'Total erosion of empathy': Middle-class Indians now flaunt what they once hid, says CEO

Two 20-somethings walk into a lift, ignore the man holding the door, don’t say thank you, start laughing loudly, and sprawl like they own the space.

For Shantanu Deshpande, CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, it wasn’t just another rude moment in a middle-class building — it was the final straw in what he calls India’s epidemic of shamelessness.

In a LinkedIn post, Deshpande didn’t hold back. He called out what many urban Indians see — and silently fume over — every single day: people who break traffic rules and boast about it, blast reels in waiting rooms, treat queues like suggestions, and trash public spaces without blinking.

“This has little to do with education. It is now a total erosion of empathy,” he wrote.

What rattled him more than the elevator disrespect was the attitude: not just apathy, but pride. “Earlier, people would hide this behaviour. Now, they flaunt it.” From parents breaking rules with kids in the car to grown adults acting like mall hooligans, Deshpande sees a disturbing shift — shame has vanished.

"Look at me," he mimics the mindset. "I fooled the traffic cop, I saved 10 minutes. What a hero." That’s the message being sent — and learned.

It’s not college kids being wild. It’s working professionals, family men, adults who should know better — and don’t care. And the scariest part? They're raising the next generation in this mould.

Deshpande doesn’t just point fingers — he sounds the alarm. "Are we rewarding this? Or are we so far gone that decency feels like weakness?" His fear is stark: if this civic rot continues, we won’t just be a country of rule-breakers — we’ll be a society in free fall.