Have you ever experienced being a money-less, middle-class millennial? Have you, like many others faced the struggle of ‘avoiding struggle’ itself? Do you remember the agitation and confusion?
“Am I lucky or simply spoilt, to enjoy the comforts of life?”
“Am I grateful enough for the luxuries I have?”
Anuj Kumbhat beautifully expresses and structures his tense feelings in a short poem called ‘Spoilt’.
“I have one question on my mind”, Anuj begins on his thoughts about the ‘middle-class experience in a class-ist society’. He paints us a picture of himself, a middle-class guy who is constantly made to be mindful with money-issues. The guy who earned decently and paid his bills, but at the end of the day, for the society, he was nothing but a ‘spoilt’ guy who didn’t know how to manage money. It’s a pity that guys like him would be made to earn more and spend less. All work and no play, but the dull Jack will still be viewed as a careless guy.
Anuj goes on to mention some common challenges faced by people, regardless of ‘lower’ or ‘upper’ middle class. With the ‘pizza’ metaphor, he speaks about the acquired taste of ‘classiness’ that Indian parents constantly try to keep their kids away from. Striking the audience with the 13-year-old kid who has never tasted Pizza, but his mother won’t let him because — “What if he LIKES it?” Along with goosebumps, he drops a thought in our minds about the kid’s father who works hard, has sleepless nights, just to put food on the table. Putting the audience in a beautiful dilemma, he then compares it to the sleepless nights that our soldiers have while protecting the country. We need a livelihood and good education for our children, just as much as we need security as a nation. The strong, smart and secure children of today, need to be the bright future of tomorrow.
He seeks truth as he speaks to the youth about the unjust ways of society. Fortunate enough to be born with a silver-spoon, enjoying most luxuries of life that others cannot, he speaks of his determination to “Grow up and hand it back one day”. But it was too late before he realised that the race for the ‘privilege’ of the silver-spoon had become way too intense. The only way left to get what you want is to get it by force. And why not? After all, we happen to be in the middle of this class system. A system owned and controlled by ‘an elite one percent’ of the society. The race to be in this 1% is on, intense, and making us cold-hearted monsters digging for the ‘privilege’.
“As if the right to a decent life is only guaranteed to the ones who made it”, says Anuj, summing up the entire class system.
There are infinite ways to live your life, but society limits it to a few. In short, it classifies you. Either Rich or Poor. Good or Evil. Smart of Spoilt. Concluding his chaotic outburst, he recollects a dead man by the sidewalk on a rainy day and thinks to himself, “Had he been spoilt?”
Watch ‘Spoilt’ by Anuj Kumbhat here:
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