I gave some thoughts to this question myself and found some reasonable things that each and every individual like me could do without any hard effort. I will list down some of these here and I am not prioritizing the list in any way!
– Consumerization: We are the first generation people, standing and facing, our countries transition period from developing into developed nation. This is the first step. So, we are facing many new things. I am concentrating on the 2-3% of our total population in IT and other corporate society, with handful of salary and thinking how to spend the money!
I feel one step is to try to reduce the consumption in everything clothes, food, shoes, bag, car, petrol, mobile or any electronics or any other thing. Give a thought before you do a purchase “Is this really necessary for me? Don’t I have one already? Will I utilize it to the core? Am I buying this just because I have money? Am I buying this just because it is cheap for me?” These thoughts would rather reduce consumerization.
This reduce in consumption, even made by a very few percent of people, would make an economical change in our country. Inflation rate would go down, price rise would go down, and so on. Now comes another question in mind, “Is it enough if only I did this?” — The answer is definitely NO. But an initiative from one would spread like a fire and change the society.
– Reach the Need: We walk through streets, metro stations, bus stops, shops, temple and in many places. We are surrounded by so many people in different levels. Take a few minutes to look around you, look at the society where we are living, look at yourself and them, think about it.
If you feel like doing some help to them, do it immediately. Give some food to the need. If you feel giving money is not a good way, buy a food parcel and give it. Rs.20/- for one meal to one person would definitely not affect your budget. If you feel someone shivering in the roads and you could afford him a bedsheet do that. We might spend some of our precious time which could be compensated from not watching TV for 5 to 10 mins!
In our day today life, we have people just near to us those are in need. Talk to the people working at your canteen, cleaners, coffee serving boy, if they are very young, ask them if they are willing to study, ask why they are not studying, think what you or along with your friends can do to this situation.
– Educate: I believe, education is the major need for a society to improve in all directions. Education, I just didn’t mean to Engineering & Medicine, education for day today life, education for agriculture, education for tailoring, driving, training and education for sport activities, manufacturing, mechanics, farming and so on. Educate others and by that learn from others. This need some more investigation on how, where and when to start doing it!
– Publicize: If you are doing anything good to the society, do publicize it! Even if you don’t like publicity, pls do it, this way you can make someother person to think in your direction and the goodness will spread. Talk to people about what you do, publish in facebook, twitter and other social medias, Talk to your manager and friends, Ask for their suggestions and so on.
We can make a difference. Adding one drop of water everyday, will one day fill the pot! There are so many different things that a normal person with a mind of giving/helping can do. First thing to do is to think about it!
I am not a good writer and my blogs are not so professional. I feel this is the space where I could put my thoughts into, and in someday someone would feel beneficial..
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hey in consumerization, You cant expect everyone to change there way of life… I think they just give the old product to someone who needs rather than throughing it away… If everyone stops buying new or costly things that also will affect our economy..
Its easy to say to educate but not all of us can do that… One thing is that if we behave with sense rather than doing something that everyone does like(throughing things across the road etc…)
The last point I strongly agree
Bro.. For every action you have an equal and opposite reaction.. Every situation is a hypothetical situation.. So, decision is to be made by each individual. What I meant here by consumerization is "don't buy excessive things. Don't order excessive food, don't buy excessive vegetables, fruits or anything. don't buy excessive stuffs to your home or to yourself. dont use excessive fuel (walk where ever possible)." these small things would make a big difference. You might have known better than me about Valmart. For eg., there, one product costs 20Rs. if you buy 5, it costs 40Rs. So, don't buy all the 5 products.. buy only what you want! Thats how we can help reduce inflation rate in our country
thats what i have mentioned as well. I know, its not possible for everyone to educate others.. This point I accept from you.. If we follow certain things as you mentioned, 'not throwing things in road' or following road rules or something else, definitely that make a difference. Atleast one person seeing us will have the possiblity to change.. 🙂
We dont have "Walmart" in India people are attracted to aadi sale or year end sale nothing more than that(mostly)… Even in big bazaar or tata something they offer what you said but people usually dont go for those things…
Hey brother, Walmart is just an example. I mentioned so many points other than that.. not only dresses in aadi sales.. how about consuming food? how about petrol/diesel? (even when the shop is at a walkable distance, we take our bikes!) how about electricity consumption? how about water consumption? how about all stationary items? how about all maligai items piled up in kitchen? how much food we are wasting everyday? and so many things.. If we have money we spend.. thats it.. no question of giving to the need.. Keep money necessary for your living, and help others with the rest you have.. thats my point..
Hey not everyone can become like Karnan… And not everyone is buying things in excess… You are talking only about the Rich class people or the upper middle class people… For example just look at our Kamaraj school friends not all their familis buy stuff in excess… Only 6 to 10% of the entire population is doing that… SO i dont think it will make a major change in economy of our country..
