Of Owls & The Economy

Of Owls & The Economy

Nosy neighbours are always an irritating aspect of our daily lives but once in a while you do come across those shallowly-opinionated, know-it-all monkeys whose words one would hardly take seriously but are harsh enough to enrage your temper, even if that means for a minute or so!

I recently had the privilege of coming across a not-so-gentleman called Mr Shinde who co-habitates in the same building with a lot of other gentlemen. Keeping aside the fact that his sons have jobs in the States and which to him by some unwritten code elevates him to all the social privileges that one can think of in his wildest dreams( including parking space ), he generally has opinions about things he has no clue about. Harsh judgement? Not really, after he generously showed his ignorant side to a few the other morning when he decided to verbally attack Sarfaraz( not a fictitious character),a young professional in his late twenties.

The spark of altercation was ignited when Mr Shinde not so politely knocked on Sarfaraz’s door at eight in the morning. His point of discontent being that the way Sarfaraz had parked his bike was obstructing his parking space, which again, goes without saying that it was not! Sarfaraz works in one of the biggest BPOs in the country and after having sacrificed his nights towards his work hours since the last five years has grown to the position of a Group Manager.

Obviously tired after his shift and being well aware of Mr Shinde’s habit on picking on him, he just apologised and told Mr Shinde, “ I was a bit sleepy and maybe I accidentally parked there!”.

To which our uncouth Mr Shinde replies, “ It is none of my concern that you were sleepy ! God knows which bar do you work the entire night in but this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in this place. This is a Sharifo ka society!”.

Fortunately, unfortunately I was passing by at that point of time and heard it. It was alarming the way Mr Shinde was speaking to a well-educated and behaved young man and was abusing his profession without the slightest hint of provocation. Sarfaraz just closed the door on his face and went inside.

Mr Shinde being meted out the treatment of neglect which he deserved did not want to stop at nothing. For twenty minutes he kept on ranting why the society should not allow, let me quote “Call centre hooligans”.

From that it was pretty obvious that Mr Shinde’s discomfort was not about the parking space but it was Sarfaraz working in a call-centre. To him the point of significance was not working but call-centre.

But this is just not Mr Shinde’s opinion. There are thousands by the number out there, whom Shashi Tharoor refers to as the bien peasant class and I as ignorant hussies, who are convinced to the very core of their souls that anyone working in a call-centre is either a talentless society-reject who could not complete his engineering and medical and hence had his fate destined to work in an apparently unholy place, or is a misguided individual who is open to inflicting themselves with drugs and other things such as S.E.X.!!!! Lack of proper upbringing is what apparently drove them to this point and of course, the blanket of culture will devoid them off its holiness!

But why this squinted outlook to a contributing factor in the economy which adds to close to $18 Billions by providing employment to close to 800,000 employees across India. Is it because we are so narrow minded that we are unable to digest the fact that someone who did not have the privilege of spending close to five lakhs for professional courses still earns almost as much in the very first of his or her employment or have we taken the myth about jobs falling from the clouds promised by an earlier government so seriously that we have rather have our younger lot of work force sit and wait for that day to come than actually use the sweat of youth to employment ?

I don’t have to look far to pick an example. Mr Shinde’s youngest son has been studying to be an IAS since the last five years. Great perseverance one may say, but let me add the other side of the truth. He is still unemployed. And he is close to twenty eight. Almost of the same age, Sarfaraz is a Group Manager. The measure of comparison is right there for us!!

And Sarfaraz is not the only of the lot, there is an entire generation of youth who a certain Mr Bhagat very unfairly calls as crutches to the outsourcing world, who are willing to get out of their comfort zone and earn their own independence. This is a lot which probably does not always dress up in a tie and a suit every day and more often than not will be spotted in a casual t-shirt and jeans at their workplace but don’t make the mistake of judging them by the mood and choice of their clothes. They are the ones who have helped first build, then grow and now sustain an economy which very proudly many an ignorant, stuck-up and jim dandies think have grown from the trees which are as old and ancient as their thinking.

One may also argue about how there is more to than just the straitjacketing of the BPO industry to putting on fake accents and taking pseudo western names, however still considering only that aspect of the industry , it is not easy to try and adopt a culture and converse and convince someone sitting across the globe about a product you hardly know! But they still to do it!

Sirs, have some respect to the level of commitment and dedication if not anything else.

And here is the simple math :

If an average BPO employs 300 people, and considering that there are fifty BPOs in each developed city, considering the domestic & the international sectors, that’s fifteen thousand citizens who have jobs. And even if we consider them as the only earning member of the family, that’s 15000 families who have a source of income at an average salary of 12000-15000 Rupees.

So wake up people, because the Owls have and they are driving the economy. And trust me you, it hardly matters to them whether anyone conforms or not. Because they are living and changing the dynamics of the society, the way India was perceived till the earlier part of this century and the way it is perceived at the turn of this decade.

The owls have redefined the concept of liberalisation and modernization, and reshaped the structural deformity of our economy. They are here to stay and they are here to fly.

If you cant keep up, just shut up and go to sleep, cause there is a whole lot of work to be done when the clock strikes nine.

P.S : All the characters in this piece are real and if they bear any resemblance to anyone living or dead, its not a co-incidence.