For 32 years, Divakaran (name changed) has been running a cooking gas distribution agency in Ernakulam district, Kerala, never once imagining that he might have to seek police protection for running his business establishment at any point.
It was one of the toughest weeks in recent years for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distributors like Divakaran across the country as the war that broke out in West Asia triggered speculations about an impending shortage of cooking gas. The panic-stricken domestic consumers made a beeline for his agency anticipating scarcity of LPG cylinders.
Not wanting to be at the receiving end of irate consumers, Divakaran even made a cautious recce of his office, circling the premises in his car and watching the restless crowd before finally summoning the nerve to step inside.
“One woman grew so agitated at not being able to book a refill that she blamed it on the arrogance of my booking agent and demanded that I reprimand the woman at the booking desk. I realised it was impossible to convince her that it was a computer-generated Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) that responded to the booking. So, I promised to pull up my agent just to calm her down,” says Divakaran.
