I wonder how many of you have seen the L'Oreal Garnier Fructis ad "Because I'm worth It" (maybe the pic will remind you). Its an ad that irritates me like nothing else does. In many ways it epitomises the attitude of today's Indian and helps explain his extravagance and thoughtless indulgence in material pursuits.
Today, I buy a car on Bank finance even when I cant afford maintaining it. Even when I know I dont have roads to drive it on or garages to park it in. But just because I have spent some time decaying in the jam packed smelly buses I assume I deserve a car. I even argue that I am doing it because there is no public transport in our country. The thought that there is no public transport in the country precisely because I have a car,doesnt occur to me. Everybody has gotta bear traffic Jams. But I am proud that I bear it sitting in my Scorpio rather than in overcrowded buses or the Maruti 800.
Going to Raichak for holidays is not for me. Afterall its an India destination, that too in West Bengal. I prefer Singapore and Bali and sometimes even Switzerland if I can get the Bank to recognise that I'm worth it. I can spend my ward to Kendriya Vidyalaya but that wont do. It has to be Model School or International School or some fancy name. I can buy a decent house in a quiet locale but I'd rather spend a few crores to buy a 2 BHK in a upmarket locale. I wont work for an Indian company that'll allow me time for myself and my near & dear ones. I'll work for a MNC that'll give me millions of Rupees to spend if only I can find the time.
The west is fast shedding its obsession with progress and technology. They are minimising the use of mobile phones, microwaves are being discarded, food is being grown the natural/organic way sans pesticides/fertilisers, wireless equipment is being dumped in third world countries, people are turning from bhogis to yogis (at least pretending to), they are going to Spas instead of doctors, they have stopped this, they have reverted to that....and here we are, trying our best to keep up with each and every step of theirs, to match them for every car, every holiday and every career, much like a dimwit plagiarist copying even the mistakes from the original...
Yes I am worth it. If I buy MUVs, I deserve never-ending jams & astronomically high petrol prices. If I go to Singapore and Bali, I deserve visits to the local mall and the free time that the tourwallahkindly agrees to allow me. If I buy a Scorpio, I deserve to sit proudly in it for a couple of hours, even if it is in the midst of a never-ending jam. If I get my ward admitted in an International school, I deserve having him spoon-fed by a more expensive spoon.
If I buy a 2 BHK in a upmarket locale, I deserve to pay obscene prices for the vegetables that I buy therefrom or better still pay through my nose to afford a couple of days of quietude that I'd have got all year round in the house which I had earlier rejected. If I work for an MNC I deserve to spend "Quality" money for getting sub-quality products/time. And I can convince God that I'm worth it, I might even be lucky to spend some "Quality" time with my folks when all of us are upstairs.
Yes I deserve all of this. And more. Afterall, I'm the lucky Indian to whom the world is selling and whats more, I'm worth it....
And thats all I'm worth...
P.S - Bobbybhai, I owe you both thanks and apologies. Thanks for inspiring the post and apologies if my words appear anti-Indian.
