One of my very frequently revisited tenet of life is “if you want it done right do it yourself”.
Today we want perfection in everything however are we doing our bit to make it a perfect world for ourselves? The thought was triggered by a recent tirade by a dear friend. He was worried about the mushrooming slums in the vicinity. This is Mumbai here slums rub shoulders with 40+ storey buildings… slums that house the huge support staff. Our maids, drivers, painters, plumbers, security guards, dry cleaners, istree waala… everyone who makes sure we are able to live comfortably lives in these slums. We cannot imagine a day without these support staff people, imagine waking up and realising the car got broken into coz the security guard didn’t turn up, the water wasn’t pumped up to the over head tank coz the plumber couldn’t arrive on time, the maid hasn’t arrived so no breakfast (or lunch or dinner), the delivery boy didn’t turn up at the local restaurant so no delivery either, the press wala bhaiyya didn’t turn up so yea FabIndia day at office crumpled and rustic (I am usually always in that mode)…..
Essentially if for some reason we do succeed in getting these slums removed we run the risk of having to work! To this a lot of people might say but then we’re not saying remove the people just the eyesore. Ok yes but what are we doing about it? Can we provide them with an alternative?