Working on a nursery or a vineyard is guaranteed work for about eight months every year.
As the details of the Hajigak contract are negotiated, the people of Bamian are clear about what they want in return for opening their lands to mining: paved roads, a gymnasium, a conference hall, a technical college, and guaranteed work for locals among the 50,000 jobs some say the mine could generate.
He thought those years of hardship were worth it, because he was earning a lifetime of guaranteed work, and the badge of pride that is the black cab.
Andrew Bone, who makes an admirable job of old buffer Major Metcalf, says one reason he took the part – apart from guaranteed work for a year – was "the chance to see this thing called The Mousetrap from the inside".
Zahera Gabriel-Abraham, 30, quit her job at the retailer after suffering panic attacks that she blames on her family's lack of financial security – the result, she says, of a contract that offered no guaranteed work or income.
What keeps these factories innovating, if they are guaranteed work?
"The hardest part of acting … is not being guaranteed work.
The problem is that there aren't enough of them, and there isn't a long enough guaranteed work-stream to keep them here.
Urbanites grumble that the rural boom is due to unsustainable handouts, in particular a government scheme to guarantee work for the rural poor.
For years India's politicians have preferred economic palliatives such as NREGA, a giant scheme that guarantees work for the rural poor, and subsidies for the needy.Now India's borrowing has soared to queasy levels and welfare spending is being squeezed.
