Height of heights
Gulzar saab once wrote, “Waqt badalte waqt nahi lagta…”
If this is true, then there’s nothing to worry about.
If it’s false, then there’s no point whatsoever.
If it’s mildly true, we must change the status quo.
If it’s mildly false, Gulzar saab should continue writing.
Yes, I am talking about the growing inequality around us. Unless you’re irrevocably institutionalized by the comfort of your existence, the socio-economic divide is glaringly obvious. Our population is exploding like never before—although nobody seems to care; this is like ignoring the knight for a pawn — and the sheer volume of public is self-explanatory. The issue isn’t about visibility anymore. It’s our adamant overlooking. Why so? Well, they remind us of the endless versions where we could have been in their place. And we don’t want to acknowledge the fact that we got plain lucky. Instead, we use unverifiable phrases like “worked hard af”, “stayed in the game”, “paid my dues with my career”, “kissed/kicked asses whenever required”, “competition is the only way”, “a rat race” and so on. Anybody with an ounce of brain inside their skull would identify these random non-sequitur; conveniently used to make oneself feel better about their position —honorably acquired or otherwise.
Two key words are often missing. Privilege. Opportunity. Of late, we’ve been hearing the former more than the latter. A worthy development, per se, because unless somebody splashes our face with cold reality, we don’t get to know. Without a certain amount of privilege in our pocket, we won’t have the right bounce to pluck the high-flying fruits. Just that once we find ourselves in a safe zone, we prefer to take credit for everything that preceded that position. Understandably, it’s as difficult for an actor to accept the role his thespian parents’ klout played in his lateral entry into the industry as it is for a doctor to entertain the possibility of not ending up in the operation theatre if it weren’t for his doctor parents. Both sets of people benefit from nepotism with equal emphasis on privilege and opportunity. They had the privileges to make the most of their ladder in the society, which resulted in garnering unfair amount of opportunities too.
On the other end of the spectrum, the poor lot, not only in our country, seldom get to see the light. They don’t know what lies beyond the surface of their menial lives. As far as they are concerned, survival is essential. Everything else can wait. Knowledge doesn’t even feature on the list. Quality of life is something the experts and the statisticians use to reference them in their studies. If you ask poor folk what do they think of this parameter, they wouldn’t know what to compare it to. Knowing what you want is more than important than knowing what you’ve got. And this is true for the better lot. The poor souls are too busy knowing what they’ve got and they try their best to hold on to it.
Which brings us the common ground of possession. The rich protect what they think is rightfully theirs. Similarly, the poor protect what they know is rightfully theirs. Both are aware of each other’s presence. The only difference being the rich thrives on the foundation of resentment for the poor. It’s a weird relationship. The former can’t do without the latter as the latter build the farms, roads, buildings, parks, bridges, etc. for the former. No, this transaction isn’t conducted out of the goodness of the heart. That’s just the way it is. The poor doesn’t know better.
A coin has a good side as well as an evil one. The beneficial part lubricates the society; people work together as a society. The deplorable part portends the ever-increasing chasm between the haves and the have-nots. It’s a game with skewed rules, ensuring that the winners are the minority few while the majority appear like dumbasses. No matter how many hands a currency note has exchanged, it will end up with a small percentage of players. So, poetically speaking, a rich guy holds money that has fingerprints of all those wanted to keep it but couldn’t.
To that effect, everybody has the right to grow. If moolah is tantamount to growth, so be it. Besides, who am I or you to tell others what to do with their “hard-earned money” [another unverifiable phrase] as long as they follow the set rules? As far as we can predict, anything can happen any given time. The rich might collapse tomorrow and the poor might rise. And maybe then, only then, would we be able to see how are they different from those they couldn’t afford to resent back?
