Privilege

It was a drizzly morning when I woke up excited about what had planned for the day. The previous night, I slept over a decision on buying something for myself. It was an expensive gift I was going to get for myself and it was just for leisure. It was something that I have always had an eye on over the years. With all the excitement I set onto the road to head to the Shop. The sales person in the shop gave me all the specifics and after agreeing to the numbers, I filled out a pre-order form as there was a long wait-list to receive the product. I made an advance payment for my order and left the showroom leaving back to my home.

Ride Back Home

Midway through my ride back home, I was stationed at a stop light when I witnessed an incident that is very common in any metro city stop light junctions in India. A kid barely around 10 years old, waiting for the light to turn red and then walked in to knock on several car windows trying to sell coloring books. And when I peeked around closely, there were a group of 5-6 others who were also trying to sell items like books, clips, earbuds and cloth towels. If you grew up in India, I am sure a lot of you reading this, like me would have noticed this yourselves too. This time though, the incident had a much deeper impact within me. Several thoughts clouded the rest of my ride back home but one particular noun struck stronger than the rest.

Privilege

Privilege. I felt privileged to be inside the window than outside. I felt privileged to wait for the stop light to turn green rather than waiting for it to turn red to make a living. I felt privileged to buy an expensive product for my leisure instead of selling an inexpensive product in hot sun to make a daily wage. The price of the product I had ordered was more expensive than the annual household income of over 25% of India’s population. Just placing myself in the shoes of the kid on the other side of my window, what would my dreams and desires be? I would have wanted to sell a couple of extra books to have a second meal than just one meal for the day. I would have wanted to sell 4 extra books to have a cold Popsicle on a hot sunny day. I would have wanted to have the ability to read what was inside these books when the stop light turned Green. On reaching home, I did lose out my excitement and was struck with guilt for making the purchase. Surely, privilege is a long and diverse issue. It cannot be singled out to a particular cause for its existence. Most privileges are descendants of generations of widening the disparities. Be it economical, racial, or gender based, are all results of long passed on cowardice being afraid of losing their position which they reach/assume a state of stronghold. If you are someone who does not feel connected to realizing privileges or if you are someone who does not believe there is nothing that can be done to make a difference, that is fine. You can ignore the rest of this text. For the rest who share the guilt I feel, who think the world could do much better if some of these privileges were naturalised, who resonate with the incident I just described, please never stop believing that these things are not involuntary and can be changed with effort. So much so we may think it is not our fault to be in a position of privilege, similarly, it is not a kid’s fault to be born lacking privilege.

Losing without a chance to play

Through the course of life, one could switch from an unprivileged position to a privileged one and vice-versa, but the disparity in having a chance for equality is the giant elephant in the room. Consider the disparity that exists in Caste based privileges in India. Caste has been said to exist in India for over 3000 years. It used to be a concept of dividing people based on their occupations. But off late, it has merely become based on heredity. Neither me nor this post can do justice to describing caste inequalities in India. Please google about it if you are not unaware of what Caste system is or if you are interested in knowing more about it. This is a larger than life issue, but to quote an example, 1 in 8 Forward Caste people are in poverty whereas 1 in 2 Scheduled Tribe people suffer from poverty. Just because being born into a sect, you are 4 times more likely to be deprived of your chance to have your basic needs - having a roof over your head and having your next meal.

It's relative

Being in a privileged position is not a sin or not something to be ashamed of as well. But importantly, it is not something to be proud of. Each of us go through our own set of problems and face hardships in life. And I strongly believe every individual should take care of themselves first and foremost before caring for anyone else. Personally, I had parents who supported me to get educated. I faced several struggles and put in honest hard-work to be where I am. At the same time, I want to acknowledge the responsibilities of someone with privilege. Privilege is also relative. What is neutral to me could be a privilege for someone else and what I consider to be a privilege, could be a daily activity for someone else.

Questions to myself and to everyone

The world is becoming more cruel by the day. Systemic issues becoming blatant in so many cultures. World leaders are either jokers or fascist demons. There is a global pandemic, war mongering, floating economic bubbles, hungry nations, greedy people, environmental breakdowns and what not. But being a realist, I can definitely see the world and its people adapting to whatever changes that come up. It is so vital that in this process of adaptation, Privilege does not become the deciding factor to have an individual’s livelihood. It is a myth that the world is a bubble of survival of the fittest. Hell no, shouldn’t it be the opposite? Shouldn’t we strive to eliminate these privileges, make the game of life fair to everyone and enjoy the challenge that comes through it? Isn’t that what is supposed to be development? Growing as a group? This whole article is a mere venting out of thoughts that flooded my mind that whole night. I am a typical complaining millennial. If you resonate with a lot of the above frustrations and other trivial problems clouding this world, you might also agree that there is never a remedy at sight to most of these issues. But that should not stop us from believing. That does not stop me from believing that a difference can be made. Anytime. We see a lot of souls who are dedicating their lives to neutralizing these differences and do real work on and off the field. It’s important to get inspired by such souls. And believe that we join some of them or even lead one of them in issues that we really believe in.

Introspection

So, all said, should I repent and continue to feel guilty for making this big purchase being at a position of privilege? Rather, I want to use this fear to always be pertinent to my deeds. I want this guilt to motivate me to make up for in future. I want to use it as an urge to get to a better position in life be it monetarily or reaching a bigger audience. I want to take care of myself, people I love, and also be in a position to break privilege and make impact. I want to believe that I will soon get to a position where I can put some of these thoughts and complaints into some kind of action. Some of my friends and some people I silently follow, are already making a great dent at breaking some of these privileges. I secretly admire all of you and get inspired every time when I see what you do and what impact it makes. I promise and hope to myself that we people, little by little be mindful of our actions, do our bit to call spade a spade, accept that there are privileges and be more responsible in our lives, developing as a whole. After all, we are all playing the game of life on the same planet. And it is a pity that everyone does not get the same launching pad to have a fair shot at clearing levels.