My, my, aren’t these prosperous times already!!
Sensex is having its dalliance with 13,000 levels. There are articles abound about corporate salaries going through the roof or through the sky. Most of the people we know are doing very well.
An acquaintance, a high flying executive I met lately, was very disappointed – “Almost everybody is drawing a 1 cr salary!! And I thought I am being paid well.” Profound sadness. Needless to say that he quit his job soon for a salary which crossed that aspirational mark. Recently I visited a friend who has bought an apartment in Mumbai for close to half a million dollars (~Rs. 2.0 crores) and spent at least $100k (~Rs. 40-50 lakhs) in doing it up. And then the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini Study told us that there are 83,000 dollar millionaires in the country, toting up to an aggregate of US$290 bn of wealth. My colleague pooh-poohed these numbers; according to him, the real numbers should be 150,000 and US$ 500 bn. respectively. Being close to a dollar millionaire himself, he certainly knows better. But given my humble middle class background, I get daunted by these very very large numbers. Okay, go ahead and teach me the effect of inflation and tell me that these are not as large as they seem. Well then, these are very modest numbers. But, I am still incredulous. I am not making as much money and not being a smart man about personal finance, I have much less than I should have, even with my modest income. So, if the evil inflation has made 1 crore a modest number, I and my family should have been destitute. But we are not. I had some muesli for breakfast this morning. By God’s grace!!
Oops!! I am wrong there. Apparently, it’s not by God’s grace. It’s by the grace of Dr. Manmohan Singh and the magic called “Economic Reforms” that he had unleashed on this country. It seems, in real and comparable terms, I am actually quite poor; only the standard of living has gone up. Don’t you remember the startling stories of seventies, when your foreign returned dad, uncle, second cousin (or whoever) used to regale you about how a janitor in a Rotterdam hotel came in a Volkswagen and later bumped into him in a downtown bistro? India is much more developed now and the standard of living has gone up. And thus poor people like me are not exactly destitute – in fact it is so much better, that we can afford to employ a chauffer to drive our cars – at least I can.
And amidst all these, the wretched soul that I am, I suddenly remember the suicidal farmers of Bidarbha, the starving millions in Orissa, the flooded and homeless villagers of Narmada valley, the child laborers who are neither here nor there after a new notification, India’s appalling ranks in Human Development Report and Global Hunger Index, bla bla bla… I think about these and I ponder – if the country has really developed so much that 1 crore is a modest sum and a poor man is employing a chauffer, then why the hell are all these miserable party poopers dying of poverty, hunger and disease.
A kind friend steps in and explains. He starts by stating the truth first. The reason that I am poor is because I am stupid. And that I am stupid is being ratified by the fact that I have not understood how an economy works even after a business degree from a school of repute. He assures me by stating the following:
- Free market is meritocracy; so people without merit will be poor (I agree with that as it applies to me quite aptly) and people with merit will be rich (can’t say much about this though)
- All you are witnessing is a temporary phenomenon. Soon another great mechanism called “Trickle Down” will happen and every thing will be, as they say, hunky dory, and the farmer in Bidarbha will soon have a Budweiser at the end of the day. (I am quite happy as long as part of that trickle happens through me)
- It (the “Trickle Down”) should have happened a little earlier, but for those bas***d politicians, you know. They are very corrupt and they do all those bad things they show in Hindi Movies. (yeah yeah, we all hate politicians, don't we? Somtimes I wonder, without them who will we put all the guilt on?)
- Actually, this poverty-shoverty is not our worry; it should not be. It’s the job of the politicians to take care of these, but they are f***ing up this great “Indian Story”.
- So shut up and don’t spoil the Diwali mood. In stead drop in at my place for the card party and to taste the single malt I discovered on my recent trip to Scotland. And I have some Davidoff ciagrs to go with that as well.
Well, thank God, oops, thank “Economic Reforms” – I may be poor, but I have some friends with really “modest” means and superior intellect.
So Happy Diwali to you again and cheers!!
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