Why dream about the ‘Dream Salary’?

Certain events are so profoundly tuned into our daily routine that, sometimes their absence makes our day incomplete. One such event that I look forward to everyday is seeing Dhirendra Patel, a 24-year-old, young and charming security guard, smile and greet me every time I pass through my society entrance. I believe that how a day begins defines how that day spans out. A hot cup of tea and a newspaper make a great start to the day, but as we are driven by emotions and feelings, our morning breakfast is complete only when the family members eat together because as they say “ a family that eats together stays together.” A daily ritual of Dhirendra and I greeting each other as I drive out of my society premises, fuelled the perfect start to my day.

Thanks to these daily rituals, Dhirendra was more than happy to spend some time conversing with me. Dhirendra belongs to a family of farmers and comes from Raisen, near Bhopal. His father and elder brother both are engaged in farming, but he is least interested in it and thus migrated to Mumbai in search of a job after completing his BCom from a local university. City life has always attracted Dhirendra and his friends, possibly an influence of mass media technology. Dhirendra has been fond of Bollywood movies ever since his school days, which made him believe that the city of Mumbai helps one achieve their dreams. Dhirendra is ambitious and wants to work in a bank, he is thus preparing for the bank entrance exams. He earns a salary of Rs 14000/- from his eight-hour shift as a security guard and spends half of this money on rent for shared accommodation and his food. As he stays 20kms away from his place of work, daily commute using public transport also adds upto Rs 2500/- per month. He spends a few hundred on books, exam fees, and miscellaneous expenditure. He saves some money to travel back to his village twice a year to meet his parents. His love for watching Bollywood movies continues and he thus tries to watch atleast one movie in a month. He sends the remaining amount from his salary to his father, since agricultural income is very seasonal.

Dhirendra is a dreamer; he appears confident and has a positive outlook towards his future. He plans to take up a job, have a small family, and settle in Mumbai. He wishes to stay in a good society and earn a lot of respect. His current job does not earn him respect; it is only the means to earn his livelihood till he gets a white collared job. He considers respect to be more valuable than money; according to him, a salary of Rs 40,000–50,000 is good enough for a family of three to happily survive in Mumbai.

Discussion with Dhirendra has triggered many focal questions in my head, are there any fundamental differences in Dhirendra’s viewpoint about life and mine. Principally, all the individuals on this planet have a goal in life; for some, this goal is massive, some have multiple goals, some want to achieve this goal faster, and some still do not have a goal. Dhirendra wished for a life in the city, away from his parents in the village. Every individual, like Dhirendra wants a better tomorrow. We are not comfortable and not willing to adapt to the lifestyle that our parents experienced. The leap Dhirendra made was for the job opportunity, guaranteed earning, and better daily life. We tend to dream or aspire for things we do not have today. Our dreams are sights of goals we wish to achieve (such as a good job), objects we wish to possess (such as our own house), people we wish to meet (such as a beautiful life companion), and environments we wish to be in (such as a megacity of Mumbai). Dreams are like guiding stars; they define the next phase of our lives. Everyone can dream, but not everyone follows the right path to achieve their dreams.

Being born and brought up in a middle-class family in Pune, I have closely witnessed the city life. My father had a stable government job, and we stayed in a very well connected (socially) colony. Like every parent, my parents also brought up my brother and me to the best of their capacities. Every individual, even in those days, had aspirations to grow intellectually, socially, and financially. Financial aspirations were limited, but they existed and were also linked to materialistic items. However, they did not become demands immediately, and the wait was long but never timed. I belong to a generation that has seen many generations of televisions and phones. Technology led to these product innovations and the market demand was created. People believed that life is a journey, we have to cross many stations in this journey, and with each station we cross, we achieve incremental growth and prosperity. The family traveled together, and thus, the values of sharing and caring for each other kept multiplying. There were a few distractions in this journey, but the mantra was simple and thoroughly followed, be happy, keep others happy, be content, enjoy the present moment, and hope for a brighter future. This was not an easy path to achieve dreams and meet aspirations, but it led to a positive and long-lasting feeling of happiness. One has to thus choose the right paths to achieve their dreams, the value system provided to us by our parents should be utilized effectively to make this choice.

Today, we are in the “fast and furious” mode; we want to move faster and achieve more than usual, which leads to many repercussions. I have a family, I am a parent, I have a job, and I have my own house furnished with all the consumer goods. I have also progressed in life and reached a state that my parents wished for me. However, I still feel the need to deep dive and understand that why my mind is never at rest. Materialistic pleasures thus cannot lead to peace of mind. I wish for a prosperous, healthy, safe, and secure life for my son, my wife, and me. I wish to have people to talk to now and later. This is the core purpose of my life, but my thoughts, my activities, and my actions today are not entirely aligned to this purpose. A deeper reflection is therefore required to match my acts of today to the purpose of tomorrow.

I realize, while materialistic items can be bought, human values cannot. The values that my parents have built in me are my most valuable assets and I would like to pass them efficiently to my son. The materialistic world has and will always challenge these core values, the power to control the drift towards this world has to be developed and utilized as well.