Have You Turned Deaf – my fellow Indians?
Note: Started work on a new novel. The Intro reads as below. Please read and share feedback!
Noise! Everywhere! So many people who just wanted to create their own sound. Who wanted to hear only their own voice. Who believed that they are superior to everyone. And the only way for them to prove this was by being the loudest. As Namit Kumar reflected on the bedlam he had just witnessed near Kamala Mills in Lower Parel – his thoughts turned to his own life. In an age when means of communication were getting so advanced, we – the ones using them, had we changed at all over the past 1000 years? Living in luxurious houses, driving fancy cars – while all this was great for the ego and a sense of self worth, but from inside – was the wo/man (to maintain gender neutrality this symbol will be used) of today any better than his ancestors? In-fact the heightened exposure to content from around the globe – was it not producing a complex melange of desires in people? The obsession with the rich and the famous, the desire to emulate them and to “have it all” – what impulses was it producing?
For despite all the pretences we can make – humans are creatures of instinct. And what’s deep inside our heart has a curious way of manifesting in our lives when we least expect it. Control is something each one of us desires. Yet the environment is often so dynamic that even the most powerful of individuals are not able to get their way.
Why was it like this? Namit often used to wonder. If rough estimates were to be taken – we currently share this planet with more than 7 billion humans who to a large extent are similar to us. And yet even two siblings growing up in the same house-hold develop such contrasting personalities and end up having diverse life paths. Does anyone remember the name of siblings of Mahatma Gandhi? Or that of Napoleon, Einstein or any for that matter any other great and famous personality? Were these siblings in terms of the quality of genes or the environment they found themselves in – really very different? And yet – why was it just these few individuals who could have such a huge impact on human history. What is it about these chosen few? Are they born with some special destiny or is it all chance? Or is it the case that at some points of time – some incidents grab the attention of the world and those who are present there – as leaders – become the agents of change. So for example if Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – the same individual – instead of being born in 1869, had taken birth 50 years ago – would his revolutionary ideas of non violence been so relevant and have had such a huge impact on the world? Similarly, if the atom bomb had not been such a threat to the West due to Hitler, would Einstein have been courted by the Western powers and brought to US? What if he had been born a few years later?
So for any keen student of history – lives of those who have lived in the past – offers great insights. Yet many wo/men – unmindful of the consequences unbridled ambition can have – feel a great urge to prove their true mettle. And whether this is the outcome of an evolutionary impulse or the result of an insatiable desire for attention – it keeps pushing them day and night.
And nowhere was this competitive urge having more disastrous results than in the country in which Namit had been born in the late 70s – the relatively young and inexperienced nation of India. As part of more than a billion who found themselves stuck in a nation which always promised so much and yet often failed to deliver – the desires and urges were almost blatantly on open display. Hunger for power, money and fame was devouring the nation. Nothing was more important than to succeed. Ends were important. To hell with how one got there and how many one crushed in the way.
Especially for the children of the Emergency – there was a special impatience. A hurry to eliminate the monoliths of the 20th century and all it represented. Corrupt pot-bellied politicians and rigid bureaucrats had conspired to shackle India in a mediocrity which felt suffocating. The advent of 21st century had finally seen the rise of India as an enterprising group if IT Services firms saved the world from the dreaded Y2K bug and outsourcing became the buzzword. And then the nation saw explosive growth with the economy growing at nearly 15% year on year bringing wealth and unprecedented convenience to a growing middle class. All this fuelled such a deep yearning for money that it unleashed “animal spirits” in a nation that was always compared to an elephant in the way it moved. While an elephant seems like a friendly and peaceful animal when at rest, one in frenzy can be outright scary. And so the nation – as if in the grips of frenzy had started transforming. And the noise it was producing was outright deafening.
And humans the complex beings that they are – it was not just those shouting who were creating the problem. Many, though ostensibly quiet, were entirely absorbed in their life. And refused to listen unless compelled to do so. And it felt like Indians had transmigrated to a world where the existence of ears seemed a mystery. Ears after all are a physical appendage meant to help humans trap sound waves. But the real act of processing the sounds and deciding what is important and what is not – happens in the brain. What had happened to this part of the brain? Was it numb beyond redemption? Had the Indian civilization – once the paragon of sensitive tuning to life now all but gone? Was redemption still possible or had the nation been finally bullied into transforming from a gentle peaceful Elephant into a vicious Tiger? A Tiger that had tasted human blood and had no compunctions about taking human life that stood in its way?
