Shocking post-pandemic reality of India

Middle-class majority remain addicted to shopping, eating, drinking, reproducing, travel, cricket, movies, TV, apps, streaming, 'news-tainment', social media, rat race. They live in denial and delusions of grandeur

March 2022: COVID mayhem is still on amid joblessness, cricket escapism, addiction to movies, net, apps, TV shows, shopping malls, food courts. Budget after budget, it's becoming clear that the nation has no vision, no clear narrative about what is its goal, what it is striving for, where it is headed, what it is trying to achieve, even as the rest of the world appears to have figured out the future and going full speed ahead to embrace it. But, in India, there is a lot of hoo-haa about fake statistics, GDP mania, digital BS, rise of homegrown startups/apps. Whither India?

Suckers called ordinary people continue to wait for vaccines, jobs, development, welfare, subsidies, stability, safety, security, etc, hoping against hope that virus variants will disappear magically. 'Aam janta' appear to yearn for luck to turn, looking for a miracle; and so, they continue to hope (against hope) that some rescuers -- avatars, messiahs, saviours, mahatmas, saints or intellectual giants -- will suddenly appear and make everything better once again.

That's the India story in a nutshell today.

Can ordinary Indians pause, draw some lessons, reflect, and introspect?

Can they envision, cooperate, collaborate and co-create a completely different, better society at least from now on?

Can they write a new script, create history as well as a new future, so as to co-lead the world?

FIVE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:

1) Will educated, relatively well-settled middle-class people's continued

indifference or apathy,
inaction (in the form of not thinking about community / society; an attitude of "mind one's own business at all times" without factoring in the goings-on in community),
selfish approach to life and living, with overrated accent on survival (survival for what? To live like zombies in totalitarian dystopia?)
mindless conformism and spineless compliance with memes and herd mentality of the 'rat race' ...

... help transform India?

2) Isn't the continued irrational expectation that irresponsible, incompetent, indifferent leaders and officials should suddenly reform themselves, start making amends, perform and deliver true progress not only naive but impractical?

3) Is the presumption that some mahatmas, messiahs, intellectuals or reformers will suddenly, magically emerge to rescue India from the cliff edge a reflection of middle-class people's unrecognized wishful thinking? Or, is it a deliberate gameplan to somehow perpetuate a failed, flawed system, maintain the status quo and resist Big Positive Change?

4) If you just pay taxes, cast vote, make occasional donations in cash or kind, follow civic code like traffic rules and reuse of shopping bags, rant and rave on social media, share inane content on apps, conform to cultural traditions, "go with the flow", become part of the herd, follow the crowd ... if you do all that, does it make you a "good" or "model" citizen?

5) Outsourcing or delegating responsibilities of community, society and nation repeatedly to irresponsible, incompetent and indifferent leaders and officials, helping perpetuate a failed, flawed system, and avoiding review, reflection and introspection forever -- does it constitute wisdom?

In 'oxygen'-starved India, have the middle-class people lost the plot and drifting, clueless like zombies, full of vain hopes, delusional, in denial? Are middle-class people slaves of pop 'positive thinking', given to escapisms and fantasies? Or, are they just helpless? Or, opportunistic, remorseless, shameless, apathetic -- just biding their time to 'return to normal'?

Will India's middle-income citizens (nagrik) realise that the real, long-term OXYGEN is genuine, sincere and honest commitment to community and society? Can the middle-class people finally wrest back control of their own future?

"India is the greatest civilization"
"India is home to the world's most syncretic, most cosmopolitan, most secular modern culture"
"India is the greatest, largest democracy"
"India is the greatest technology / IT superpower"
"Indian brains are the most brilliant ones on this planet"
"Indian startups are about to transform India and make the nation the world's next economic superpower."
"India already leads the global 'cricket economy'. Franchise-based sports leagues showcase modern India. Entertainment industry encapsulates India's vibrancy. Malls, cineplexes, food courts are ubiquitous. 'India is shining'."

Are non-elite majority Indians (lower- and middle-income groups) slaves of popular myth-like manufactured narratives spun by spin-doctors, charlatans, conmen, "gurus", and scriptwriters of the media and entertainment industry?

