ABSTRACT
The debate on middle classes in India has largely revolved around themes like conspicuous consumption, lifestyle changes and associated status claims, exclusionary politics etc. Exploring and moving beyond these themes, the chapter is an attempt to foreground the lived middle class experience and its complexities. This is attempted through descriptions of everyday lives of 15 middle class participants from Mumbai. Within this experience, we observe that an intricate middle class life becomes visible; we see variegated concerns, practices and contradictions. Moving beyond an overarching concern with lifestyle, consumption or assertive politics, the focal theme which emerges in the descriptions is that of ordinary everyday anxieties and the associated adjustments.
