Interview with Vishna, Cook & Maid
(This is a copy of my essay during my first assignment in Human Values and Technology)
This assignment is about doing an interview with someone considered as a `poor` human in India and ask them about how much they earn, what they spend there earnings on and if they had more money, what would they do?
I got this assignment in the course Human Values and Technology, and I got excited when I heard about the task. I find this kind of assignment very interesting, so I started to plan who I would like to do the interview with. Suggestions as riksha drivers or mess staff was interesting but I wanted to go somewhere, even more poor – the slum village. Since English is only spoken in academic circles, I brought my good friend Pushkar to help me translate. We went outside the campus to Munidka Slums and started walking along the big road which goes along IITD, and surprisingly, a slum village is not so far as one perhaps imagine. We were walking around ten minutes and found a crossroad with some small fruit wagon stores and so on. It was first when we turned left on this crossroad we entered the slum village. It was a new experience for me, there were flies everywhere, a lot of them. These tiny and narrow streets were like a big maze and I lost the perception of where we were. The first family we decided to talk to were living quite inside this village and Pushkar talked to them, but at that time there was no one who earned anything, which was must for the interview. We decided to talk to someone not that poor and went to a family in a little house inside this slum village. Unfortunately, the man of the house was at work but Pushkar persuaded his wife to be interviewed. She was a bit skeptical at first, but when Pushkar told her that he sometimes come to the slum to teach the kids, she agreed to speak. Her daughter had attended these teaching sessions by IIT’s students on Tuesdays
So, his wife´s name is Vishna and she told us that they both earn so I think this is exactly what I was searching for. We were standing outside her house during the interview. During the interview kids were running criss-cross, dogs passed by and her neighbors were even passing by. Her husband works as a construction worker and earns around 5,000 rupees per month, unfortunately she told us his work is so far, that he have to spend half his salary on buss tickets. Herself, she works as a cook and maid in one house outside the village , and for this, she earns around 1000 rupees per month. Ironically, before I was going to this interview, I went to the mall for buying some clothes, since I did not brought that much clothes from home. I spent 10,000 rupees just like that, and I thought for myself I made a really sweet deal, which I did, if I refer to the prices in Sweden, but compared to this family´s salary per month, that really makes you think how much different it is here. Together they have two kids, two girls, twenty and thirteen years old. The older one is in college which is a big expense for the family which they gladly spend their earnings on. Except spending money on bus tickets and education they spend most of their money on food. The money they earn is completely used after one month, so there is no money left for saving.
She comes from the Garhwal region in Uttarakhand state from the north of India, never been in school for education. She is an illiterate woman. The main reason she left her home to move to Delhi was because of her coming child. The children have better opportunities to succeed and make something good of their life in this city. This explains why she has lived here for twenty years and her oldest daughter is twenty years old as well. The house they were living in, were built by themselves. The husband had lived there for thirty-one years and she has lived there for twenty years. To afford to build the house, they took a loan which the still have not paid off yet.
When I asked her if she had more money, what would she spend the money on, she answered that she wouldbuy more clothes and food. It made me think that “you only need to satisfy your needs and not your greed”. I would probably buy some technology thing like a GoPro or a MacBook Pro perhaps, i.e a greed, since I don’t have the problem with neither clothes or food. I can just relate to Maslow's hierarchy of needs which is absolutely true, something worth reflecting on. Further, I asked her about her dreams in life, goals to achieve and what she really wants. Her greatest wish in life is that her children grow up having a good life, to fulfill the wishes of her children. She dreams about that her children finds good husbands and gets happily married, but when she said that she has no dreams for herself or her husband it made me sad. Regarding the future, in five to ten years she said that she would still be living the same way and she has no plans to change anything. All she cares is about her children’s wealth. She is also hoping that her loan of their house is paid off as well.
Lastly I asked if she is happy, what makes her happy and what was her happiest moment in her life. She gave a really good response and an answer that many people learn something of, so pay attention. She told me she is happy, because of her children. That all people in this village having a child is happy, and that she knows people, that earns more but are less happy in life. Money is not equal to happiness. That is something worth to remember. Regarding her happiest moment in life she referred to the time before she got married, when she was living with her parents with minimum responsibilities. I guess that her life got very different by moving here to Delhi, getting kids and getting married.
To summarize this essay I will write down some of my own thought of this experience. Many people around me including me are struggling for higher salaries, to buy more exclusive material things to themselves or perhaps to their family. But if you ask people about their happiest moment in life, I am sure, most of them will mention something without material earnings. So I will finish this essay but quoting Vishna – “money and material things does not give you true happiness, it is the people around you that makes your life filled with happiness”
