Victims of excesses

The last few years have seen a surge in scams being reported in India. This evokes mixed feelings among the middle class who, up until now, viewed these with much consternation and somewhat helpless disbelief. Choosing instead to ignore all that was happening and going about surviving the day. But the recent spate of scams has brought a sense of relief among the bulge of the Indian waistline. The media for its part has played a pivotal role in exposing these scams and bringing in a sense of relief among the populace. Now that the streets are abuzz with people despising this stink of corruption and folly among the political milieu, it is also important to understand that the good news is not that more of these scams are coming to light.

The bad news is that there apparently seems to be no attempt to deeply understand the root of corruption and more importantly the role of media in infact playing host to this parasite.

I am not a social scientist, but of late I have had the luxury of time to think about this burning issue of corruption. Yes, India is a country of abundant population, limited resources, many small and big corridors of power and thus unequal distribution of wealth. In which country does this not happen? but it is stark in India's case because of its glaring and ominous stink.

So what is the role of media in this. Imagine this: A quaint household in a middle class locality of Mumbai. The hard working man of the house, Mr. Sharma is a government servant and works really hard and honestly to get the best education for his children. After all education is the key to an accomplished life. The children go to a good school and also manage without tuitions. Soon there is cable TV, news, the latest soaps from around the world, hollywood movies and how may I forget - ADVERTISING. They are nurturing the Loch Ness monster of the modern era - Aspiration.

Mr. Sharma is a progressive father and gets his family a PC. Soon the children are hooked. So is Mrs Sharma. Not to the PC but the world that it has opened to them. It has done what can be called Eternal Enlightenment. Twitter and Facebook give the perfect outlet for these aspirations. Except these are masked under the garb of knowledge. Knowledge aqcuired from the tube.

With time, the children realise that going on the scooter to the mall is just not acceptable. Mrs Sharma thinks that a manicure and pedicure (terms that only very recently made thier way into her lexicon thanks the this media explosion) is a necessity. One fine day Mr Sharma comes home with the news of his promotion and his kids ask him his salary. Not long ago they would have clung to him and asked him to take the family out for a celebration to the ice-cream van in the nieghbourhood.

Mr Sharma has been thinking lately. Not about the aspirations at home. Hes been thinking about passing that proposal from a particular vendor which will make him richer by 50K in a whiff. That should take care of an evening with the family to a 5 star hotel, many trips to the beauty parlour and a smartphone for Mr Sharma Junior.

So what is the role of the media in all this? Lack of restraint. Lack of content censorship. In a time of rapid development and growing economic power, the prudence and providence of the Indian consumer is waning under the influence of designed media. This media, which is influencing the impressionable minds of the middle class and making them unconscious and conspicuous consumers of excesses. The consumers on which corporates with dead consciences will feed and rewrite the rules of business.

And life goes on.