Middle-class emblems

India has a flourishing(by count only, pun intended) middle-class. Perhaps it's a pervasive phenomenon world-wide with income disparities only growing. However, with Indian economy leap-frogging from Agro to Services skipping the Manufacturing-based construct only cemented the construct(as much as it continues to contradict economic theories)

Though there may be innumerable emblems but few which caught my fancy more than other are as follows alongside my musings:

Use of calendars as 'interior' decoration stalwarts: 

Calendars from Insurance companies & Wholesale dealers were a very common affair. Little did i realize the strong Religious themes innate to it till a close friend 'subscribing' to an alternate faith felt bit out-of-place visiting us

[sidebar: subscription makes for a hope of fluid-choice of opting-out in of auto-enrollment by birth]. Couldn't garner courage to ask if she had her's similarly landscaped tweaked per her faith ofcourse, considering she did also belong to similar financial (or psychological?)cohort. And did i mention the incense did add a zing to the setting? :)

To be noted, i then realized that even our wall-clock had a religious imprint.

Steel cutlery: 

Rugged, easy-maintenance, hygienic, long-lasting etc. an endless set of virtues. Except....aesthetics! 

As with most my thoughts lacking any originality whatsoever, above is also a borrowed observation from a married friend while dropping by my humble bachelor hamlet. Duly noted, if that's any comfort :)

Tea-drinking: (North & east India specific observation perhaps)

If it may make for a perk, people of such demographics are not particularly constrained for time. Also, the social fabric is so intertwined as to have little regard/understanding/need for personal space. Thus, unannounced evening walk-in were a familiar affair(alas, now more as an exception than a rule, even at the time of writing this). 

Tea has been the choice of beverage - was it because it's affordable than say a fruit juice, mildly intoxicating(beer anyone?), tends to give a make-believe(no nutrients) sense of invigoration etc.

Perhaps the rebels - young restless & new earners - thus choose to claim the new found freedom by shaking-off this habit as a foremost undertaking towards a rather premium alternative of coffee.

[Sidebar: Another post on tryst with the beverage]

Dairy-based diet:

Doesn't look like a mere co-incidence that we've a heavy reliance on dairy product - providing for cheap source of Calcium/protein.

Pattern in worship:(not universally applicable)

Being vulnerable to forces of nature, the idea to worship diet-source & contingency sits quite comfortably with us(easy to extrapolate the idea & silence herein would serve better than words/expression)

Home-cooked food: 

Ambivalent to if this being a middle-class thing per-se but just as a thought almost in-sync with the mood of the post. 

No doubt a healthier choice, but wonder how many from the said cohort actually can afford a restaurant-fixed meal either? I do take relief in such an arrangement even if a few may find it as a regressive practice(as usually undertakings 'defaults' to women members of the household). 

But then again it took me a while to understand as to why my muh-boli chachi would insist making 'fresh' sooji-halwa & was so against the consideration of biscuit(my young taste buds preferred latter! :)