Being Dravid, Infosys and Indian Middle Class
This being my first post had to be on something close to my heart. I could just not think of anything better than Cricket, Technology and people…
What is the great Indian Middle Class that people all around you talk about? Is it all about an economic profile of a set of people? I think not. To me, it is more than mere economics or money. Being Indian middle class is a mindset. No matter how rich or poor one is, the middle class is about pure mindset.
So, what is it to think middle class? To me it is a mix of desire or aspiration and insecurity. We can draw parlance to the economic meaning of the term middle class as being neither monetarily poor nor rich. The rich can dream for economically high valued items and buy them. The poor don’t dream of these things as they are pretty certain that they can’t afford these things in a lifetime. They don’t care either. Being middle class is dreaming and yet being unable to afford them. It is like having a double edged sword. It hurts to be poor and not being able to be rich. It is to have big dreams and not being able to chase them down or to be crude not having the balls to chase those dreams.
With due regards to some unique people, and my relative inexperience with judging people, I can state that most people I’ve met so far belong to this category of the Indian Middle class mindset. That definitely includes me. In fact a person like me is a unique category in myself, having hazy dreams, neither having the clarity nor the guts to chase them down. Im sure most people can identify themselves to their own unique category, their niche, yet being a part of the broader middle class I have been talking about. The dream could just be anything, could be to become a writer, but not have the guts to become one because of the monetary risk associated, to marry someone outside his or her caste or religion and not having the guts to face the social consequences…It just could be anything…
Im quite sure most of you are confused about a post that begun with cricket and IT and so far only talked about dreams and guts. But it is quite important to get synchronized with my views of being Indian middle class to quite interpret what I have to say about Dravid and Infosys.
For years now, we have been familiarized with statements like ‘Dravid scores another century’ or a ‘52% Q on Q growth for Infosys’. While Dravid has become the captain and the most indispensable member of the Indian cricket team, Infosys also continues to grow rapidly and is being talked about by millions of investors, students, professionals and families in India and across the world.
So, what is being Dravid or Infosys?
Being a Dravid or an Infosys is not about class. Rather it is about having a lack of pure class or magic that a Tendulkar, a Lara or a Microsoft and a Google posses. Yet having the guts to chase their dreams, knowing fully well that if they don’t succeed, they have no where else to go, nothing else to do. Being Dravid is never about being class, but about being consistent. Being Infosys is never about being innovative, but about exceeding their own standards to deliver quarter on quarter, year on year.
It has been difficult. Very difficult indeed. For Dravid, it has been years and years of practice, of being dropped from the team often and of belonging to an era where class like Tendulkar exists. The story of Infosys too has not been different. Finding clients were a problem, finding money and land was a problem. Yet they have succeeded. It is and has been the ability of a Dravid and an Infosys to break the shackles of the middle class mentality that very often sucks people into, that make them different, that has made them stand out.
Class has always been iconic. A Dravid will never go so well with cricket historians, with parents talking to their kids on their era of cricket as well as a Tendulkar would. An Infosys will never be talked as much as a Google. Yet they are greats. Greater than any individual or organization that has class. For class is merely a reason to celebrate or to admire in awe. Class is just a reason for people to have a dream. A Dravid or an Infosys are greats because they led a very silent revolution -a revolution of breaking the convention, of breaking mental barriers. They will be greats for they inspired and continue to inspire millions and millions to break this middle class mindset and start chasing their dreams. They have showed the way by saying silently that it doesn’t require to be born with a class but by merely having the will to chase their dreams until it lasts.
So, is it that they will remain forever good? Forever consistent? No. Never. It is against the nature of any man or organization on earth to remain good indefinitely. Dravid will be out of form. He will be criticized. Infosys will have bad quarters, losing faith from investors. It will find it difficult to remain a brand of choice for employees. Yet they will survive. Survive better than all others. They will survive because of the love of the game, of the love of being an Indian technology giant. They will survive because they have the guts to chase their dreams and they enjoy this process of chasing their dreams as much as they enjoy their dreams.
As for the rest of us, those I call the great Indian middle class, the mass, it will be a painful existence. Painful because they will merely continue to live another day for yet another dream go unfulfilled, until the day of regret, when it is too late to do anything, too late to even breathe.
