Funny that you mention elevator operator. When I moved to San Francisco, I saw a few elevator operators in some of the city's buildings. Where did you get the idea that the elevator operator in India had a job "Because he needs a job."?
Because the friend I was with (who lived there) said so, after I asked about it.
This elevator didn't need an operator. Especially considering it was one elevator among several other operator-less elevators.
There are useless jobs everywhere though, including San Francisco. Was this an older building with a manually operated elevator? That would make more sense.
