A typical Friday evening. A regular trip to a restaurant.
I got out of my car but kept the engine running. A person was holding the door open. I didn’t bother to make eye contact with him; I just made a nonchalant air gesture, signalling that the keys were inside the car.
I grabbed a token from him and glanced at it from the corner of my eyes to cross-check if the car number was correct. Then, I walked into the restaurant to be greeted by the usher in an ill-fitting, out-of-place Japanese kimono with folded hands.
Two hours later.
I step out and hand the token to the attendant at the valet desk. I have waited for just a few minutes when it starts raining. The security guard (again in an ill-fitted uniform) brings an umbrella, opens it and lifts it over my head. Only part of him is shielded by the umbrella, and he gets drenched on the other side. I noticed it and chose to be a person with a big heart. I make a cursory shuffle towards the left without actually moving. He remains still. Now, I am getting irritated with the waiting.
Finally, my car rolls in, and the driver steps out. I start hurriedly walking. Meanwhile, the security guard kept chaperoning with his umbrella over my head. I get in and let them walk towards their respective positions to repeat the cycle.
This was just a fictional anecdote I conjured up, but I didn’t have a problem imagining this scene. I am pretty sure you, who are reading this, wouldn’t have had any problem recreating this scene in your head.
Exaggerated or not, this is real. It is far too familiar.
Our country has two classes: the dry car owner and the drenched umbrella holders.
Humans, Indians and the new slave trade
Unlike other animals on this planet, Humans are wired slightly differently.
Everyone chases safety and ‘Laziness’. They want to survive long enough and do as little work as possible while surviving.
When it has eaten, a lion will sprawl on its stomach and yawn.
When fed and inside the safety of a house, a dog will lie down on the doormat.
They don’t have the urge to save for a future generation, but humans do.
We place an irrational premium on the comfort of our future (and future generations). Our comfort in the present is secondary to it. We have to pay the interest into the comfort account of our future against an invisible debt that we owe to future generations. It has to be paid up first, then we think of ourselves. So, the concept of producing more than needed 'now' and the idea of "saving" started.
Over time, some inevitably ‘saved’ more (by hook or crook) and repaid their debt. Now, they want comfort. Similarly, people who inherit the ‘savings’ of their previous generations have a lesser debt burden and think of comfort sooner.
Rich countries have a lesser burden of debt. (This is not to be confused with actual monetary debt owed to the banks; this is a more mental construct, where you are restless about the comfort of your future and the next generation.)
In India, we are yet to get out of this.
A large part of our population still has unpaid debt. They know their future isn’t comfortable; they have to get more than required now and build up a bank that they (or their children) can cash in.
When they achieve that goal, they start seeking comfort and laziness.
But we all have selfish (and irrational) genes.
We are okay with sacrificing for some illusive future, but we are incredibly selfish when defining “us.” In the quest for comfort, we don’t treat others as equals; we treat them as means to our comfort.
Since time immemorial, there has been inequality, which has given one section of the people an undue advantage. This advantage stems from the fact that they have “no debt outstanding”. They don’t have to sacrifice their present for their future.
Others are still bonded by the fear of a grim future in their heads, and they accept their fate.
This gives the first group an undue advantage over the second group.
The latter are forced to work to repay their debt by feeding the laziness of the former.
It led to the slave trade.
Now, it is emerging differently in India.
The cost of convenience for an upper middle class is significantly higher than the cost of subsistence of many people.
The economy has been built around maximising the output per unit of time. When I use someone's help to free up my time, which can be used to do something economically better, that's a help. Essentially, we are producing more for the same unit of time.
But when I deliberately transfer a piece of work and choose comfort instead. I am essentially employing a slave.
That's what I am doing with a valet. That’s what I am doing with a delivery executive.
Deliberately transferring my discomfort to someone and taking the easy way out is a classic enslaver move. I do it not because I have to, but because I can.
I don't use a valet because I have to find a parking space. I do it because I can let someone else struggle on my behalf.
Why is it a challenge?
If history has to be believed, none of the enslavers have flourished beyond a few years or decades. They have been met with anything but death. Civil unrest is the outcome of such events when the oppressed feel jealous.
I don’t want to sound dystopian, but we are entering risky territory.
We are creating more modern-day slave jobs. Millions of people are working hard to make thousands of people lazy. We are not creating enough good-quality jobs.
Just like the 18th century, they notice the fortunate ones taking the easy way out on behalf of their expense. Unlike the ghettoes, where everyone is equally impoverished, they go daily inside the gates but can’t stay inside. They are, most probably, envious.
But they are also exposed to narratives of a blissful future with the proliferation of creators online. They paint a life in La La Land plastered with excellent food and fabulous travel destinations. Every post, every reel reeks of restlessness. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry feels that the life on the 6" screen is within their reach because the person peddling this narrative of hope is just like them.
There is a deadly cocktail of helplessness, envy and hope brewing.
It’s a giant ticking time bomb.