Economic Recession and The Chai-wallah Crowd
“Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.”
- Ronald Reagan
Recession is a dirty word. It kills people's spirits.
There is only one chai-walla inside the Kamala Mills Compound, an area in South Bombay where I work. There are several of them dotting the streets in and around the compound, but he remains the only 'in-house Kamala Mills Compound' chai-walla. Situated at the corner of the parking lot adjacent to the DNA-newspaper offices, he is a cheerful guy who does brisk business at all times of the day. He runs his tea-stall with three other helpers - an assistant chai-walla who takes over when he is on a break, a cleaner boy, and a delivery boy. And boy, he sure makes some very delicious tea.
His cutting-chai (I do not know if the terminology is universal in India, but in Bombay 'cutting' means half a glass) comes in two varieties - the 'chaaloo' and the 'pesshial' ("special") varieties, priced at Rs. 2 & Rs. 3 per glass respectively. There is a faithful crowd that mills around his stall at all times of the day - copywriters, news-readers, journalists, consultants, investment bankers, day labourers, corporate bankers - people from different walks of life taking a quick tea-break. I often look at his stall as a congregation point, a nodal place where people from all industries unknowingly meet.
It is fun to listen to people's talks there - over a warm cup of tea, one overhears ongoing gossip about people, parties, pranks, politics (office-related) and a number of other topics. One hears of who's hitting what hangouts over the weekend, one hears what movies are playing in which multiplexes, one hears of ongoing sales at various malls, one hears details about the last vacation that somebody had taken, one hears stories of heart-break or a new crush, news of someone's sister having given birth to a new baby boy, and such other stories merrily being conveyed without abandon, without a care as to who might be listening. If the bent of mind should ever strike him, I think the chai-wallah someday could become a master story-teller - he's got such a fine sea of humanity flowing all around him.
But of late, there is a marked change in the conversation topics. The erstwhile merry-place seems to have been converted into a wailing wall of sorts. One hears nothing but complaints and cribs all the time - about how such-and-such boss has now changed his stance on how things should have been done, how such-and-such person is suddenly finding faults with a work methodology that was accepted without any questions for the past two years, how cost-cutting has been taken to such inconvenient levels that some basic comfort has been snatched away, how such-and-such HR department has put up a notice of impending performance evaluations and probable lay-offs, how such-and-such boss always looked like a moron and lately he has started acting like one - you know, things like that. The relaxed air of the place is gone these days, it has become a bitter place, populated by groups of well-dressed but highly stressed out people. When someone in a nearby crowd of consultants suggested that perhaps it was time that they got back to work, the immediate reply was 'why? so that my boss gets to kick my ass more today?' Perhaps you get an indication about the tone of the talks that take place of late.
http://cyrilsworld.rediffiland.com/iland/cyrilsworld_diary.html
- Ronald Reagan
Recession is a dirty word. It kills people's spirits.
There is only one chai-walla inside the Kamala Mills Compound, an area in South Bombay where I work. There are several of them dotting the streets in and around the compound, but he remains the only 'in-house Kamala Mills Compound' chai-walla. Situated at the corner of the parking lot adjacent to the DNA-newspaper offices, he is a cheerful guy who does brisk business at all times of the day. He runs his tea-stall with three other helpers - an assistant chai-walla who takes over when he is on a break, a cleaner boy, and a delivery boy. And boy, he sure makes some very delicious tea.
His cutting-chai (I do not know if the terminology is universal in India, but in Bombay 'cutting' means half a glass) comes in two varieties - the 'chaaloo' and the 'pesshial' ("special") varieties, priced at Rs. 2 & Rs. 3 per glass respectively. There is a faithful crowd that mills around his stall at all times of the day - copywriters, news-readers, journalists, consultants, investment bankers, day labourers, corporate bankers - people from different walks of life taking a quick tea-break. I often look at his stall as a congregation point, a nodal place where people from all industries unknowingly meet.
It is fun to listen to people's talks there - over a warm cup of tea, one overhears ongoing gossip about people, parties, pranks, politics (office-related) and a number of other topics. One hears of who's hitting what hangouts over the weekend, one hears what movies are playing in which multiplexes, one hears of ongoing sales at various malls, one hears details about the last vacation that somebody had taken, one hears stories of heart-break or a new crush, news of someone's sister having given birth to a new baby boy, and such other stories merrily being conveyed without abandon, without a care as to who might be listening. If the bent of mind should ever strike him, I think the chai-wallah someday could become a master story-teller - he's got such a fine sea of humanity flowing all around him.
But of late, there is a marked change in the conversation topics. The erstwhile merry-place seems to have been converted into a wailing wall of sorts. One hears nothing but complaints and cribs all the time - about how such-and-such boss has now changed his stance on how things should have been done, how such-and-such person is suddenly finding faults with a work methodology that was accepted without any questions for the past two years, how cost-cutting has been taken to such inconvenient levels that some basic comfort has been snatched away, how such-and-such HR department has put up a notice of impending performance evaluations and probable lay-offs, how such-and-such boss always looked like a moron and lately he has started acting like one - you know, things like that. The relaxed air of the place is gone these days, it has become a bitter place, populated by groups of well-dressed but highly stressed out people. When someone in a nearby crowd of consultants suggested that perhaps it was time that they got back to work, the immediate reply was 'why? so that my boss gets to kick my ass more today?' Perhaps you get an indication about the tone of the talks that take place of late.
http://cyrilsworld.rediffiland.com/iland/cyrilsworld_diary.html
Labels: Economics
posted by me ra at 9:59 AM
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