Water eyed

India booming and India shining are some of the messages and slogans which I have been hearing since I was in my hey days, meaning my college days. Although I never got the real sense of it as I never had to think about the issues my father faces when he used to give me whopping 10,000 Rs a month to make me feel good and among the ‘haves’ in the society. I still remember my sixth semester when I went to shopping week after week buying some 3-4 branded T-shirts. The life style addiction was at the peak at that time and I never had any reason why I shouldn’t buy anything I felt like.

May be that was because I have grown up watching things only from a distance when my friends used to avail eat sitting in their lounge. This gives rise to a rarely surfacing memory instance when I ran after a 7’up (Lehar 7’up) up to 1km, due to the deep urge inside me to have it in the season of summer. That was because; from starting I and my brother were taught to behave at the first cloud and not at the seventh cloud. I also remember avoiding many times “samosa” at my school canteen because of ‘Maa doesn’t like it’ factors. These memories are still afresh in my memory when, I don’t think about having a cup of barista coffee, oops sorry CCD coffee, as barista is passé now. Yes things have changed. Now I don’t think about issues like ‘what If I save this money’. That doesn’t mean that I keep splurging but, nowadays the “friction-index” between the money and my wallet is less than ever, unlike the Sensex.

I know that for most of the readers, it’s hard to believe that those were the finer days when I used to spend less, but had less tension as well. Those memories make me water eyed today, because now, thanks to liberalization I am even able to think for a to and fro air journey from my home to job without taking any external help.

The next logical question: why this discussion is at place now. This is no randomization of thoughts. Some days back I read many articles which were bound to come from some of the finest writers as a response to the rising inflation rate. The articles came in many flavors ranging from plain vanilla describing the efforts that needs to be taken by Indian government to curb inflation to sad flavors like “how people are affected?”. I read many of the articles out of those and have a fair idea about how various segments of the society are fighting a loosing battle to strike a balance between inflation rates and ‘no hike in the salary’ events.

I was most moved by the current status of a woman who is a house maid who is fighting hard to eat well and sleep well. She has 2 daughters, both working and earning a meager amount to make it to twin meals a day. Her husband is a middle man between the common man and the retailers. He thanks daily to the “Walmartization” of society which entails no money for the middle man. The woman’s husband daily take home salary (these people don’t have monthly salary) has dropped to rs 50 from rs 100. The question of this woman is how she will get her family 2 meals a day from the current salary of her and her husband’s concatenated. The question is very logical and of course a frustration yielding, at the same time yielded by frustration.

According to the lady, they have stopped having non veg meals long back and the condition is so severe that now they have even stopped having 4 times a day and get satisfied with two half cups. Not to mention, they have stopped preparing once in an year dishes like ‘vada’ which were once prepared only in Pongal. India shining and the real Indian not getting his share of pie is the question to be pondered upon !

Should I then conclude that India shining is befitted for us IT professionals who are being offered more salary than anytime to suit our needs? To generalize, whenever such shining happens due to the cherry blossom imported from the US, a normal man is never benefited. yes, and why should he be? Right? Sad !!

So guys, next time your maid asks you for salary hike, don’t refuse her. Yes, Indian IT scene is more buoyant then any other time but the penetrated Indian is still in his ‘daily bread earning’ battle.