People Are People

A conversation came about while Justin was flying; his first officer was talking about how absurd he thought it was that some of the expats were calling their drivers Sir.  He has never left India.  He asked Justin if we would call our drivers Sir in The United States.  Justin explained that most people don’t have drivers, but a bus or cab driver would be considered equal.  This seemed very strange.  Justin told him, that you might be a pilot and choose to work as a driver for a second job.  That you couldn’t tell who someone was just based on what they do.  It was making me think about how sometimes other cultures are perceived as being so rude by Americans in certain circumstances.  This is simply due to a different perspective.  Here in India most treat people according to what caste they belong to.  This explains why many Indians seem to me to be so disrespectful to their house help.  What’s interesting is that many of these families are more like indentured servants.  The first officer explained that one particular family has been working for his family for more than three generations.  We have several friends here that have a driver, a maid, a cook or even all three.  It is very common to be asked for a payday advance or even a loan of some sort.  At first glance I thought this was merely because of their salaries not being adequate for basic needs.  A friend’s housekeeper wanted to borrow around $80.00 to buy a bed for her son.  This amount is equal to several months wage even for someone that is being paid over what’s standard.  The first officer said the reason for this many times is actually to obtain job security.  If you owe a family a large amount of money they will not fire you until it’s been paid in full.  Pretty soon you owe enough to insure that your children will have work and so on.  I had never thought of it in that sense.  After Justin explained that we didn’t have anyone working for us, he was speechless and actually offended.  Justin explained that we enjoy privacy and that we also like to be self reliant.  He said “I understand your reasons, but let’s just take the lady that cleans your floor for example…”  Justin responds “No, we don’t have someone that does that.”  “No, listen you know it’s not like a true maid, just the lady that comes and sweeps everyday.”  Clearly he was having trouble accepting what Justin was saying.  “We don’t have anyone.”  Then a long pause, “What?  It just doesn’t get done?  What are you doing it yourself?”  He responded with half a chuckle.  “Yeah” Justin said.  After a long discussion while heading to their destination he described how some people may really be taking offense to the fact that we don’t use these services.  There is a man here that is supposed to be the night guard.  His wife and two kids all live in the parking garage in a 9’ X 9’ cement room.  His wife cleans or cooks for many of the residents, maybe everyone, for all I know.  They count on the people living in this building for their income.  Also the guy was insulted because he said we are undermining our own status.  The United States really is the land of the free.  You can be anyone you want.  Your family, your name, your race or your sex really can’t stop you from accomplishing your goals and dreams in life.  I don’t think it’s a bad thing to see everyone as an equal, we’re all just people.

         The roof next door, I think these women live in a nearby tent made from sticks and a tarp. 

We had heavy rain the night before so I'm guessing their houses flooded.

         This sure makes me think twice about complaining about not being comfortable at night.

Comments

[Phedra]

This is very well thought out and and a nice piece. I always love learning about how people see things and understand things from a different point of view.

[mom]

You are right Beck. People should be judged on what their character is, not on how much they make, where they live or work, or what family they were born into. Unfortunately, people will usually try and find something (anything) about another person that they can put down (even slightly) so that they can feel better about themselves for a short time. Seems to be the way of this world...

We here have a lot to be thankful for in our freedoms. I think by you being over in India right now, you are able to give us some small perspective on this. But, you yourselves, being able to experience some of these things firsthand will be forever changed by them.