Solve et Coagula

Talked to a friend of mine after a really long time. Now that I’m jobless (pun intended), I have very little to do but procrastinate. Got thinking.

Raj Thackeray declaring that North Indians are unfit for Maharashtra. The Forward Bloc causing a 12hr bandh and albeit a few million man-hours lost in productivity. There’s an Anthrax scare in Nadia. That’s what the TV says. I’m just a normal, law abiding, segregated, middle class loner. I watch what I’m told to watch. I read what I’m shown. I rebel when told to pick up arms. I cry out in agony when I see my able bodied, sound minded, educated and deserving OBC friends get the job I wanted. To hell if hey got it NOT on reservation but merit. But I’m still chirpy as hell. You see, the government just jabbed me with a new dose of democratic euphoria inducing drug. It’s called PROMISE.

The new Indian middle class is a rampant, bulging enigma that seems to have outgrown its cloak of secrecy. They are the bourgeoisie of the developing world, see? They work in high end IT companies with salaries that roughly translate to $10,000 annually. They work like sniffer-dogs on acid. They keep this country’s economy in check. Or so it would seem. Their labor is repaid with what, you might ask? Well, they’re told that their ‘services are no longer required’ because the rupee has suddenly, catastrophically, risen against the dollar!!! God, oh my God!!! That’s economic heresy. The USA was, all this time, trying their level best to keep this in check... alas, they could not. Blame it on an emerging economy where talent is now as common as sand in a desert. So how do we manage this rather horrific dilemma? Fire them Indians, I say.

And for good reason too. Employees in TCS & IBM entered their blissful, cocooned workplace one fine morning to be told that they were fired? Is it their fault that the rupee rose against the dollar?? Hasn’t the industry been trying to garner a stronger currency because of globalization? Because of social liberalization? Then why this volte face? India was not waiting for this.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both been crying themselves hoarse, stating with ‘passion’ that they’ll get back the American jobs for the Americans, snatch it away from Indians…. He he he he he… These Senators are doing a great job of creating nationalist factions, I’ll say that. Well, I’m sure that when these very same conglomerates , who control the global economy, notice that they’ll end up paying $40,000 for a job that can be done at a fourth of the price, all the Presidents will have a different song to sing.

We’ve lived on their promises for so, so long now that we forget where we come from. We forget to think, to remember. Rather, we choose not to. There is no mobilization of collective thought. It’s lying dormant. No one wills to speak. Not that they’re tired or thoughtless. They just don’t want to. No issue is too big or too small… it needs a proper forum to be addressed. It’s all right to ask for more. We forget to differentiate between what we want and what we need, often confusing one for the other. The media does not help either. All of them – the media, the politicians and the critics – feed off the same cesspool and blame each other for the miseries of a country. This confuses a generation for which 9 to 6 is the main mantra. We confuse profitability for efficiency. We confuse radicalism for anarchy. We confuse nationalism for Hindutva. We confuse our privileges for our rights.

Every man for himself. Every single one….. Only then can we unite in a common, non-disparate manner to solve issues that matter, and let issues that rake in moolah and viewer ship lie to rest.

My friend also passed on a small anecdote. Marx once, apparently, said: “I’m not a Marxist”, because people totally misunderstood what he meant. I’m sure they still do, and Marx, if alive today, would echo the same. Probably with more vigour and vodka.

Peace