The Rs10 middle-class ticket

The term ‘middle-class’ has to be the most overused (read, abused) adjective in the whole of journalistic repertoire in India. From the manicured fingers of the self righteous Shobhaa De didactically writing about her super-Indians to the the frontpage of the newspaper, you just can’t miss the expression. Well, we writers find it extremely convenient, to shove everyone possible, from the card-swiping IT couple to the man squished on the local train, to the chaat-shop owner into this bracket. Unless you have a car, maybe. Well, if it’s a Maruti 800 or a Santro, you could yet keep

your middle-class membership, though. Everyone’s middle-class, apparently. Kinda makes you wonder, is there a line that tells you who really is middle-class and who isn’t? What is it? The car, the house, the shirt-brand? Anything more definite and less conveniently blurred?

Yes …the Rs10 bus ticket.

If you live in Hyderabad, the sight of the LCD-display A/C buses that ply between Secunderabad station and VIT Park, Hi-Tec City, wouldn’t be unfamiliar, though it could be rare, sight. Rs10 is the minimum fare to get onto the bus. And at office-time when it’s absolutely crazy to try and utilize the public transport system, this comes as a real relief. Who wouldn’t shell out Rs10 for a ride from Panjagutta to Secunderabad in the seated comforts of an A/C bus, as opposed to fighting for footboard-space on the ‘ordinary’ bus?

Well, that’s your clear demarcation of the middle-class and the not-middle-class. No obscure, all-inclusive set, you can either afford it or you can’t. Not everyone does choose the Rs10 ride of comfort over the Rs4 madness; for not everyone can shell out Rs10 for the daily ride home.

So, I sit comfortably inside the 47V A/C bus, reading a second-hand English novel or listening to music on my refurbed ipod, as the other ‘ordinary’ bus, tilted to one side with people hanging out of the doors, passes by. Thank God we live in a country where the middle-class is so empowered, I think, and continue reading.