Thursday, January 16, 2025

Focus : 90 hours of duty a week .... It's "unacceptable" in a nation of work shirkers !! The tattered flag of socialism/communism suited Indians

The tattered flag of socialism/communism not only suited Indians. We took it to the next level - Jugadu...nepotism. 


Therefore from the very word go, 90 hours of duty a week .... is "unacceptable" in a nation of work shirkers !! 


If such a norm is accepted what will trade unions do ? What will happen to Babudom? What will happen to champion carom board players who also can lecture on the right 'Not to Work' ?? !!! 




Synonym is much easier : Indians !!  



If we want to talk about hurdles - we may easily use some well known phrases and cite illustrations and attribute the obscurantist forces.  


But firstly. obscurantist (noun) - is a person who deliberately prevents the facts or full details of something from becoming known.

"political obscurantists"

adjective

deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known.

"an obscurantist agenda". These two definitions would make you easily understand the basic argument of this blog. It is simply because most Indians are either victims of the same or have been doing themselves the same. 


Let us take the discussions further. 

There may be a few such forces - but the foremost of all is Indian Bureaucracy. The biggest tragedy of the nation is that this so-called Steel Frame actually encouraged nepotism, casteism and also corruption and pushed lethargy as a national characteristic. 


The top-heavy Babudom is always reluctant to shed their enormous powers. Then comes their brotherly fraternity - the Netas. 


Hence, we have Neta-Babu raj !! 


The politicians in India have over the decades kept the so-called Socialism flag as the opiate of the people. 







Given an opportunity - the Netas (especially of the Congress school) and ensured votes - forget 90 hours - they will not mind promoting 9 (nine) hours a week for special caste and religious groups. And then comes the third and important section -- selfish Indians (from middle class to corporate honchos) -- they are only interested  in their own interests. 


They do not mind 90 hours a week for their neighbours' children but would like their children and husbands (wives and daughters included in the new century) to 'enjoy' salary and other perks religiously. 

The work can go for a toss !! 


Otherwise an objective commentator like Nani Palkhivala would not have written years back: "We are smugly reconciled" ... to get ..."low yield from high ideals".  


On Nov 7th, 1990 in a lecture, Palkhivala had acidly said - "Perceptive observers in foreign countries where Indians work and prosper are baffled by one question - how does India, with its great human potential and natural resources, manage to remain poor". 


He had volunteered to answer the question - "The answer is that we are not poor by nature but poor by policy".  






Now the real debate on the idea about 90 hours a week.  A friend of mine ... let me identify him as Kirti Kartvya and he notes: 


"Come to think of it. journalists work for at least 18 hours per day .. 6 days a week. Infosys Narayan Murthy is also against 5-day week he had to implement. 

His call for 70-hour work per week works out to 14 hours per day which is nothing compared to the media sector. Probably that's the reason the two cash rich companies haven't dabbled in media industry like other millionaires. 


Taking a dig at L&T Subrahmanyan's one-liner - 'how long can you stare at your wife' remark, the Mahindra Group boss Anand Mahindra said at an event: "I want to tell people that I am on X on social media not because I am lonely. My wife is wonderful; I love staring at her. So, I am not here to make friends."  

My argument here is 'wife-staring' is actually linked to eye-o-tonic. It gives a lot of energy especially if the tonic is 'outside home' !! 

These are not real issues. In order to achieve the 'goals' of a developed nation - our national characteristic should change.

* We should not look for Jugadu source/connections when it comes to job hunting !

** Celebrities (for instance incompetent in own fields and competent jokers) like Karan Johar should be named and shamed. Dynastic politics should be discarded. 

Let it be an 'open field' and let's check out whether Lalu Yadav's son can manage a job for him in any of the metros ! 

Should Wayanad voters ought to look back on whether they deserve a lawmaker either in Rahul or his sister. 




What happens to others ? Let us visit Delhi's famous Mutual Admiration Club called IIC and check out who all are there 'encashing' the family name or spouse name?   

Putting long hours of duty is not the panacea to all ails nor it's an answer to all questions on how to turn India into a developed nation. 

The working atmosphere is pretty bad in most industries. This is leading to stress related challenges. 

The mad race for profitability has led to higher rates of resignations. 

People not only quit jobs. An overwhelming sections of people have changed
industries.

From the media sector, people have moved onto advertisements and  PR jobs. And from engineering sector, people are trying to opt for newer avenues.


Things start early in life. Our time and perhaps even now -- there is still a craze about engineering careers irrespective of the fact whether the youngster has liking or potential for it.

In most cases, we have people afraid of failure or afraid of trying.

 
Needless to add here, that trying something new and tough is an essential feature 
of one’s life and a basic rule to survival Mantra.

You cannot learn nor can you achieve anything significant without hard work or without failing.


‘Playing things safe’ is the in-thing in our lives. 

Hence, in January 2021, I was witness to engineers, medicos and M.Pharma qualified lot appearing for lower-court clerical jobs in Tripura.


The 'working class friendly' Maxists have ruled the state for a long till 2018, but hardly a good 'alternative' job-generating industry was created.

On this backdrop came some stark and dark facets of the national unemployment scenario.
  

A survey in December 2020 claimed that nearly 80 per cent of people who came back to their jobs after the first round of Covid19 shutdown and its fallout agreed to work for less pay; and even opted for self-employment.  








ends 


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Focus : 90 hours of duty a week .... It's "unacceptable" in a nation of work shirkers !! The tattered flag of socialism/communism suited Indians

The tattered flag of socialism/communism not only suited Indians. We took it to the next level - Jugadu...nepotism.  Therefore from the very...