I recently read the comments section of an Instagram reel glorifying business class air travel as the result of hard work. The post went on to say that travel in economy is for those who choose mediocrity. Now, I don’t judge people on social media. In fact, I enjoy watching reels. I see reels of first-class cabins, luxury handbags and celebrity entrances and exits in my idle moments. Whereas I empathize with celebrities who have their private moments splashed all over the internet and agree that viewers ought to rein in their comments, I have a different view on the reels put up by social media stars. People have a right to make comments, even negative ones about those who are parading their views out there.

Of course (coming back to the subject) several people were offended that someone should attribute their comfortable seat on an aircraft to sheer hard work as though anyone can achieve it if they tried hard enough. There is no doubt that hard work is required, but, yet, the truth is all around us. Although many put in hours of arduous labour, only a few are rewarded. Most importantly, not everyone is born equal. A lot depends on the financial structure one has inherited at birth. It is naïve to take a few rags to riches stories as examples of enterprise and say it can be done. We all know that success, even if one does not attribute it to kismet, is out of one’s control. It is the result of a combination of factors such as hard work, being in the right place at the right time, finding a mentor, socio-economic conditions and so on and so forth. If success weren’t so fragile, we wouldn’t see the rich and famous wearing lucky gem stones, adding extra alphabets to their names or rushing to temples before an auspicious occasion. Even if we spared the role of God or karma from direct involvement in our lives, we must acknowledge the role of an ‘x’ factor at play. We don’t have the answer to why someone picked up a lottery number that won or crossed the road when a drunk person was behind a wheel.

The financial disparity in various sections of society has become more evident than before because everyone is trying to tell us how to live our best life. Somehow, the best life does not include best conduct. Not long ago, I saw a well to do woman at the Mumbai airport pick a fight with the ground staff of an airline for no fault of the employee at the counter. The traveller had found her way to the wrong desk, no one else’s goof up but her own. She went on to accuse a porter (who was wheeling her bulky luggage) of slacking off although he had merely been dumbstruck by her aggressive stance. She chastened him in broken Hindi, “Why did you become a coolie if you didn’t want to work as a coolie?” I’m sure that his job was the only job available to him. He certainly didn’t look at the stars from a cot in the village and dream of becoming a porter. More importantly, he had been working. She hadn’t given him a minute to change the queue he was in. This is one incident in many that I have witnessed. We seem to thrive on the misfortune of others. We believe we can disrespect someone who was born in a village because they have no access to urban education and an office job, even if they’re making our lives easier, while we tolerate rich people even if they are making our lives more difficult. Which is why we have come to this point where we think that the high life, the life that the rich live, is the best measure of a good life. The time when people were taught that the display of wealth is vulgar, has gone. Have it, flaunt it is the new mantra. Simple living and high thinking have been transformed into simple thinking and high living.

The central premise of the Bhagavad Gita is based on the ideology that we ought to remain detached from the fruits of our labour. Perhaps, it is so because once actions leave you, they no longer belong to you. Hence, their benefit may or may not return to you. If everyone were to grow despondent that their job was not worth doing because it couldn’t provide them with the new found high life on  reels, they would feel demotivated at all times. Moreover, there may be other priorities in their lives. Someone will always sit at the back of the plane. Yet, it isn’t because their work was not important or their effort inadequate.

When the tap leaks, I urgently need a plumber, when my clothes stain, I need a dry cleaner. I need a doctor and the doctor needs a lab technician and the lab technician needs a clean laboratory and the list is endless. If everyone worked only to achieve the high life, we would be a society of depressed souls because the high life is impossible for everyone to attain. There are many of us working quietly, desperately and diligently for the sake of doing a task well, even if they get a meagre salary at the end of the month and even if they’re working harder than is humanly possible. The good life for someone may mean supporting their families, buying the cheapest ticket to save a nest egg or merely hoarding their money under a mattress. The good life can also mean pursuing health goals, practicing minimalism and resisting consumerism. Everyone wants the good life, but for some reason, people have begun to tell us what the good life is instead of letting us decide for ourselves.