These days I have been dropping Jispa to school by car. This
is because her swim schedule leaves us no option but to drop her directly. It’s
just not possible to go via the school bus. So I try and pick her from the pool
and drop her as the school in some obtuse way in in the direction of my office.
Over the years I think more and more kids are getting dropped off to school by
car then by the school bus. I don’t have exact statistics but I definitely see
a larger number of cars doing so than before.
While Jispa was growing up, one trend was definitely there –
the maid culture. I have blogged about this before. More and more families with
kids would employ a full time maid to take care of the kid. Ensuring the kid
has food all the time and is dressed up, bathed etc. This leaves the parents to
focus on other things as well as have a social life. We actively decided never
to have one. We didn’t believe we needed one and we were sure that we could
manage Jispa without one. It was fun in any case. It was my job to wake baby
Jispa up in the morning and take her to the bathroom for brushing and bathing.
One of my fondest memories is brushing Jispa’s teeth while she sits on my lap. “now
do eeeeeeeeee”. Now days once in a while for old times sake I try and brush her
teeth, just so that she knows how stupid my life was.
This maid culture was so bad that kids grew up expecting
that the maid would do almost everything. All they needed was to open their
mouth to be fed or just walk around and their bag would be carried. I don’t think
kids who grew up like this would have the ability to handle situations on their
own. I do think they will grow up with a heightened sense of entitlement as
they grow up.
Over the last few months, this servant trend has gone crazy.
Now when I drop Jispa to school, we keep a watch out for the comic show. Once
we spot it we nudge each other and laugh
like crazy. The routine is straight forward. The car, typically a van or an SUV
with the driver will come and stop as close to the school gate as possible.
Then from the front a guy will step out and go to the back door and open it. He
then will take out the school bag and lunch bag. This is handed over to him by
the maid waiting inside. Then he will … mind you… pull the kid out from the car
and place the kid on the floor. Then the kid will take a few steps forward and
then the guy will then hold the bag out in order to help the kid wear it and
off the kid goes to school. A variation of the above is the maid getting out
from the front and helping the kid off the car. This is wild. The kid looks
like a helpless paraplegic as he is literally pulled out from the car to the
floor. What crap is this? Cant the kid just open the door on his own and get
out taking the bag and the lunch box? Why is this such a tough thing to do?
This is such a stupid thing to do. Today we saw a kid who Jispa says is from
the third standard as she was helped off the car. I think I am going to sell
tickets for people to stand as they watch this circus unfold every day.
Once when I had reached to pick up Jispa from school, the
maids rush to the gate and pick up the bags of the kids as they come out. I
remember when I was new to Mumbai and in the fourth standard, we were staying temporarily
at my granny’s house, a stone’s throw away from school. My mom tried sending
the maid my granny had along with us to school. She was worried that her kids,
so used to Dubai would be unable to navigate the 200 meters to reach school. I
remember the maid asking us to let her carry our bags and I remember my brother
and me clearly saying no. Of course not. That’s not happening.
Jispa’s school is pretty laa-di-da with some celeb kids
coming in as well. Once I saw a Mercedes pull up to school. In front of the Mercedes
was an SUV from where three men jumped out taking all the corners of the car. Then
one guy opens the door and out comes
maid with the bags and then she pulls out the kid who is escorted by the
maid and the man and then as the kid goes inside the gate, the men get into the
SUV and both the cars speed off. Wow. Money is good but it also comes with its
fair set of issues. The father and the child probably need the security.
Yesterday Jispa came home wondering how dumb could King
Louis be. This is the joker from the French Revolution. In the uprising he
tried to escape and he was so dumb that he got caught again. He tried escaping
in a heavy carriage with his men still in uniform and he carried less papers
than the entourage and off all things he tried to escape to Paris where the
revolution was at its maximum strength. Jispa said “in class we were wondering
if this idiot was actually trying to escape or trying to get caught? Why would
he do so many stupid things”.
I explained to her that if you are seriously rich and a
king, it is quite possible that you are completely out of touch with reality. I
spoke about the kids in my class and how South Mumbai residents (posh people)
typically are not worldly wise and are just have lower IQ’s. They just don’t get
it most of the time. Their projects are from their narrow and entitled world
view. In fact in her school itself there would be so many kids who would have practically
no idea about anything from reality. And then we turned on her. She too had very
little idea about real life. So we started quizzing her – what’s the price of
an idli. 10 / 15 bucks she said (reality 40). What’s the price of bread – 21 (reality
33). What’s the price of petrol or a bus ride or anything else? Jispa – you too
lead a charmed life. You too won’t be able to escape so fast so soon.
Jispa – He was a king. He was brought to a reality that was
his alone and not in touch with the rest of the country. “But he had the best tutors”
she said. Of course. The way in your class you have the best tutors but you are
probably different than some real entitled dumbos in your class, the same way,
tutors don’t matter. What you learn is completely different.
The richer you are the more charmed your life will be. This
is the truth and as your family becomes richer and your generations benefit
from what you have set up from them, it becomes near impossible to break
through the shackles of money to some out smarter.
Jispa too is today richer than what I was. She runs the risk
of being dumb. We try and mitigate it. We try and expose her to stuff, but
something will just remain tough. Some things will such that she will never be
exposed to.
Jasmine spoke about our servant and her grand child. She
said, the other day our servant borrowed a little money as while she was
leaving, she felt that her grandchild was a bit warm and could be ill. So she
took money in case she had to buy medicines for her. This child (possibly with
fever) was left alone at home with no one to take care of her all day. This is
the harsh reality of life that our kids are (thankfully) saved from and not
exposed to.
This is the life of millions of Indians and its not that
these are far away from our contact. These are people we touch daily in our
lives. Its tough for us to understand them and for them to understand us. If
they knew the cost of our shoes alone, they will throw a fit. I don’t think
they will believe that the shoes we wear are worth 4 to five times their monthly
salary. Now they will call us really really dumb.
King Louis was born into luxury and was not trained to
escape. In fact the people revolted because in many ways he wasn’t connect to
reality. And because he wasn’t connected to reality, he made a hash out of
running away. What’s so surprising. Its not easy being rich in a poor man’s
world, is it?
