Page 18 - Seniors Today -April20
P. 18
Focus | Covid-19 - Point of View
Will the Indian
consumer change,
post Covid-19?
Our society looks set to change forever with the experience of the novel
coronavirus, writes Prabhakar Mundkur
Sometimes a natural event can be so Shedding old habits
tumultuous that it can change a society I had many life-changing experiences that
forever. So great is the shock that it could helped me to shed my old shameful habits.
change habits and attitudes forever. But perhaps the most significant and most
It is my hypothesis that Indian society might permanent was actually living overseas.
have changed forever with the experience Where drivers are hard to find and certainly
of Covid-19. I have always seen Indians as quickly going into extinction. Maids, cooks,
being a little privileged when it comes doing and almost all of domestic help is either way
housework. And I counted myself in that lot too expensive or almost doesn’t exist in most
once upon a time. countries in the West. This forces you to be
I grew up as an only Indian child, petted self-sufficient, however spoilt you might
and spoilt by my mother. Like most Indian have been in your earlier life.
boys I hadn’t done an ounce of household Covid-19 might have caught a number of
work in my entire life. When I turned thirty, Indians off-guard. It may have suddenly
I had maids, nannies, a car and driver, a dawned on them that they lack some
joint family, and of course my dear wife who essential life skills. When I was growing
would manage everything. If I was spoilt up, some career women boasted in party
as a child I was even more spoilt as a young conversations that they couldn’t cook and
adult. This is not untypical for most Indian they were proud to show off their disability.
children and typically Indian men. In the 70s that drew some awe, I remember,
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