“When the rich rob the poor it is called business” Mark Twain
As if we didn’t know already, the very wealthy expect the rest of us to literally work ourselves into an early grave so they can become richer still. Millionaire Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law, billionaire NR Narayana Murthy is a case in point:
“We need to be disciplined and improve our work productivity. I think unless we do that, what can poor government do? And every government is as good as the culture of the people. And our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people.”
Poor government indeed! Crumbling national infrastructure and collapsing public survives are the fault of lazy working families. If only we would get up off our backsides and put in the 70 hour week Mr Murthy suggests then all would be well.
The arrogance of the super-rich knows no bounds. Working people are already putting in more hours than ever before. People Management had this headline at the beginning of the year:
“More than four million UK workers considering a second job to combat cost of living, survey finds." (09/01/23)
Even during the pandemic, when you would have expected people to be working less hours, that wasn’t necessarily the case. Forbes, the American financial and business magazine had this to say:
“We Worked Longer Hours During The Pandemic—Research Says We Need To Work Smarter, Not Harder… The extra hours worked during the pandemic would be less of a concern if they were just a temporary phenomenon, a blip on the screen. However, overwork is a longstanding problem." (Forbes:18/08/21)
The move to working from home since the pandemic has also led to an increase in hours and workload.
“Employees who work from home are spending longer at their desks and facing a bigger workload than before the Covid pandemic hit." (Guardian: 04.02/21)
And we have this from the BBC:
“Overwork culture is thriving; we think of long hours and constant exhaustion as a marker of success….New studies show that workers around the world are putting in an average of 9.2 hours of unpaid overtime per week – up from 7.3 hours just a year ago.” (BBC:Worklife: 10/04/21)
More recently we had this headline:
“In the current economic climate, Gen Zers are pulling especially long hours – and pushing themselves to the brink of burnout…18-24 (year olds) tend to put in an extra eight hours and 30 minutes of ‘free’ work per week by starting early, staying late or working during breaks and lunchtimes.” (BBC: Worklife: 29/05/23)
So Mr Murthy, people are not sitting on their backsides. They are working harder than ever, often for “free”. What’s more, many have two jobs because you and your rich friends refuse to give them a living wage, because you are more interested in accruing even more billions than you are in seeing working families being paid a living wage.
Rather than lazy workers, it is the greed of the rich and super-rich that has led to the collapse of public services and infrastructure. The system is rigged in their favour, designed for them to escape paying their fair share of taxes. As I quoted in my last blog, “Tax evasion, and, more broadly, tax avoidance, is not inevitable; it is the result of policy choices” and while we have people like Mr Murthy’s son-in-law in charge of government, nothing will ever change.
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Pareshanura Part 3
Part 1, 2
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“Ok, darling, I’ve got it.” Daya speaks into his cell phone as Dhruva walks into the station. Daya glances at Dhruva, then ends the call with, “I’ve got to go, see you later.”
Dhruva frowns at Daya. “Who was that?”
“A friend of mine. She runs an animal shelter, and she called me to prosecute a man who abused his pet bird. I assured her I would put him in jail for it.” Daya shrugs. “I don’t care about the bird, but you gotta do something if a pretty woman asks you to, y’know?” He smirks at Dhruva, whose frown deepens.
It was totally a work related call. And Daya flirted with him all of the time. There was no need to get upset over a ‘darling’, or a ‘pretty woman’, Daya probably referred to everyone like that. Dhruva chooses to walk over to his desk and start sorting out the day’s files instead of responding.
He didn’t care.
He really didn’t.
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The next day, a woman comes into the station wearing a purple and black floral patterned blouse, and jean shorts. She’s carrying a box of... something.
Dhruva closes the file he had been reading expectantly, waiting for the woman to see him and come over to state her business. Instead, she walks straight over to Daya, as if she owned the place.
Daya’s face brightens when he sees the woman. “Bangaram!”
The woman grins and sets down her box, sitting down on the corner of his desk.
“Adedede, you didn’t have to come all this way, I could visit you at your shelter!”
“Well, I wanted to come over. And give you these.” She opens the box, and Dhruva cranes his neck to get a peek. It’s a bunch of sweets and snacks, but in the middle there’s a reheatable container of what looks like soup.
Hopefully she was getting married and gifting him all of this. Peeda odilipothundi.
Dhruva shakes his head. What had gotten into him? The woman hadn’t done anything wrong, and yet he was cursing her. Daya was allowed to have friends.
“I brought you your favorite!” The woman states, opening the soup container. Her voice is melodious and sweet, Dhruva notices. “Authentic fish curry!”
