a common man,” my friend Sridhar quipped. Isn’t commonness enough? Maybe not. Trapped between twin images of Manmohan Singh’s ‘aam admi’ and Chidambaram’s retail investor, the common man is himself confused about his real identity. Then spare a thought for the ‘aam aurat’!

Yes, the woman of the house. She is a superwoman who sometimes straddles a 10-hour job, brings up the kids and also has to don the ‘topi’ of the obedient wife (when his friends suddenly turn up). Mr Chidambaram’s 13,000-word Budget speeches, where he begins by saying “It is my privilege to present the Budget for…”, is unfortunately not a privilege to all those women. And neither are the inflation data released every Friday.

Ask Mrs Samitha Krishnan. “I see the financial dailies giving it big coverage. But if you ask me it makes no sense. Things are getting costlier by the day. Instead of doing a yearly comparison, can it be done on a week-to-week basis?” she asks.

She might be right on both counts. Inflation figure for the week ended December 8, 2007, was revised upwards to 3.84 per cent as against 3.65 per cent reported earlier — a more than 5 per cent deviation! Her vegetable bills also keep on soaring while the stock market relishes lower inflation. Wonder from where the Government gets all its data?

This week I did something different. I hardly get to spend time at home so it was only natural to see my mom surprised last Wednesday. While having food at the table, I saw a motley crew of women (all housewives) having their usual evening chat session over papads. A bit of eves dropping revealed a lot as I went into the living room, as if uninterested in their conversation.

My mom: So Pammi (a newly wed Punjabi woman) how are things turning up? Did you go shopping yesterday?

Pammi: Yes aunty. Went around the complex today with ‘Him’. Nice place, Chennai.

Mrs Krishnan (our closest neighbour): Good. You know my son has started demanding more pocket money. Says auto drivers have upped their rates. Wish his school had a bus to pick him up from his tuitions.

Mom: Samitha fuel prices have been hiked. Slowly but surely, prices of everything we use will rise. As my daughter says, it’s the domino effect.

Mrs Vasudevan: Anjali you are right. I hope the Budget adjusts a few things. Yesterday he (her husband) was saying that the Sixth Pay Commission may have a pleasant surprise.

Mrs Krishnan: What about our husbands? Not everyone has a government job. Budget has become an issue.

Pammi: Sukhwinder was wondering if there could be any relief for home loan takers.

Mom: Friends. What about the aam aurat’s Budget expectations?

Mrs Krishnan: If there is something on the income-tax front, we could save more. Things keep getting out of control.

Mrs Vasudevan: Some sort of a scholarship for kids from middle school onwards will be good.

Pammi: Wish there was something about health insurance which would cover my dependent parents. My didi who unfortunately is a divorcee could also benefit from a scheme targeted at women like her.

Mom: A savings deposit scheme for housewives, so that the investible money is not siphoned off by husbands for their stock market exploits! Swati’s father and his Sensex. I am tired of both of them.

So there we have it. Something on education, health insurance, taxes, home loans and some tax saving instrument. Amazed, I struck up a conversation with these women as their chat session was wrapped up with the arrival of Pammi’s husband.

Coming back to their wish list, how would you categorise them: selfless, too personal, family-centric or stereotype? Whatever they might be they represent the growing linkage between aspirations of husbands and their wives’ understanding of them.

Investment too finds an inferred mention, although not in a way investment experts would have liked. These risk-averse women shy away from the stock market and want to take refuge in fixed deposits or savings accounts. The returns may just be identical, considering the negative sentiments in the equity market.

I asked Mrs Trisha Vasudevan later about her honest take on the Budget. What she said was unexpected. “There are so many things for the Finance Minister to look at. First there is the rupee. Frankly Swati, I did not understand all this until Rohan (elder son) got his first onsite posting. His company’s client was paying in dollars.

Given the dollar’s fall vis-À-vis the rupee, we chose not to convert them as much as possible. Now with US economy not doing well, it seems unlikely that our strategy will pay off.” She also spoke about the industrial sector and what not. Her key concerns remain inflation, inflation and inflation.

My mom has been rather vocal about her dislikes. “What is the point in requiring someone living in a city and earning a mere Rs 2 lakh per annum to file income-tax ?”

This fact has obvious reference to my brother who recently joined a BPO. I tried to reason with her about the revenue, direct and indirect taxes, but in vain. Her reasoning, like Pammi’s, is the same. Says the young and sprightly Punjabi wife, “Why doesn’t the Government tax those earning Rs 4-5 lakh per annum? Aaj kal isse kam se kuch hota hain kya?” My guess is good as yours.

A quick, random survey of the women in our apartment complex yielded similar results. One of them, 34-year-old Smitha, who has two children going to classes six and eight, said: “As it is he has to pay professional tax, cash handling tax for taking out our own money from the bank, and entertainment tax for taking us to the movies. Even for air travel, they have started demanding surcharge. When and where will all this end?”

These demands aren’t unreasonable. Nor are they borne out of uninformed minds. What is more amazing is the fact that if addressed, they will directly have a bearing on us. Behind every happy aam aadmi is a aam aurat who manages everything behind the scenes.

Life for them is often unlike a film where credits arrive, even if at the very fag end. It’s time to honour their Budget-related wishes, even as the spectre of a hike in LPG cylinder prices looms large once again.

Readers may send their feedback on the column, mentioning their names and addresses, to swatilistening@gmail.com .

Responses to Episode-176 on the issue: ‘Is technology getting to us?’ (Business Line , February 11, 2008).

Not so long ago, there was news of an NRI from Kerala inviting his friends and relatives for the pleasure of viewing his marriage on the Net …claiming it as the simplest type of marriage.

Krishnamoorthy

S., Mangalore