This being my first post had to be on something close to my heart. I could just not think of anything better than Cricket, Technology and people…
What is the great Indian Middle Class that people all around you talk about? Is it all about an economic profile of a set of people? I think not. To me, it is more than mere economics or money. Being Indian middle class is a mindset. No matter how rich or poor one is, the middle class is about pure mindset.
So, what is it to think middle class? To me it is a mix of desire or aspiration and insecurity. We can draw parlance to the economic meaning of the term middle class as being neither monetarily poor nor rich. The rich can dream for economically high valued items and buy them. The poor don’t dream of these things as they are pretty certain that they can’t afford these things in a lifetime. They don’t care either. Being middle class is dreaming and yet being unable to afford them. It is like having a double edged sword. It hurts to be poor and not being able to be rich. It is to have big dreams and not being able to chase them down or to be crude not having the balls to chase those dreams.
With due regards to some unique people, and my relative inexperience with judging people, I can state that most people I’ve met so far belong to this category of the Indian Middle class mindset. That definitely includes me. In fact a person like me is a unique category in myself, having hazy dreams, neither having the clarity nor the guts to chase them down. Im sure most people can identify themselves to their own unique category, their niche, yet being a part of the broader middle class I have been talking about. The dream could just be anything, could be to become a writer, but not have the guts to become one because of the monetary risk associated, to marry someone outside his or her caste or religion and not having the guts to face the social consequences…It just could be anything…
Im quite sure most of you are confused about a post that begun with cricket and IT and so far only talked about dreams and guts. But it is quite important to get synchronized with my views of being Indian middle class to quite interpret what I have to say about Dravid and Infosys.
For years now, we have been familiarized with statements like ‘Dravid scores another century’ or a ‘52% Q on Q growth for Infosys’. While Dravid has become the captain and the most indispensable member of the Indian cricket team, Infosys also continues to grow rapidly and is being talked about by millions of investors, students, professionals and families in India and across the world.
So, what is being Dravid or Infosys?
Being a Dravid or an Infosys is not about class. Rather it is about having a lack of pure class or magic that a Tendulkar, a Lara or a Microsoft and a Google posses. Yet having the guts to chase their dreams, knowing fully well that if they don’t succeed, they have no where else to go, nothing else to do. Being Dravid is never about being class, but about being consistent. Being Infosys is never about being innovative, but about exceeding their own standards to deliver quarter on quarter, year on year.
It has been difficult. Very difficult indeed. For Dravid, it has been years and years of practice, of being dropped from the team often and of belonging to an era where class like Tendulkar exists. The story of Infosys too has not been different. Finding clients were a problem, finding money and land was a problem. Yet they have succeeded. It is and has been the ability of a Dravid and an Infosys to break the shackles of the middle class mentality that very often sucks people into, that make them different, that has made them stand out.
Class has always been iconic. A Dravid will never go so well with cricket historians, with parents talking to their kids on their era of cricket as well as a Tendulkar would. An Infosys will never be talked as much as a Google. Yet they are greats. Greater than any individual or organization that has class. For class is merely a reason to celebrate or to admire in awe. Class is just a reason for people to have a dream. A Dravid or an Infosys are greats because they led a very silent revolution -a revolution of breaking the convention, of breaking mental barriers. They will be greats for they inspired and continue to inspire millions and millions to break this middle class mindset and start chasing their dreams. They have showed the way by saying silently that it doesn’t require to be born with a class but by merely having the will to chase their dreams until it lasts.
So, is it that they will remain forever good? Forever consistent? No. Never. It is against the nature of any man or organization on earth to remain good indefinitely. Dravid will be out of form. He will be criticized. Infosys will have bad quarters, losing faith from investors. It will find it difficult to remain a brand of choice for employees. Yet they will survive. Survive better than all others. They will survive because of the love of the game, of the love of being an Indian technology giant. They will survive because they have the guts to chase their dreams and they enjoy this process of chasing their dreams as much as they enjoy their dreams.
As for the rest of us, those I call the great Indian middle class, the mass, it will be a painful existence. Painful because they will merely continue to live another day for yet another dream go unfulfilled, until the day of regret, when it is too late to do anything, too late to even breathe.
