This year marks the ninth anniversary of me not tuning in to the annual budget proceedings from New Delhi. I stopped listening soon after I realised that, after decades of mismanagement, we were finally in the world’s safest hands. This is it, I told myself at the time; the most intelligent, most qualified people from the worlds of economics and finance have finally been given their place under the sun, and we no longer need to worry about our money. That sentiment has only grown stronger in the years since, which is why I was sure this year’s budget was outstanding as usual. I didn’t need to listen in to find out.

There have been a few mixed reports about what this means for the common man, which amuses me because I have never seen anything change drastically for the common man in all my years on this planet. Yes, we have a metro and monorail now, but we also earn more and pay more for everything our parents managed on a lot less, so things appear to have balanced out in the larger scheme of things.