Introduction

One of the triggers for our starting cajobportal.com in August 2013 was to find avenues to secure standard placements for fresher Chartered Accountants who had missed the English bus and thus were knocked out during the GDs at campus placements.

As I watched the movie ‘Hindi Medium’ this Sunday, this theme got reiterated so emphatically. I looked at it from the standpoint of a recruiter, a parent and found social and moral lessons were so hard hitting.  The film has made me think on the very tenets that constitute our being. You would be amazed by the manner in which the movie depicts the inadequacies and loopholes in our education system and as a parent you would simply utter ‘That’s the truth’.

Chandni Chowk to Vasant Vihar

The movie depicts the rags to riches story of Raj Batra (Irrfan Khan) who started his career as a tailor’s assistant and has amassed wealth, by making original copies of branded bridal wear. His wife, Mita, is an insecure mother who wants to get her daughter admitted into the one of the top 5 schools of Delhi.  Since they studied in a government school, English still remains foreign to them, a fact that embarrasses Mita

This is the reason they move from the crowded Chandni Chowk to the swanky Vasant Vihar.

Is English your snob-o-meter?

When the nouveau riche move out of the crowded Chandni Chowk to the swanky Vasant Vihar, they shake up accepted modes of behavior. The Vasant Vihar society rejects the Hindi-medium types who don’t fit into a world that defers to the transformative powers of English.

At their housewarming party, when Raj and Pia start dancing on Sukhbir’s Ishq Tera Tadpave, the guests don’t join them; they exchange glances and silences instead – their refusal to participate a mark of disapproval and disdain. Kids don’t play with Pia in the locality’s park because she speaks in Hindi – and this behavior is endorsed by their mothers.

The key question in today’s society is:

What is your snob-o-meter?

Your ability to speak the Queen’s language???

While the Japanese, French, Germans and Chinese take pride in their mother tongues, in India, it’s ironical when we see how we’ve English as a parameter to judge intelligence. So often are candidates, no matter how good they may be at work, rejected in the interview process because they can’t speak English fluently?

Like Mita puts it: “Iss desh mein Angrezi zaban nahi hai, class hai” – “English is not just another language in India but it is a CLASS in itself”

 

“How will you introduce the concept of poverty to your children?”

The school consultant asks them the interview question in the elite schools, “How will you introduce the concept of poverty to your children?”. It leaves both the parents are wonderstruck. Raj idly says, “Why do we need to teach poverty, just look around.” And he is tutored to utter the words” Sharing is Caring”.

In a country like India, where social inequality is so acute, it is so saddening to know that poverty needs to be introduced as a fictional concept to some children.

Would such children be humble? Would they be able to grapple with failures in life, which spare no one?

Keeping Up with the Joneses

The family is forced to don the ‘gareebi’ garb to get Pia to gain an access to Delhi Grammer School under the Right to Education quota, which reserves 25% of seats for the poor. They move to an impoverished pocket of Delhi, Bharat Nagar.

Out of embarrassment, they tell neighbors that they are going for a Europe trip. Thus they are forced to go to a studio and have fake Europe tour pictures, say with the Eiffel Tower, clicked for uploading on Facebook.

However comic that it may be, it made me wonder on a life where Facebook \”likes\” and \”comments\” have become just so crucial for societal acceptance.

Less is More!!

The amiable behaviour of Deepak and his wife, the ancestral poor, whom they meet in Bharat Nagar is so heart touching.

1. In one of the scenes, where Raj makes an unsuccessful attempt to work in a factory, Deepak gives a share of his earning saying that it was bad to leave for home empty-handed.
2. Similarly, Mita gets into a brawl with a shopkeeper and has to leave without buying food supply. However, Deepak’s wife gives a portion from her groceries. An exasperated Mita later tells Raj, “They know how bad it is to sleep hungry.”
3. When Deepak pushes himself in front of a speeding car to get INR 24,000 for Pia’s admission, the protagonist turns misty eyed.
4. Even later, when the fraud is exposed and Deepak rushes to complain to the school’s principal, he meets the girl child – Pia and his heart melts. He walks off saying that whether his son studied or Pia, it’s just the same.

The girl child’s happiness depicted in the song “Man lage mero yaar garibi mein, Man lage mero yaar fakiri mein” shows that the poor, with their values and belief systems are actually richer than most of us.

In a society where we are now suffering from Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), we should replace it with Joy of Losing Out (JOLO)

Less actually is More.

Bold Choices

Raj and Mita’s epiphany after realising that they snatched the right of a poor child and their ultimate decision to admit their child in a government school after all the fuss is a bold choice, the thought of which make many of us cringe.

In recruitment or in parenting, can we also ever make such bold choices? Be it recruiting a not so suave candidate or sending your kids to a non-elite school closer to your home.

Or will we continue to be guided by the set socio-meters that have been thrust upon us.

Thanks & Regards

Sonia Singal
Founder: cajobportal.com

 

About cajobportal.com

We are a group of CAs and IIM Ahmedabad graduates. In Aug\’13, we launched  cajobportal.com as India\’s first recruitment website exclusively for Chartered Accountants

Since inception, we have closed positions with aggregate CTC of INR 10 cr+ (ranging from INR 3.5 – 40 lacs p.a.)

Amongst others, we have been covered by the likes of YourStory, Rediff, Business World, TOI, Business Standard etc http://cajobportal.com/milestones