Brother, read my blog properly.. I am just concentrating on the 2-3% of corporate society.. Definitely, this is making a big difference in our society.. Only 'WE' upper middle class and newly earning people need to think about it.. Thats the point.. It will bring a big difference.. Not in day or two, but definitely in a year.. First, could you take an oath right now, that you will not use your bike to go to places which are at walkable distance from today? I will make an oath from this time onwards, I will buy fruits and vegetables and other food items which I will definitely use and I will not waste them or throw them away! Deal? TEll your friends who has joined to work, to give 0.5% of their monthly salary to the need. Can you? What say?
Sathya I still cant accept your 2-3% percent people can make any difference in consumerization… maybe if its 10 to 15% then we can think of it… Your argument is something that is too visionary and over expected…
Nyc work …. but i would lyk to put in my view on the consumerization…. you earlier stated that the point was for the "rich" creamy layer whose hands are wetted with cash and using their god given brain on how to spend it!!! well lets jus ask one question … how do we frame a guy as "RICH"?? in the society's point of view, a person who spends excessive cash for his or her own pleasure and is ready to ("as in lay man terms") show it off is only considered to be a rich guy!! for egs in the 80's a guy with a tvs (i guess) was considered to be rich… production of tvs grew and around the 90's it became common… the interest shifted towards geared vehicles and now in our generation even they have become common….. now only a person with a high end car(say a BMW or Merc-Benz) is considered rich… (and that too is changing fast)… my point is all of us are growing up only to be rich …. tell me any parent who teaches his/her child that it's okay to be a middle class citizen ?? (let alone being poor)…. people tend to focus more on personal goals rather than the nation's improv!!! hence as far as i can see there can never be a reduce in consumerization and for the smallest change to take place it needs a few more (light)years!!!
Thanks for your comments Praveen.. I never touched the point of rich people.. Or people growing their economic situation.. I just meant people like us, we are consuming a lot.. Imagine a situation like this, "After finishing your Bachelors, you will get a job, then a handful of salary. Definitely, you don't know how to spend all those money. So, as a result, you would spend lavishly." (I meant you as an example. Its same with me or any other common man.). This 2-3% corporate population is changing the Indian Economy a lot. I know, I should not argue without statistical data. So, I will come back with proof for my statement.. 🙂 In meantime, think about this, how much is the difference between poor and so called upper middle class or rich.. the gap inbetween is a huge when compared to other developed nations. To fill the gap, we just couldn't give them money, we need to develop them along with us.. or in otherwords, we shouldn't irritate the eyes of poor. If one begger is sitting in front of a hotel, how could we waste our food in the plates? Thats the thing I am arguing about..
Only Change is constant in this world. The Change has to start from the self with proper understanding. Here we are talking about certain adjustment to our habits we have cultivated over period of time. I do see people who are habitual smokers. In that process they spoil their health and those around them. Some consume alchol . Some of us favorites are soft drinks like coke and pepsi. if we are willing to spend a part of that money in helping a few helpless people around us it will do world of good to us at many levels. First you will have a good will of the person you helped. Secondly physical health will improve. Most importantly the joy that act of kindness brings, for that alone we can do it.Remember Mother Theresa. She is not from India. But she spent her entire life among us to help the helpless people. If we dare to show a billionth of the Kindness of the Great Mother to our fellow people on this planet no one will have to spend another suffering minute in their Life Time. "Earth has enough to satisfy all our needs but not our Greed"To the Good Change and Good Cause.Anand
Good work Sathya. Thanks for the time you took to express your thought.
So wat ur tellin is upper middle class shld help the poor while the rich stay pretty on top??? Thats nt fair rite….. of al it shld b them to do it!!! and as u said "wat did u do wid ur first salary?? … a general answer wil b say a part of it for spendin and the rest in bank!!! and if u closely notice the amount of money we spend gradually decreses and amt goin in bank increases!!! we r brought up in a way that we actually tend to look at the future(in our selfish perspective: totally diff topic which i wld lyk u to blog abt 😉 ) and hence there is actually nothin we do( i meant the middle class!!) but u c da "rich" are brought up in such a environment that they spend lavishly on watever their income is … (in general) it is definitely they who shld come frwrd to do this cause else it wld cause an imbalance as that wld increase the gap bt the rich n poor!! take 1 basket with 100 fruits and another with 50….. say we need to fill 3 more buckets …. shldnt it b such that da first bucket is split in a more manner rather than the second bucket bein emptied??? that makes sense to me…. (nt arguin but ma point of view 😛 )
I agree most of your points Praveen.. I never said, only we have to help, and rich would just enjoy! And from this blog, I am not giving a ready to use solution for the problems in our society. I am trying to give one thing which me, my environment, my friends, relatives and family could do and from them it spreads among their friends and their families and so on. I felt it is just an initiative, definitely not a solution. I am denying that rich people not to help the society at all. And another point is in India, the percentage of people who we define as rich is much less compared to middle class. And a recent statistics says there are almost 60% of the population in India are earning only Rs.20/- per day! If we think, our one time meal at a hotel will be their monthly salary. Lets consume less, and give the rest to the society who are in need. Thats m point.. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and giving feedback. I agree, the change is needed. We need to learn from History, and bring in changes. I believe, today's youth has the power to make this change. Hope to see some changes soon in our country.
Wil do!!! 🙂 Awesome job!!!