It’s fascinating to hear the off-the-cuff views on various issues from men on ground zero. They are ones we interact on a daily basis including our Society watchmen, fruit-walas , bhaji-sabji vendors, delivery boys, paper-stall owners, roadside tailors & cobblers, car & auto repair guys and the most voluble auto-walas, to name the ones I meet. In our active banker days now a few decades past, they formed a huge ‘Self-employed & Professionals’ sector but continue to do so, more now ! Even if ‘Unorganised’ there are always there.
Coming to the main story, since my slippers needed urgent attention, I paid a visit to the neighbourhood ‘mochi’, who has a tiny ‘Gumti’ where he displays his wares and keeps his stuff. It surprised me to find a bright, youngish man polishing shoes with some pride and like a nosey old gent, I got to asking questions – he replied he was 12th pass and had worked on few jobs but had decided be his own master. Wondering how he managed his family earning just about five hundred daily, he seemed quite content with his life ! He seemed to have no worries about high prices, educating his children & better prospects.
What surprised me was his general awareness and interest in current political concerns, like migrants from neighboring countries staying or coming into the country which he felt were creating problems for us. He asked me about my home-state and expressed his satisfaction at how the welfare policies were being implemented by ruling dispensation. Along with footwear repair, I was getting educated on what ‘aam janta’ perceives With all my newspaper-reading & media-binging, I find myself confused on so many issues.
It’s observed that our urbanized & city bred youth (aren’t we still reaping the benefits of demographic dividend ?) in the employable age group are tech-savvy and aspirational in their outlook. There’s also a fair section of educated youth in metros & big towns that endeavors to improve it’s lot to keep up with high cost of maintaining a normal life style. In the 70s, we learnt principles of ‘Simple Living and High Thinking’ that was imbibed – it was really ‘simple’ then. It may now be like ‘Thinking of Ways & Means for Surviving’. My ‘Shoemaker’ friend’s contentment with whatever you get in life, is another lesson.
Working on Living 