Iron man at the corner

It is afternoon. Mahesh is busy ironing the clothes of his customers. He works here at a monthly fixed wage. He looks serious and concentrated in his job. This tiny place is his space of work where he spends 50% of his day's time. He is the HR, the commercial guy, the security guard & also the hardworking employee! There is a watch on his left. There is a ceiling fan above him. One calendar hangs by the wall. At empty times he gets to sit on a plastic chair. The place is basically situated at the footpath!

There are a number of QR scan code stickers of PayTM, Google pay, etc. that are sticking at the front. When asked, he replied with a non-glimmering face, "sab maalik ne lagaya hai (all posted by the lord)"...

When the ironing is done, he keeps the clothes stacked at the back. Peeking closely into the shop, we would find a CCTV camera fitted at the top corner. He dares look directly at it. Iron man is obviously under continuous surveillance by the shop owner! To remind him of that, there hangs a contrast Yellow signboard mentioning - "Alert, Area under Surveillance"

Many businesses are now making use of remote technologies, wherewith they are able to regulate the manpower that has been employed. I read an interesting article in the newspaper recently. The Cleaning Workers at Chandigarh has now been provided with a GPS watch. They would have to wear it while at work. The writer was proclaiming that such acts are dehumanizing in nature and that the people are treated as machines and a thing to improve productivity. No matter even if someone is not there to look at you, you are always at an unease... You feel worried, what if the lord catches you at your break and cuts your salary?

Mahesh opens the shop before 10 AM in the morning. He reaches office on his bicycle. It is parked adjacent to the shop. He caters to the customers in the locality. Standing straight, he is wearing a vest. Well, that's not the end of it, technology also has the other side of it. To get him out of the boredom of the monotonous job, he remains plugged with earphone and keep on watching movies & music album over his 5-inches mobile screen.

Laalman