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Happy Kumar |
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14th November 2007 |
There's nothing worse than loving your job says a clever commercial for a job portal. In this ad film we meet Happy Kumar. Happy signifies his contentment by going through his morning routine with an imbecilic expression on his face. His taxi driver looks a little zoned out, the liftman appears resigned. The paper boy (do those exist?) is fairly miserable in his streetbound job. But Happy is unaffected, not just by the various postings for great opportunities that appear in all kinds of places, but also by the fact that these other people around him are not particularly contented in their work. It's as if he bears them a responsibility. "How can you, Happy Kumar, capable of rising to the top, disappoint me taxiwallah/liftman/paper boy - incapable of moving up in life - by ignoring your opportunity to rise," they seem to say.
It's an interesting twist on the old middle-class parental tactic of getting your children to be ambitious by scaring them that they will end up nowhere if they are not. But there's something more here. The idea that contentment is for morons. The feeling that happiness is stagnation.
Absent in the ad but implied is Neurotic Kumar. He jumps from one job to the other just because it promises him a "foreign" posting or a slightly higher salary. He gets frazzled if the taxi door doesn't open. He wakes up unhappy and stressed because he hates his job, and, by extension, his life. And he never never smiles. He is, we are made to understand, the ideal white collar worker.
Are you Neurotic? |
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