That's a believable story. The Burnham days were days of fear and gnashing of teeth.
I remember helping my relative to fetch car tires from the seawall to their house at Crabwood Creek during the dark of night.
You sit down to eat a meal and you are committing several offenses against Burnham's laws on unaccustomed/banned goods.
Burnham's curse had the unintended consequence of creating a Tapir town in top side.
Dude,
Let's not pretend that anyone really took these laws seriously. The were universally broken.
And people were not living in "fear." I doan know what kinda revisionist history you're trying to write but it's inapposite to the truth.
For people outside of GT, life went on as usual with little change. Sure we had to hoard months of supplies of food toiletries gasoline etc. but life went on.
Maybe you lived in Ghargetung and had to wait in lines for a tin of sardines but the rest of the country got by just fine it seems.
All this nonsense about deep and painful roti and aloo privations is just romantic nonsense.