Dhruva takes it back. Daya is not allowed to have friends. Especially ones that give him fish curry. He still remembers the time they had been patrolling on the beach, Daya going out of his way to talk to the fishermen and have them make some fish curry for Dhruva after he had said he never had it. Dhruva had always recalled it fondly, and they had been back to the beach for not-dates several times after, with Daya taking care to make sure Dhruva always got fish curry whenever they were there.
“Shanvi bujji,” Daya starts, and Dhruva hates how his eyes are shining. “Did you make this?” The woman, Shanvi, nods, smiling. “I thought you were vegetarian! Did I finally convert you?”
Shanvi laughs. “No, I had a friend of mine make it. But don’t worry, it’s made exactly as you like it.”
“Murthy!” Daya barks. “Fetch me a spoon!”
Narayana Murthy rolls his eyes and shuffles over to bring him the spoon. Dhruva felt bad for him on most days, he was one of the few sincere officers working here and had the misfortune to have Daya of all people as his boss.
Daya tastes the curry, and almost moans. Dhruva’s fist clenches. “Bangaram, this is so good!”
Dhruva intervenes.
“So, how do you two know each other?” He asks, making his way over to the pair.
Shanvi turns around. “Oh, you must be ASP Dhruva!” She holds her hand out, and Dhruva shakes it. “Big fan of the way you handled the Siddharth Abhimanyu case.”
“Thank you.”
“And as for your question, well,” she turns to give Daya a fond look, and Dhruva fights to keep a frown off of his face. “We met when someone kidnapped all of the dogs at the shelter, and he helped me get them back. He’s a very caring person, and loves animals as much as I do.”
“Really,” Dhruva asks. Daya winces and gives him the nonverbal cut it out symbol, but Dhruva doesn’t care. The lies he told this woman were not his problem.
Dhruva suddenly remembers yesterday’s phone call, and realizes the ‘darling’ on the phone must have been Shanvi. He internally scowls.
“Yeah!” Shanvi goes on, oblivious to the situation. “He’s been a very good friend to me. You two are working together, right? How has the experience been for you?”
Well, Dhruva thinks, two can play at this game.
“It’s been a pleasure to work with my darling Daya, of course.”
Shanvi’s eyes go wide. There’s a choking sound, and both of them turn to look at Daya, coughing out some curry gravy. He stares at Dhruva.
Well, Daya kept flirting with him and making him lose his cool, so can’t Dhruva do the same back?
“Your... darling Daya?” Shanvi asks. Is she jealous? Good.
“Yeah.” Dhruva lets his fingers slowly skim up and down Daya’s arm, feeling the goosebumps left in his wake. “We have so much fun together, right kanna?”
Daya swallows, and nods.
“Oh my god,” Shanvi gushes. “This is literally the plot of one of my romance books.”
Dhruva snaps out of it. “What?” he asks, confused. Why was she not jealous?
“You guys are so cute together!” she continues. “Are you living together? You two should adopt a dog! From my shelter!” she lowers her voice, but not her excitement. “It would be great PR!”
Daya recovers from his initial tongue-tied state, to Dhruva’s regret. “Ah, we’re not living together yet, but I see that happening sometime in the near future.” He winks at Dhruva. “With all of the nights he spends over at my place-”
“Thank you for the sweets,” Dhruva cuts him off, addressing Shanvi.
“Of course! And you’re welcome to have some too, I didn’t mean to accidentally exclude you.” He nods at her in appreciation, and takes a kaju out, finishing it off as Daya walks her to the door.
He comes back grinning in disbelief, and Dhruva suddenly remembers how much of a fool he’d been acting the last few minutes.
“Did you seriously just flirt with me, ASP garu?”
Dhruva refuses to answer, going back to his own desk.
“Did she make you jealous, ASP garu?” Daya calls from the other side of the room, and Dhruva buries his face in his paperwork.
I hate this man, Dhruva thinks fondly as he hears Daya’s delighted laughter.
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tl:
bangaram - term of affection, literally means gold
Peeda odilipothundi - The sin will leave (sin referring to Shanvi)
bujji - little one
kanna - also little one
tagging @voidsteffy @yehsahihai @eremin0109 @bromance-minus-the-b @hufhkbgg @thewinchestergirl1208 @rasnak2 @lovingperfectionwonderland @eenadu-varthalu @flyinlove @alikokinav @burningsheepcrown (actually your recent art motivated me to finish this part lol) @fangirlshrewt97 @iamhereforthefanfics @lil-stark @hxnky-pxnky @budugu @tulodiscord @justmeand-myinsight @the-gayest-tree-you-ever-did-see @juhiiiiii @iam-siriuslysher-lokid
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