That’s how it is at the best and worst of times. You either have it or you don’t. There is seldom anything in between, there is no grey area between having and not having. What we do not have we just do not have. For instance, we do not have what we used to have, if you know what I mean. If you don’t know what I mean, it does not really matter, just leave it be.

Although, come to think of it, this may not be a bad time to recount to ourselves some of the things that we do not have. Before, you know, before we forget what we had and no longer have. Things like dignity, you know, or value for dignity, if you know what I mean. But perhaps you do not. Perhaps you have forgotten those are things we do. It is because we have become so inured and accustomed to their not being there.

We do not have respect. Rudimentary respect. Like respect for small things. We jump red lights. We violate one-ways. We don’t wear seat belts. We don’t have that. We often affect as if to believe not having that is a thing.

We don’t have toilets for everyone. Don’t let yourselves be fooled by pulpit claims. Go to the roadside, get into the fields, open your noses, breathe in. And tell me you didn’t immediately want to breathe out and bolt.

We do not have justice, which is a thing of greater luxury than toilets and which is why it comes after. Look at the piles of files awaiting along the road to what could bring justice. Look at what refuses to be invoked in the interest of justice. Look at what the lords of the law promise to deliver but do not fix a date for.

We do not have debate. Look at that round structure where debates were once held. Look at how often people are invited in there, then count how often they are just walking out, huffing and puffing, saying that place for debate is no longer what it used to be. (In any case, that round place is about to be replaced by some other shape altogether and the spirits only know what is planned to happen there.)

What else is it that we do not have? Are we free to say it? There are not many things we don’t have. Can we say? Like sometimes we feel we don’t have freedom? Like if we say things with the freedom of saying things, some will happen. Like a knock on the door. Or a summons. Okay baba, forget it. Let’s not say such things, it’s not good for health, that’s what we understand. What else do we not have? Sometimes bijli. Sometimes pani. Sometimes road. Sometimes roti. Sometimes kapda. Sometimes makaan. Right. We also don’t have cheeta. Let’s get cheeta, many cheetas. Now we have. Cheetas and some other things.

Mitron, you do possess

Things for which I shall tell

You pay this little cess

And peep down the well.