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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sandwiched Middle Class -1


It's always the middle class  which bears the brunt of the society. 

Society plays an important role in the activities of any class but in the long run it’s the middle class which becomes the victim of the biased society, even though the society consists of people of all class. 

From my experience the lower class belonging to the servants and those who are BPL families do not bother what the society feels and what would be the repercussions on their actions.

Starting from the birth to marriage or even divorce they do what is best for them at that time.

Their society has uniformed trend where the husband branded drunkards and wives the servants who have to manage the family, work and adjusting with the relatives etc.
They can live anywhere and they do have all the electronic gadgets with them they even keep changing them quite often.They do not have any fixed standards to maintain in life.

I have seen some of my servants breaking away from the husbands due to various reasons like not handsome, no monetary support, chronic drinking problem coupled with wife beating or infidelity. For them they do not have to stand the pressure of what their society would say or react and what would happen to the other family members.

Bindaas , they live their life the way they want, it’s we, the middle class, which is more concerned about the society, relatives and in the end ruin our lives for no good. 

Due to this many hold on to unwanted marriages and relationships. Any divorce, living in, or separately is a big taboo. The society fails to see the hardships the couple has to undergo due to this forced working relationship, superficial all good show off ends in nervous breakdowns and nothing else, the society easily shifts the blame on the couple.

In high societies, they change partners or husband like they change clothes and it becomes a head line, they are allowed to have multiple marriages, any number of wives etc and their society accepts anything and are ready to compromise as they see all as a single individual and no family strings attaches and no importance to what the others are into. This is one way like the lower class. 

When it comes to celebrations the middle class tries to follow the high class and in the ‘run’ burns its fingers and not able to recover, whereas the other two classes act as per their capacity, since the middle class has the provision to go up or down, and not able to decide tries to imitate the upper class. 

Any incident where the honor is in question, the higher class it becomes headlines and in lower class it’s taken as a routine but in the middle class it becomes magnified news with mirch masala added and the family is branded.
When is the middle class going to learn and change thus by not following any body and setting a standard for itself so that it benefits on the whole?


5 comments:

  1. Re: Sandwiched Middle Class
    http://www.indusladies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141166#post1882022
    Posted by: br123
    On: 21st July 2011 11:01 PM

    I totally agree with you Divorces and changing partners are not taken well in the middle class families.Spending is going way above the head looking at the upper classes.
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    Re: Sandwiched Middle Class
    http://www.indusladies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141166#post1882095
    Posted by: shakambari
    On: 22nd July 2011 12:31 AM

    Mathangi,

    Excellent analysis.

    Many marriges in the middle segment of our society seen to go on just because they fear what others will say and so on...

    For example...I envy my maid -when her daughter was harrassed by her drunken husband...my maid stood up for the girl and collected her whole slum and went to the police station and filed a complaint..where he was given a dressing down and things became better for the girl-atleast temporarily.

    I admire her courage and ther neighbourhood's show of solidarity.

    If such a problem happens in one of our houses ,will we let the matter go out of our 4 walls? If we do will our friends and relatives whe were there at the wedding ,accompany us to the police station if the situation warrants?
    I would say ...a Big NO.

    That is the the problem of middle class...
    Living for others...false prestige...no real unity ...yet too interested in knowing others personal matters...but first to run away from facing a problem!
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    Re: Sandwiched Middle Class
    http://www.indusladies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141166#post1882139
    Posted by: br123
    On: 22nd July 2011 01:20 AM

    There is a lot of hippocracy in the middle class households for the fear of the society.If the girl is troubled by the in laws instead of hearing to the girl they say you have to adjust and this is not your home etc.That makes the girl feel not caring for his emotional needs and gives extra power to the husband or in laws since there is no one to question her actions.Middle class parents don't care for the happiness of their girl child but all that matters to them is the girl living with her inlaws and husband and visiting shorting.Lower class will stand up for their girls at least emotionally if not financially.

    Middle class parents demand and spend based on the others most of the times in wedding or other functions whether they have money or not.If they don't want to spend they fear how they will be judged.So they will borrow and spend.Lower class families are also spending for weddings these days but they are not judged if they cant or don't want to.

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  2. hi
    can't agree more on the issue.The Great Indian Middle Class is like the dobhi ka kuttha-na ghar ka na gaat ka. Kya karen we are like this only!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ************
    Re: Sandwiched Middle Class
    http://www.indusladies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141166#post1884365
    Posted by: satchitananda
    On: 24th July 2011 07:23 PM

    I am not so sure about the lower income group being free to live the way they like or not bothering about their own society. How many women do we see in that socio-economic group who continue to live with the drunkard husband who does not contribute anything and only bullies her and beats her. When we ask "Why don't you leave him or kick him out", they say, "How can we? What will people say? And our children will ask for him, then what do we tell them"?

    As for the "upper" strata of society, it is a totally different story. But as far as I can see, even middle class society is getting to be pretty individualistic and at least the younger generation has started to live life more on its own terms and conditions. Anyway, no one has the time to peep into another's life.

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  4. So very very true... Why is it so very hard for this strata to step out of its self built world is all answered here :)

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  5. We are responsible for the cocoon we have made around us and not able to break like the Chakravyugh.

    ReplyDelete