Lord of Jugaad

Jugaad, aka “hack” or “workaround,” can bring up a lot of feels. Some view it as a source of pride - India’s 2014 Mars Mission was successful and super cheap! 🚀 - whereas others deride the jugaad mentality for encouraging lazy and corrupt behavior 🦥

But most of us feel like jugaad is a key part of Indian culture...so our friends over at @jugaadcommunity got to thinking: "just how far back does the history of jugaad date?” 🤔🤔🤔

The term jugaad was first used to describe the vehicles people cobbled together out of irrigation pumps and spare auto parts, so it’s not very old 🚜 And that makes total sense: jugaad fundamentally arises out of necessity and resource constraints. The desi subcontinent used to be resource-rich (oh hey colonialism), so jugaad probably wasn't a defining pillar of culture until $40 trillion dollars had been drained from the region 💰💰💰

But....y’all know Kahaani likes to stir the pot 🍲 We couldn’t help but notice elements of jugaad that date further back. Like wayyy back. Like in the story of Ganesha.

Quick refresher: Shiva chopped off Ganesha’s human head, much to the objection of his wife, Parvati, but then he couldn’t attach it back. So he figured out a hack—why not just use an elephant head?! 🐘🐘🐘

That’s jugaad, right? Granted, that hack applies to Shiva and Shivaji only, but it was a creative workaround in the face of obstacles 💁🏽‍♀️ 💁🏿💁🏾‍♂️