Haven’t we had enough of 'BS' stories and yarn-spinning storytellers? Isn’t it time to give truth and truth-tellers a chance?

At an individual level, has the intellect of a typical middle-class Indian been compromised and corrupted beyond repair and redemption by sustained exposure to the domestic insular ecosystem (society, culture, traditions, institutions, topsy-turvy, truth-hiding discourse and smallness-inducing subliminal messaging in the media, entertainment and pop-spirituality spaces)?

Have people become incapable of grasping the Global Big Picture, the realities of hyper economic globalization, the brightening prospects for totalitarian-dystopian regimes of techno-feudals, the political class and the agents of crony capitalism, and their implications?

Is that the reason why the 'educated', relatively well-settled middle-class group prefer self-deceiving escapisms, feel-good fantasies and delusions of grandeur rather than boldly facing the bitter truths about today's India? Pray, what are those "bitter truths"?

Do India's middle-class people prefer status quo, "comfort zone", lies, half-truths rather than embrace Big Positive Change? Or, are they potential game-changers and changemakers?

Have buzzwords, phrases and cliches like "optimism", "positive thinking", and "all is well" become middle-class Indians' mental palliatives?

Should we, the vast majority of ordinary citizens (educated adults), simply watch on helplessly, indifferently, as ...

corrupt leaders,
incompetent officials,
compromised institutions,
profit-minded businesses,
anti-community markets and
flawed geniuses ...

continue to occupy the helm, jeopardizing our collective future, and driving the nation arbitrarily and unilaterally toward a cliff edge?

Or, even as COVID-19 rages on threatening to plunge the nation into long-term disarray, is there any smart, lawful, peaceful and risk-free way that we, India's majority ordinary citizens (aam aadmi and aam aurat), could still explore to stem the rot, aspire to make a difference, and try to wrest back control of our own and our children's future?

But first, learn about the features that define India's Middle Class People (MCP) today.

EXTERNAL LINKS

(to gain a quick overview of what's going on in the background):

March 2022: India's crumbling health | Virus variants galore |

Process of Self-Discovery: How a middle-class Indian can "know thyself" in 2021

Simply put, India has been in a state of complete disarray

When all sense of civility, dignity and community evaporates

BBC Video exposes India's fragile joblessness

Joblessness in India is scary as of January 2022

Rural hospitals in India are unable to cope as virus spreads

Desperate wait for vaccines gets even longer in India

India's vaccination campaign hit by chronic shortage

Why the crackdown on social media amid COVID rampage, oxygen shortage?

Shameful, scary record in COVID-19 infections

Virus is swallowing Indian people whole as crematoriums overwhelmed

Bungling of oxygen cylinder plant bids

Paying costliest 'price' for inaction over oxygen cylinders

Why second coronavirus wave is devastating India

India sees world's highest daily cases amid oxygen shortage

Non-stop cremations cast doubt on India

The very relevant old story of the Emperor's New Clothes

How India failed to prevent a deadly second wave

Vaccines for all adults? But, where are the vaccines?

Can India's middle-class people become gamechangers?

Are India's middle-class status-quoists? Can they embrace Big Positive Change?

"System has collapsed. India has descended into COVID hell."

"India's middle-class has a selfish attitude."

Urban India has responded selfishly to migrant worker crisis

After migrant workers, India's middle-class will face the brunt of COVID

Neither tokenism nor panic can help counter this unique crisis

COVID pushes India's middle-class toward poverty

India's COVID surge affects the entire world

Desperate Indian patients turn to black market for COVID drugs

India's second COVID wave almost certainly the worst unofficially

Middle-class at risk during second wave, says official

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition, was not the victriolic words and violent actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and indifference of the good people. Our generation will have to repent not only for the words and acts of the children of darkness but also for the fears and apathy of the children of light."

-- Dr Martin Luther King Jr, in his speech at the Dinkier Plaza Hotel (Atlanta, Georgia, in the U.S.) on January 27, 1965.