No more tomatoes in my soup!!!!!

I never thought I'd live to see this!!!...
A time when tomatoes would rule at Rs 60 per kg...in Chennai..
Equal to the price of a liter of petrol...
About the price of quarter kilo of meat...OR...
The price of a house in Detroit on eBay!!!!!......

Is this the beginning of the end?.....
Of the world as we know it????...
Or the beginning of the beginning of ...
The world food crisis...much talked about and feared!!!!

If things continue at this pace....
We may soon have to wait in line outside the ration shop..
For our weekly quota of tomatoes...through the public distribution system!!!!!

What's going on in Veggie World?
Is it the global crisis?...the usual show spoiler these days......

Or
Sky rocketing inflation?
Higher transport costs?
Bad harvests?

Methinks it is...
The Tomato Mafia at work here.....the middleman taking advantage of all the above three factors...
And holding consumers to ransom...

With Diwali in the air...
It is also Make-a-fast-buck-at-the-expense-of-the-Stupid-Common-Man-time...
A lethal combination of forces are at work..apparently...

At the state level no politician has made a statement regarding this...

Maybe they believe that the arrest of a Vaiko is of greater importance to the common man than the price of the food on his table?
Or to empathize with the Tamil Eelam cause...
With a human chain in the rain..
Made up of NSS and NCC cadets forced outdoors for the sake of attendance..
Putting commuters to inconvenience....
To a five to six hour ride in slow moving traffic to reach home in Adayar from Anna Salai... ON A WORKING DAY...is somehow going to endear them to us all?


That political theater and rhetoric will make up for inaction?...
How out of sync with the Common man's most basic needs and aspirations can our politicians be?

Food prices will emerge as a major election issue...
And the price of tomatoes alone can upset the apple-cart of the ruling party on polling day...
Not all the flyovers in Chennai....
Or the public parks that keep sprouting up...will make a difference..
If the food and vegetable prices situation is not contained....

Don't you agree?
And while you mull that over...
I'll just go on and place my bids..on eBay..
No...not for tomatoes!!!...

Iceland..I hear...is on the block ....
Maybe I'll get lucky and snag that...
For the price of six kilos of tomatoes in Chennai!!!..

How about that???
If I get lucky I'll send you tickets to ringside seats...
To watch the Northern Lights light up the Arctic Skies this December...
Nature's own Festival of Lights in the Sky...
On a grander scale than our own Festivals of Lights..

So Happy Deepavali...
One and All!!!..

And Do have a Feast...
Even if you have to limit the number of tomatoes in your soup!!!!......