What makes people like us People Like Us

In a discussion on the net with a bunch of friends on the film Omkara, I wrote: ?Yes, Omkara is the one film this year that all we PLUs have been waiting for.? Asked a dear pal, professor at a New York University: ?And what be a PLU?? That set me thinking.

PLU (People Like Us), and the yang to its yin, PLT (People Like Them) entered our lexicon in the early ?90s. And the terms neatly pinpoint the basic class divide in Indian society, as perceived and lived (in many cases, not even consciously) by the urban English-educated middle and upper middle classes. So what be a PLU?

Of course, we PLUs know another PLU the moment he or she starts speaking. And we know a PLT at first sight. This distinction is important. Many PLTs cleverly manage to dress and look like PLUs, but give themselves away as soon as they open their mouth. But let?s get more, well, scientific. In my mind, to be PLU, you have to fulfill all or most of the following conditions in complex and interconnected ways (and please remember, most of these qualities are necessary, but not sufficient).

? It helps to be a manager/ academic/ media/professional/ creative type (though obviously all people in these professions are not “like us”). If a businessman, you should preferably be in the knowledge/ IT/ ITES/ services industry. If you are a manufacturing entrepreneur, you need to be very strong on the other attributes. If you are a garment exporter or real estate agent, you have no hope of being a PLU.

? Most basic requirement: You have to be evolved in the way you express yourself in English. You could be an investment banker at Goldman Sachs earning a gazillion rupees a year and not be PLU, because you still call up someone and say: “Hello, Rakesh Marwah this side, can I speak to Mr Mukesh?”

? So money isn’t important? Well, again it?s not so simple. PLUs are generally doing well in life, but you could do well in many ways, not necessarily monetarily. You could be teaching English Literature at St Stephen?s, earning a modest salary, and be PLU. But then you have to give the impression (or genuinely feel) that you give a damn for what your collegemate is earning. But you could be all that, and teach English Literature at Lala Omprakash College, and there, you?ve blown your chances of ever being a PLU.

? More than anything, education matters. Rarely is anyone who is not from a good college considered PLU. Sachin Tendulkar may end up scoring twice the number of runs Bradman made, but he is not PLU. (His wife is.)

? PLUs are for gender equality, globalisation, democracy. Above all, meritocracy, a concept they have crafted carefully, completely delinking it from any advantages that a PLU may have been born with. PLUs are secular and condemn the Gujarat riots from the bottom of their hearts, but would rather have Vajpayee than Sonia Gandhi, because she is a foreigner (To get over the ignominy of being ruled by a foreigner, all PLUs send their children to foreign lands for higher studies as soon as they can). PLUs are a class created by Dr Manmohan Singh, so feel let down by him, yet believe that he will finally do the right thing (that is, take care of PLU interests).

? But. Again, like everything about PLUs, it’s not simple. PLUs have strong ideologies, as described abo-ve. Yet all PLUs know that Sitaram Yechury is one of them. Prakash Karat is not, because on TV, he comes across as a humourless Stal-inist to PLUs; he could have been, but missed the bus.

? Everyone who works or has worked in McKinsey is a PLU.

? Sachin Tendulkar may not be PLU, but Rahul Dravid is. So is Anil Kumble, even though all PLUs have been complaining for 15 years that he doesn?t turn the ball. Sourav Ganguly, though from St Xavier’s Kolkata, is not, because he lives in a joint family. Shah Rukh and Aamir and Saif Ali Khan are PLU (Saif is currently the paradigm of PLU, and the fact that he could do Langda Tyagi so well in Omkara has made him the PLUs’ favourite actor), but Salman will never be. Bobby Deol is PLU, Sunny is not. Sushmita Sen and Preity Zinta are PLUs, but Rani Mukherjee will have to try a wee bit harder to get in. Karan Johar thinks he is PLU, but PLUs (actually a small segment of them) are interested in him only as a post-modern cultural and sociological phenomenon that, if studied, would give the PLU stuff for interesting conversation over drinks.

? Ajay Devgan is PLU because Kajol married him.

? Is Narayana Murthy a PLU? This question keeps PLUs awake at night.

? You are, very likely, not a PLU, if

a) you are pro-reservation in any way, other than economic reservation (unless you are Sitaram Yechury), b) you haven’t read The Da Vinci Code, c) you never mention China in your conversations, d) you don?t know at least the first two lines of Hotel California, e) you have never bought a pirated DVD of a foreign film, f) never wondered why Priyanka Gandhi married Robert Vadra, g) not believed in what the BRIC report predicts (even if you?ve never heard of the BRIC report), h) are not willing to give to charity every year, i) you are not proud to be Indian, and have chosen to stay here, and really hate it when your friends from the US come for a visit and never wear anything anywhere but shorts.

Those are the people who are the People Like Us. We are not bad people; like everyone else, we are trying to make sense of this country, and make sense of ourselves. And how to connect the truths that we find at the end of our twin searches. That, I told my professor friend sitting far away in New York, would be the crucial connection.

sandipan.deb@expressindia.com