When I look around at people I meet every day, I feel more and more insecure. Why does it seem that everyone other than me has some kinda backup? Either they have a wealthy father, or a wealthy father-in-law or a husband who has a steady money-churning business.
One of my friends bought a 65 lakhs worth apartment recently.
Me : How much was the down payment?
Friend : 22 lakhs.
Me : Oh Damn!! That’s way too much money. How did you manager raise that amount?
Friend : My father gave 5, my Father-in-law gave 15. I paid 2 lakhs.
Me : !!!???
And then again people buy such enormous properties and can still manage to afford a holiday abroad…
The section of the society that consists likes of businessmen, industrialists are the ones with property and bank balances. While the other section which consists of educated, hardworking, 9-5 kinds have only got Mothers.
I am a part of the second section, the largest section of the Indian society…rather any society. The Middle Class. This is the section in which the parents work their ass off to educate their children, so that they can grow up and in turn work their asses off to educate their children who would also end up doing the same. Thus the cycle continues…
Some of them manage to do something different so that the children manage to pass on the other section of the society, thus breaking the cycle. But those kinda balls are rare for a middleclass person who gives utmost importance to security since he doesn’t have a backup plan.
Yet, I do feel the definite urge within me to do something so that my kids do not have to solely depend on the monthly salaries, so that they have a freedom to do something that they enjoy doing and not because it pays the bills.
And the cycle continues…
January 16, 2012
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2 comments:
Great observation. The real problem is that risk-taking is frowned upon in the middle class. When I quit my job in (insert-massive-IT-company-name) for lower salary because I wanted to join a startup; I was met with the same incredulity from everyone.
What the "security" crowd fail to notice is that if one works their asses off on their own thing the way they do for these "massive-9-5-companies" (you know as well as I do that the 9-5 is never ever ever the case), then they WILL be better off, their "own thing" WILL flourish far better!
Also, they don't realize that even in the "risk-taking" mode, the lows are only temporary. Every person who has treaded this path WILL go so low that she can't go any lower - so things will always improve. And when they do improve, they outgrow everything else.
Coming to your observation, I have the same urge - not only for the kids' sake but for my own. I want to be able to break the vicious cycle: of wanting to save more for vacations; and thus not taking enough leaves - therefore forfeiting the vacation!
Well said!!!
Our life kinda falls into a template...get a job after college, 2 years after you need to get married(for women, men can take a little more time), a year after marriage have a baby, 2 years after 1st baby have the second baby, and so on...
It would be so good if we could break this template and do something that actually makes us feel worthwhile.
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