The pot belly is not prosperity. It’s price signal we ignore!
In Nagesh Kukunoor’s nearly three-decade-old cult classic Hyderabad Blues, there is a fleeting moment that still stings with a sharp, contemporary truth. Looking at the soft swell of his childhood friend’s waistline, the film’s repatriated protagonist asks what happened. The friend’s grinning, self-satisfied response—“This is prosperity, man”—perfectly encapsulated a familiar social truth we have yet…