Thanks but No Thanks...

No matter what you do for a living, there is always a complaint that people do not value your contribution as much as they should. You always feel neglected. You feel that others are appreciated while you are not getting what is due. Perhaps, you can look around and change your opinion. Here is a list of 10+1 most thankless jobs (in no particular order) in the country.

Credits: Phineas and Ferb

• Primary school teacher

You are a teacher in government school. From morning to afternoon, you are responsible for one classroom and supposed to teach them every subject. At home, parents are searching for new ways to rear their one child but at school you are supposed to control 40+ of these little devils. For one whole year, they are yours. Make them or break them. You treat them as your own children, you care for them, and you teach them with utmost sincerity. Even though your salary is just 5 thousand rupees, your work is your reward. Your class do exceptionally well in the annual exams but it is not news. All that people care about is matric or intermediate exams. All the rewards and publicity is for them. People don’t realize, if it wasn’t for you, there would be no matric or intermediate in the first place. So what you do? Come and sit down in your chair. Sleep all day long in your class. Appoint one child as monitor to control the rest. And it sets the building block for what our schools produce.

• Khateeb

You left school and went to all the high seats of religious education. You become a scholar. You come back to your local mosque and want to change the people’s perception about Islam and to remove all the misinformation fed into their minds. You are well received. You don’t collect hides of sacrificial animals. You don’t collect fitrana. You don’t write taweez. You are serving Islam. But the other Khateebs get frightened. You are damaging their business. They talk you into giving up what you do. Go with the flow. Live and let live. If you don’t, you will be labeled as Deobandi, Barelvi, Shia, Sunni or whatever is required to achieve the desired result. What you do? You are wise and you go with the first option and become a mulla from a religious scholar.

• Driver

You did not learn anything at school and after sometime you quit school. Now you are driving a public transport vehicle. At the bus stand, you are scolded and abused by the stand's thekedar/munshi. You have to pay them exorbitantly when officially they should charge 30 rupees. You spend more time, passengers start yelling at you. You spend less time, owner insult you. You want to eat something, everybody scold you as if you are not supposed to eat. Traffic police stops you for their hafta even though you have all the necessary legal documents to drive. What you do? Stop caring about anyone. Do whatever you want. You become the ultimate symbol of uncivilized behavior.

• Traffic police

You stand all day long in the city busiest intersection. Whistling here and there, inhaling all the dust and smoke that is in abundance. Drivers look upon you with disgust and disrespect. You have no fixed place or hours of work. Even if it is Ramadan in July, you are expected to be present all day long when others rush to homes for Iftari. And all this, for a meager salary. So what you do? Take whatever you can from the transporters. Even if it is 10 rupees. You want it or not, you have to do it because in the evening you have to give your superiors their “share”. You become the epitome of corruption.

• Civil servant

You worked hard for years and cleared exam. You had high hopes and dreams for yourself. After completing your training, it is your first day at work. You have written all the notes and the agenda that can change the system. But you are told that bureaucracy is powerful but bureaucrats are not. You are just a cog in the infinite machinery of the state. Run along or you are crushed in no time. But you are resistant. You ignore the warning and start doing things your own way. And then the non-stop disciplinary and interdepartmental inquiries start and you start spending most of your time as OSD. What you do? Resign or go along. You are wise and you choose the second option and with that, appreciations are showered, awards bestowed, press coverage and media sensationalism of your bravery and courage that you yourself were not aware of.

• Doctor

You studied hard but you could not get into public medical college. Your father sells all the property that he has. He gives all his life’s savings so that you can study medicine in some private college. You become a doctor after 6 long years. But you are told that your services are not needed. You are expected to be the breadwinner for your family but you are unemployed. What you do? Forget about Hippocrates oath. Forget about being a messiah for the people. Join private practice. But nobody is willing to pay you enough so you start to prescribe medicines of only a certain company who are willing to pay you handsomely. And from supposed messiah, you become a white-collared butcher.

• Engineer

You worked hard. You wanted to build this nation. From roads to hospitals to schools, everything is in shambles. You vowed to correct it. You earned a degree but there are no jobs. After waiting for some time, you can’t take it anymore and ultimately agreed to pay the required amount of money to buy you a job. Now you are on the mercy of government contractors, TMAs and more importantly, MPs. You have to okay everything they build even if you know it should be thrown to the garbage. Your forget about nation building. You only focus on building your own life.

• Politician

You are an honest man. You are fed up with the system. You decide to change it. You start social work and start helping anybody in your surroundings. Then elections are announced and you are running for a seat. Then it dawns upon you that social work is not the only thing. You need big money. You refuse and you lose. So next you approach the big money and you win. But now you are on the mercy of your financier. First your heart aches but with time, you get used to your new luxurious life and you forget about your people. All kind of people approach you for jobs and you are appointing doctors, engineers, TMOs, teachers, peons and almost everything. You get paid and you get addicted to playing god. From a social worker, you become social evil personified.

• Judge

You became a judge and vowed to do justice come what may.  You take up a corruption case. You yourself are a victim/witness but you are not allowed to testify. You want to punish the culprit but you can’t. The prosecution is not interested in the case as they have an out of court settlement. The accused gets scot free from your court but you are helpless as there is nothing you can do. You are not allowed to interact with the media. What you do? You start getting your “share” from the parties. You live lavishly even when your salary is less than what you are paying for your food. Overnight, you become a messiah. Media is gung-ho about your wisdom and justice and you are the ultimate savior of the nation.

• Newspaper editor

You are expected to be neutral. But you are a human and you want to opine. You also wish to publish stories which accurately represent the society and the surroundings in sync with time. But you are told by the publisher to publish only sensational and sellable stories. Moreover, you want to give proportionate space to people of different opinions but you cannot do it. You always get blamed by the fans/followers of the opposing group. You want to publish all the stories of corruption and malpractices about doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, police, teachers and everybody but you can’t. What you do? Go with the flow. Publish whatever you are told to. If you don’t, someone else is hired and you are fired.

• Housewife

This one is perhaps the most underrated and undervalued job of all. You are a housewife. You get up early to make breakfast for your husband and your school-going children. You give them pressed and neat clothes, polished shoes and lunch-boxes. After they go, you start all the household chores; cleaning, dusting, washing and everything. Before you realize, it is time to pick the children from their school. You make them change their clothes. Get them to rest. You help them do their homework. Take care of their sports and TV watching routine. And if that was not enough, you are also taking care of your susraal and husband’s relatives. But whenever you meet some of your old friends, they ask what you do? You reply that you are housewife and they start making fun of you that why don’t you do some job? As if raising your children is not something worth doing. What you do? You don’t listen to them and cherish every moment that you spend with your children and family while you can.



P.S. Also published here.