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The other day my close relative’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter came to visit our home in Bangalore from the USA . The boy’s wife is an American and was on her maiden visit to India.
They enjoyed their stay, and visited many places in and around Bangalore, Kerala, Chennai and North Karnataka. Luckily it was just the onset of monsoon and the weather was very pleasant for travelling.
But more than the pleasure of visiting the tourist spots, she was awe-struck by the comforts enjoyed by an Indian urbanite for majority of the services without stepping out of his home and without putting any physical effort.
She wanted to buy a few groceries for the daily needs and was rushing to a nearby convenience store. We stopped her, opened the BLINKIT App and ordered the items. In 10 minutes the items were home delivered. She was amazed with the speed of delivery.
We wanted to visit a few places in Bangalore in our car and I was reluctant to drive my car in the notorious Bangalore traffic. So, I opened the EZI DRIVE app and requested for driver services. The driver came in an hour wearing a proper uniform and identity card to drive us around. We went around the city enjoying the trip without the stress of driving. She was astonished.
We had cooked a large meal for the family and we all had a sumptuous lunch. As soon as the lunch was over, she went into the kitchen to wash the dishes. We said “don’t worry” the maid will come and clean the dishes. The maid came and cleaned the dishes. It was a shock to her.
She had a few dresses which needed to be ironed and she was searching for the iron box. We called our regular washer man, who came home, collected the dresses and returned them the next day wrinkle-free and properly ironed. She was dumb-struck.
Since she was yet to get acclimatized to the Bangalore climate she wanted a few medicines. We opened the “PHARMEASY” app and ordered the medicines that were delivered the next day. She couldn’t believe the convenience.
She wanted to visit a beauty parlour for hair dressing. We opened the “URBAN COMPANY” app and requested for a beautician. The beautician came home and dressed her hair. She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Since, the biological clock was yet to get adjusted to Indian timings and there was a difference of around 11 hours between the US and India time zone, she was feeling hungry at around 1AM for a couple of days. We opened the ZOMATO app and ordered food. In a jiffy, food was delivered. It was mind-boggling for her to get hot food delivered at that unearthly hour.
One day we visited the nearby mall and made heavy purchases. As she was collecting the bags for placing in the car, we requested the mall to make a “home delivery”. To her utter astonishment the bags were delivered home just by the time we reached home.
She wanted to send a courier to her hometown and was looking for a post office nearby. We opened the DTDC app and the courier collected the cover from our doorstep shortly.
She refused to believe her ears when I said that during my 20 odd transfers while working in the bank all my household items were packed, loaded in the truck, unloaded, unpacked and placed in the designated places by the transporters without me touching even a single item.
She found that in Bangalore, home services are offered for almost everything and at any time. Even in the wildest dreams this was impossible to think about in the USA.
While we beautifully show-cased all the comforts enjoyed by an Indian urbanite, we are also painfully aware of the ill effects of such comforts.
The WFH concept introduced during COVID-19 as a temporary measure, has become a norm rather than an exception.
The sedentary lifestyle and overdependence on door-step services made the urbanite lazy and lethargic. He has virtually become a couch potato. Lack of physical exercises have led to several health issues among youngsters like obesity, hyper-tension, diabetes, insomnia, back-ache etc,
No wonder India is ranked a dismal 103 among the 169 countries in the Global Health Index 2024.
It’s time the younger generation realized that all comforts come with a huge price-tag on health and can cause collateral damages if proper care is not taken to protect one’s health.
Let the current Work From Home (WFH) be changed to Work For Health (WFH) to suit the emerging needs.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint