Another Example of Level Playing Field tactics yesterday

Technically it is today!

As I started bike riding after 12 AM, technically it is today. But since we start our day after a sleepover, in practical terms, it is still yesterday!

Context

I got an inDrive bike ride at Main Shahrah-e-Faisal, opposite Lal Kothi, near my alumni university, MAJU. From the beginning, this was clearly a conflicting customer who wanted something conflicting from my end. That is precisely why carrying my earphones, laptop, and instrumental music is sometimes the safest option for me.

And this time, it literally saved me.

My route was from Shahrah-e-Faisal towards Cafe Bhaijan, more precisely around Sangam Ground, near a barber shop. What should have been an ordinary ride once again turned into an unnecessary confrontation simply because someone decided that being a customer gave him the right to impose his expectations on me.

The Deeper Problem

Shows how much I ride
per day just to cover fuel

During the entire route, anyone familiar with Karachi already knows what its roads can look like. The screenshot itself makes one thing obvious: I am not a professional rider.

I ride a bike because I have a purpose behind it. I am not pretending to be a full-time professional rider, nor am I claiming to possess the road experience of someone whose entire livelihood depends on riding.

So expecting me to behave exactly like a typical professional bike rider is fundamentally misplaced.

There is a difference between providing a service and surrendering yourself to someone's pressure.

• I can respect a customer.
• I can complete the ride.
• I can remain professional.

But I am not required to surrender my common sense, dignity, or personal boundaries simply because someone has booked a ride.

Personal Observation

I am not a professional rider. I do these rides to create an exception for my fuel expenses. That is the purpose.

Therefore, treating a bike rider as someone who must automatically enter your pressure simply because you are sitting behind him is an attitude problem.

I was carrying a Slim Spider Back Bag. Realistically, it is designed around something like a Slim Dell Laptop. Instead, I use it practically for my lunch box and water bottle. Alongside that, I was carrying Bluetooth earphones, mobile chargers, and an adapter.

These are my belongings.

They may not look like much to somebody else, but I paid for them, I use them, and I am responsible for them.

Then this Uncle started claiming that his cap was worth more than anything inside my bag.

1. I had simply mentioned that I had Bluetooth earbuds inside, which alone cost around Rs. 3,500.
2. But honestly, the price of the belongings was never the issue.
3. His attitude was.

That interaction represented something I have repeatedly observed between generations: Baby Boomers attempting to pressure Millennials and Gen-Z simply because they believe age automatically creates authority.

Insult to Injury.

1. Age deserves courtesy. It does not automatically deserve obedience.
2. I am not against respecting elders. In fact, I strongly believe in respect. But respect and submission are two completely different concepts.
3. If someone expects respect merely because they are older, while simultaneously refusing to respect the boundaries, circumstances, or dignity of younger people, then what exactly are they expecting to receive?
4. Respect cannot be demanded while disrespecting the person standing in front of you.
5. And this is where I see a broader generational failure.
6. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ demonstrated the importance of leading through conduct, character, patience, and example. He did not establish the principle that authority means constantly forcing people underneath you.

Yet some people from older generations have spent decades confusing authority with entitlement.

Instead of remaining relevant by adapting, learning, and setting an example, they attempt to remain relevant by controlling the field.

Baby Boomers' Match Fixing

That is what I call "match fixing."

You don't make yourself important by changing the rules so everyone else has to accommodate you. You become important by becoming the person others genuinely want to learn from. There is a proper way to carry values from one generation to another. You demonstrate them. You show your children how to behave. You show younger people how to disagree without humiliating others. You show them how to handle authority without abusing it. You show them that being older does not give you a license to disrespect someone younger.

That is how respect gets transferred from one generation to another. Not through intimidation. Not through emotional pressure. Not through "I am older, so you shut up."

And certainly not through fixing the playing field and then demanding respect from everyone forced to play on it. If you need to manipulate the rules to remain powerful, then you are not actually demonstrating leadership.

You are protecting your position.

Just look at Karachi.

We have developed what I would call a HILUX culture on roads that aren't even standardized enough to support the behaviour being normalized across the entire city.

• Bigger vehicle.
• Bigger presence.
• Bigger entitlement.
• Everyone wants everyone else to move aside.
• Everyone wants their own convenience protected.
• Everyone wants to establish dominance.

And somehow, the person with the smaller vehicle, smaller position, or younger age is expected to adjust.

1. That isn't a level playing field.
2. That is hierarchy disguised as normal behaviour.

And this is exactly why I refuse to blindly accept the idea that every older person automatically deserves unquestioned authority.

I will ONLY respect you.

1. But I will also expect you to respect me.
2. I will listen to experience.
1. But I will not surrender my judgment to someone's age.
3. I will acknowledge hierarchy where it is legitimate.
1. But I will challenge entitlement when it crosses the line.

Because a genuinely respected generation does not need to dominate the next generation.

1. They don't need to fix the match.
2. They teach the next generation how to play it.

And if you cannot do that, then perhaps the problem isn't that Millennials and Gen-Z have stopped respecting you.

Perhaps the problem is that you never gave them a reason to.