Texas-based comedian Tanveer Arora triggered a major India versus America debate on the context of ease of life as he said he moved back to India after living in the US for 16 years and felt that his life became an upgrade, as everything gets done in India. Arora said it has been 9 months since he moved back to India from US and he didn’t have to cook, clean his apartment, clean dishes, laundry etc.”It just gets done. Honestly, this feels like an upgrade,” the comedian said in his now viral Thread post. The convenience that one enjoys in India is the explotitation of the lower class, social media users quickly pointed out. “Your convenience is exploitation is something I’ve read which is very apt here. You can choose to do all those things in the US you just don’t wanna pay people a fair wage which is why India seems like an upgrade for you because you can pay people really less money and exploit the lower class,” one wrote. “You bring up a very valid point. I do not fully disagree with you. US is very very expensive. India is very very cheap. Perhaps a middle ground would be good. Where the lower class is not exploited and paid really fair, also, people being independent to do their own stuff,” the comedian replied.
“People who say househelp is exploitation don’t say that being a waitress in the US is exploitation. Most house help especially in large cities in India gets decent pay similar to waitress in the US (adjusted for cost of living),” one wrote. “Cheap labor in your country is nothing to be proud of. It just means there is a lot of poverty and the country is full of unemployed people who are willing to work for cheap. Manual labor is expensive in developed countries people have better options for employment than to be a household help. That’s why India is an upgrade for rich NRIs. Foreign countries are an upgrade for poorer section of Indians,” another wrote. Some social media users also asked Arora who does all the work that he claimed ‘gets done’. He explained that hired help in India is not as expensive as in the US. “I do pay them fairly and take care of them. They are like family to us. My mind does not even go towards the caste thing. And will always be respectful of everyone regardless of their job or anything,” Tanveer wrote a clarification as the debate veered towards caste discrimination in India and lower caste people being hired as help.
