“Pssst!”
I turned around with a start.
“Hallo.”
My heart sank. I had always known they would return. Everyone knew they would return. It was just a question of time. But none of us had expected them to return so, so, soon, with such speed and ferocity.
“You are back,” I said resignedly.
“We never left. We’ve always been here,” they said smugly.
1 August 2008 is not light years away. That day that heralded a new currency and the new transaction dispensation minus 10 zeroes. That week coins were all the rage. But we knew it wouldn’t last.
“Do you think grand speeches and declarations that failure is not an option are enough to get rid of us?” asked the zeroes.
They looked like Legion. They were many of them now, typical of demons and evil spirits that are cast out and not destroyed. They look for allies so that when they come back there is more of them and their wrath knows no bounds.
“With your $50 000, 00 withdrawla limit, you are nothing before the havoc we have caused in your shops, public transport…And the more you burn, the stronger we become,” they sniggered.
I did not say a word.
“The more you engage in fruitless talks and do not seem to have any clue as to why you are talking and that talking should result in a tangible end, the stronger we become. You talk without production. You give grand speeches, without production on the ground. You give away inputs- you like giving away things. Still on the ground, there is no production. You might very well be masturbating. Only the talker and giver of handouts finds the exercise stimulating and scintillating- and might even be satiated…it doesn’t benefit anyone else,” the zeroes said.
“Unless you are one of the recipients of the handouts,” I sighed, “which you then take to the parallel market and make a killing.”
“And give us strength to multiply in the process,” smiled the zeroes. “Perhaps you need to borrow Obama for a while- perhaps then you can have hope.”
“All we have is ourselves. In the end, we will make it right, and we shall scrap off those responsible for all this like dead skin, so that a new skin can grow- new life begin,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Best of luck,” sniggered the zeroes.