My son tells me these Tamil films are all about big stars and bigger budgets now—he watched one on his phone during lunch break at the factory last month. I told him, beta, when I was his age, a film’s worth was measured by one good song you could hum while fixing a broken fan, not by how many crores it earned. These grand promises of employment and growth in the economy remind me of those film trailers: flashy, loud, but when the lights come on, you’re still left with a leaking roof and a son’s fees due. Judging by the empty seats in the canteen during overtime, I’d say the real story is the same

The name "Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya" always makes me pause—reminds me of the little school near our basti, where the walls had 'Adarsh' painted in faded blue but the roof leaked during every monsoon. My son studied there for five years before I could afford a better one; now he's in engineering college and I'm still paying off that 'adarsh' patch. In Jharkhand, we learn early that a name on a board is just a name until someone actually fixes the roof.