September 4, 2017

Assignment 2

I interviewed Mr. G. S. Meena, my Hostels (Shivalik) security guard. I used to call him
often by the name as guard sahab. Having known him for the past 2 years of my
life at IIT Delhi, but I have never spoken to him more than 5 minutes on any day.
Anyhow I felt that interviewing him was much more convenient for me. Knowing him
for such a long time period I never cared to know about his personal life i.e. His
income, family etc. Because of this assignment, I got an opportunity to talk to him for
long duration of time. And I was surprised to hear that his monthly salary is around
12000-14000 even after doing 8 hour work per day for 26 days in a month. It was a
shocker also because even I myself require about 4000 per month for my expenses
although everything is provided by the institution itself. He also told that as this
amount was not at all appropriate for a stable lifestyle, he has to make at-least 5-6
extra shifts in a month in order to try and make the ends meet. Meena Sir has a
nuclear family. He has two children and his parents live with him in a village in
Rajasthan. He has two brothers living separately as their work demands and his sister
got married 2 year ago. Even after doing numerous extra shifts he isnt able to make
enough and hence many a times he has to borrow money from someone in order to
tackle sudden expenses or family functions.

Meena Sir lives in a shared rented house and has to pay 2000 per month including
electricity. He feels that his earning is mostly spent on his childrens education, Food,
Family, Medication requirements etc. There is not even a mere scope of any extra
expenditure. Even certain basic requirements for a middle class family turns out to be
a luxury for his family. He has been working here at IIT Delhi since 11 years. Earlier
Meena sirs salary is like 3600, when he started working here. Even after working for
11 years he his getting only 12000 per month.

I asked him if he was satisfied with his salary to which he said that even after getting
less salary somehow he has to manage. A salary of at least 20000-25000 could help
him lead a better life and he believes that this increment can bring a lot of positive
changes for his family. He said that if his salary is increases that he would
immediately shift his children to better private school. Meena Sir is a graduate
himself but because of the lack of guidance he landed into this Job and so he
doesnt want any of this to happen to his children. He feels that than he would also
be able to save something for future. Also his monthly expenditure is less than 1000
per month. Currently his expenditure is more than his earnings and so it puts his
future in un-certainties, In order to tackle this he wishes to start something of his
own if he gets increased salary.

1
 September 4, 2017

In class we had a discussion about ones dream salary and most of the students
including me wrote of expected a salary of 10-15 lpa which if compared to this case
seems to be massive. Its like 750% more what Meena sir has to get per annum. This
scenario explains than we have equated happiness with abundance of resources. I
seriously felt ashamed at myself for being so used to un-necessary wastage of
resources. Meena sir has a list of necessities and in order to fulfill any luxury he has
to cut off some of them. The class discussion showed that most of us students were
deeply affected by the modern lavish lifestyle consisting of Abundance and that was
the reason why we had such high hopes. Having seen various Professors in IIT having
very less requirements and least interests in luxuries I now kind of relate this
situation with them. Even after getting decent salary they compromise luxuries and
came to collage by bicycle. The difference being that here the condition is due to the
lack of income while for the Professors the chose to live with the minimal luxuries
instead of wasting everything they had.

At the end Ill just say that it is people like Meena sir which define what Real struggle
is. Even though he is facing such problems there is not even a single complaint from
his side against God. He still says that in the end God will do whatever is the best for
him and this is the belief which enables him to continue living with positivity and this
can be the point which everyone can pick up from him as it leads to a better, positive
and satisfied life. At the end of interview Meena sir said that he believe lifelike
and I was pretty much impress by this.

I requested him for taking one photo with me. But he refuses due to security reasons.