India is the seventh largest country in the world. The Government of India takes suitable steps for the welfare of the citizens, such as building roads, hospitals and schools; providing electricity and water supplies; maintaining law and order in the country and making the life of the citizens happy and prosperous. One such step is the distribution of basic necessities of life.
The public distribution system or the fair price shop is a means by which the government provides various articles of daily use to the citizens at reasonable prices. The articles sold here include sugar, wheat, wheat flour, vegetable oil, pulses, cereals, clothes, kerosene oil etc. Those things are specifically sold at a fair price shop which is difficult to get in the open market.
A citizen requires a ration card to buy articles from a fair price shop. For it, he has to register himself with the concerned government department to be issued with a ration card. A ration card also serves as an important government document and as an identity card for the holder.
My mother goes to the neighborhood fair price shop to buy sugar every month. Yesterday she was not feeling well, so she asked me to go and buy sugar from there. She gave me a cloth bag, money and the ration card. I cycled to the shop.
I parked my bicycle on the pavement and then stood behind the last man in the queue. The queue was not long and the clerk worked at good speed.
The gentleman standing ahead of me was an old man. He asked my name and the class I studied in. I replied to him politely. The other people in the queue too talked and passed time. One of the women complained that the clerk was too lazy.
It took half an hour for my turn to come. The clerk took my ration card, made entries in the register and the card, took money and directed me to the man weighing. sugar. Ten minutes later, I was cycling back to my house with memories of the fair price shop.
