The Stable Life Syndrome

I just shifted to the PMI office of Satyam at Pune. The IT crowd in general is a very young crowd, with most of us under the age of 30, just passing out of college. But the demographics at PMI aka Manikchand Ikon building at Pune are a bit different. Just like STC - Hyderabad, a lot of the staff working here is settled in Pune. They have families and they bring tiffins from home to the office here. Coming to this office I have made a few observations. I have no idea of the veracity of my theories, but I can propound them nevertheless.

I believe that the average salary earning, 9 to 6 tiffin holding worker, be it from IT or from some other industry is one of the reasons behind inactive society that we see at large. The reason being that having a family implies added responsibility on an individual leaving him with that much lesser time to spare for the the society. His life and his world which is small in the first place becomes even smaller after having a family. Even more poignant is the fact that the higher the income in such families, the higher is the insulation from ground realities.

This is also true because an average middle class individual, post marriage, with a high salary tends to be in a comfort zone, such as never experienced before in life. A life which started as a struggle through school, scoring highly throughout college and finally landing a cushy job as the prize for all the hardwork. Such an individual is far more interested in enjoying the fruits of his labours rather than being proactive to the issues that face our country.

In the end, I will pin down the importance for a "Stable Life" as being one of the chief resons for the usual insensitivity that surrounds. This "Stable Life" does receive a rude shock when there are bombings in hotels that we visit and railway stations that we leave from. But it hardly matters to the same people if our soldiers are fighting for their lives in the cold in Kashmir, if the North East is plagued by Maoism or the naxals. One of the reasons that nations like the United States do get to elect someone like Obama as president is because of the proactivity of its citizens who believe and desire change - something that most "Stable Life" living Indian don't want.

How to rid of this? Encourage the young to marry old. The older they get married at, the more proactive they stay for the state - I believe. The more such proactive denizens, the better off we all are.

Please don't hesitate to post comments and tell me why this seems a hare brained scheme to you. :-)