Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Let's ponder....

Links to the articles talked about in this post

Sumedh Mungee's: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/why-i-left-india-again/

Chetan bhagat's: http://www.chetanbhagat.com/blog/2011/10/24/happy-diwali-and-why-i-am-still-here/

In past few days, I have been wondering if education makes us a better human, or it's just a myth.

This is when I came across two thought-provoking articles by Sumedh Mungee and other by Chetan Bhagat sir, which was actually a reply to Sumedh Mungee's post. First of all, i would like to applaud both the gentlemen for putting across their views, because otherwise we could have never started this debate or would have looked at ourselves thinking, "Are we actually a better human?"
Now, both these gentlemen belong to the group of privileged ones, and by that I mean the people who have worked hard enough to deserve the money they earn. Chetan Bhagat, even if you don't consider him a good writer, but still you'll respect him for the fact that he cracked both IIT and IIM's entrance examination. Something most of us can just dream off, whereas Sumedh Mungee also held a high post at a reputed organization, again not a small thing.

Now, with these positions, they have also gained a power to run away wherever they want or to keep servants and say, "My servants have all luxuries."

Let's talk about Mr. Mungee, he's a perfect case of the American dream, studied and worked hard so he can party even harder in USA. And then suddenly he thinks that he has a responsibility towards his motherland, a place he didn't trust enough while looking for a job. And why should he when he's getting a better salary and living condition somewhere else. I guess most of us would do this, wouldn't we?
However, then why come back? Because you think, India has developed enough, and you've earned enough money to afford all the luxuries in this developed India? So that you can comment about the conditions faced by average Indians while sitting in your air-conditioned office. Moreover, you find something wrong in those conditions because obviously, it's different from 'America'. So, you pick up your bags and leave, which is again not a bad thing as an honorable and beautiful life is every person's right. Moreover, the country which made you the person you are, can't be trusted to be good enough for your children, the people who gave you the education to excel in the western world would surely be dangerous enough for you and your family to settle down. This country has made a mistake, i.e. by never teaching you that to clean your home you have to pick up the broom.
But hey, that sounds wrong, right? How can you do it, since you expect a maid to take care of your home and children and therefore, expect the other, not so privileged ones, to take care of India so that it can be good enough for respectable people like you to settle down

What if the conditions in USA become the same as India? Will you run away again?

The second person we're going to talk about is Mr. Bhagat, a brilliant writer(I consider him as one), he too wrote a post saying how wrong Sumedh Mungee is. Chetan Bhagat gave his own example that he left India as well for 11 years, settled down in Hong Kong, earned enough money to guarantee him a luxurious life in India, after which he came back to his motherland. And it’s a good thing if our brilliant minds come back and settle down in their homeland.
Mr. Bhagat wrote a beautiful post, about how one should treat another class of people, popularly known as "His maids," oops did I call them maids? I shouldn't because Mr. Bhagat hates it when someone calls his helpers as maids except himself.

Nevertheless, these are some small issues, what we should notice here is, even though he hates traffic but instead of encouraging public transport he goes on gifting 'his servants' a new vehicle every now and then. Because he can afford that, he can do anything as long as he has a reason to justify himself.

And what a justification it was, he takes care of his maids and therefore, he has earned the right to hire maids and servants. Just like Britisher had all the right to rule over us, in return they gave us such beautiful structures and architecture, plus they also brought the industrial revolution to this country. So, according to Mr. Bhagat even they were right in ruling over us as long as they took care of us.

So tell me sir, if someone makes you, their slave and gives you all the small luxuries, would you be able to accept it?

And yes your maid’s (i mean your helper's) daughter ran away because she wanted freedom.

P.S. Unfortunately, the writer of the post hasn't hired a maid. Maybe because he still doesn't earn enough to justify his decision by providing them with enough small luxuries. Nor is he fortunate enough to run away from the problems mixed in his homeland's soil.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its well written Abhinav...I was also thinking of writing...lets see if I do :-)

Amit said...

Sumedh mungee is a worst of all creeps..

bookworME said...

Well after the debate yesterday, i knew you would write this. Again I would be neutral to both of them as each was right in their own way. And as for you, it's a well written post.
Looking forward for more midnight debates.

Amit said...

well , house-helpers are not slaves ...its a job that they are doing and getting paid for .. try to respect it as their profession ... (work's not always white collared)

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