The 21st century middle class Indian guy

Thanks to a crazy Saddam Hussein, without whom we would still (perhaps) have been under the clutches of awry economic policies which were prevailing since our independence. After the socialist strategies introduced by a visionary though unrealistically idealist Nehru proved wrong, a mid course correction should have taken place in late sixties or at best early seventies (some thing which happened with 4 Asian Tigers - Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore who are now at least a generation ahead of us as far as economic development is concerned). But somehow congress managed to make a fool out of us for another 20 years. It was only because of the fanciful ideas of Saddam who attacked Kuwait that we were able to break our shackles, the results of which are visible all around us. Because of the gulf war the oil prices rocketed, depleting India’s forex reserve to the levels of crisis. “When there are no options left, taking decisions become easy.” That is what our then Prime Minister Mr. PVN Rao had said while he introduced the financials reforms in just 2 days. The rest is history.

I was analyzing the impacts the reforms have had on us and I felt that there is no one in this world today who is luckier than a middle class Indian guy. There are many reasons for this.

Let me begin with the kind of education we enjoy. We generally have fun in our school and no matter how we have performed, we some how get into an engineering college. The 3-idiots team might disagree which such trends but frankly speaking who does not want to take the shorter route. It is also very important to note that colleges are not as expensive in India as in US or Europe and we don’t have to pay our own fee. Unlike the western countries our parents do it for us spending their life’s hard earned money and we are free from the tension repaying any loan. Some times they even pay the donations to get us admitted.

College life begins and since we are in a convenient position to say that we are forced to do engineering (or medical or anything else) which is not our interest, we don’t study at all. We also have the cushion at the back of our mind that even if we screw, we are going to end up in a software job which will give a healthy pay. Again we are well supported by our parents and are given an extravagant pocket money every month which we utilize in sipping lattes in Barista, watching movies in PVR, boozing and spending endless hours on our mobiles talking to our girlfriends (who might well be living in the same city and studying in the same college). These are luxuries which our parents would think twice before spending on even today.

We get out of the college and get a well paying job and no matter how much we sulk about it we have a good time with our friends and enjoy our weekends like anything. After a few years an MBA is almost inevitable and even if not, we are promoted to the next higher level and a Hyundai or Wagan-R starts looming in front of our eyes. We see a challenging and prosperous career ahead. It is not that life is too easy which is important for challenges add fun to life. For example people start planning for weekends on Wednesday in Europe. They hardly work and lead what to me seems an extremely casual life. Or in US where everyday life has been made so mechanical and process driven that you can’t help but feel like a programmed robot. What’s the fun in such an easy going or mechanical life? There is also no fun in being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. A spoilt brat always kept in an over protected environment is generally deprived of the many small moments of pleasure derived from overcoming day to day problems of life; those little victories; those little moments of bypassing the rules; those subtle joys of street romance. Difficulties add new colours to the palette; new flavours to the menu. Life without them would be missing a whole dimension.

Moving forward, our parents ensure that we find a suitable bride even if we may be a complete loser as far as the capabilities of charming a girl is concerned.

There are many other factors which we must not miss. Our society still enjoys a very strong family bond. We respect our parents and will be respected by our kids and will enjoy a strong bond with them. The generation after that i.e. our grand children will perhaps be seeing a time what we see in western countries today. They will move out of their homes when they will be teenagers, find brides of their choice and live the way they want to. The family ties will weaken significantly from what it is today.

Many of these things are true for other countries like China as well. But they don’t have democracy. Although what we see around may be a mockery of it but perhaps its still many times better than China. Freedom is something which is essential; something which no human can happily compromise on.

Last but not the least, its important to be a guy in India. Any given day a boy is still luckier in India today than a girl is. I don’t think I need to give reasons for that.

We are thus in the middle of an evolution. What the Indian middle class is enjoying today is freedom from the clutches of socialism added to which is the freshness of capitalism, the thorns of which are still too blunt. An easy education, an easy job, a cozy salary, a suitable bride, challenges, opportunities, freedom, strong family ties… it actually seems too easy. Or perhaps there is something more to it than meets the eye. After all how long can the spring last? Now that’s something to think about.