Saheb, TV aur Ghulam

Most daily soaps dished out on Indian television are so downright abysmal in terms of quality. I mean how they can make something so insane and devoid of rationality! At home however I am a ‘passive’ viewer with not even a remote access to the remote during primetime. So resigned to fate, I watch the junk.

In one of the soaps a character playing the role of an entrepreneur-father, overjoyed by the occasion of his son’s birthday orders over phone to his manager to suspend all work and put all employees to work of finding out the best video games and toys in the market for gifting his son. This one scene that caught my attention cannot be shrugged away as just one-off ‘idiot box’ stuff.

One of my acquaintances working in a mid-sized company in a western U.P. town told me once that be it a celebration or mourning in his Chairman's family, they all have to be present  on 'location' and are assigned some or the other work. Refusal to take such responsibilities or no-show shall automatically mean dismissal.

Welcome to traditional sub-continent firms! Employees can be put to personal work and that is considered to be a matter of right. The ‘Saheb’ culture still remains especially in the non-metro India and person serving the ‘Saheb’ is only treated as ‘ghulam’.

Soaps can be of some use after all. So maybe it may be a good idea to watch some, for amongst the crap there may be occasional insights. By the way I have even started to like some!