Imagine a "Shut Up" World

Watching the 67^th session of the UN General Assembly come to a close with their promise of assembling again the next year for their annual talk fest, I wondered how the world would sound without humans having the ability to talk.  

We have the power of speech which we use the most amongst our humanly faculties but many a times we use it for no use. ‘What?’ ‘No!’ ‘Don’t believe this.”… could be some of the predicted responses of many a humans on this earth to this accusation but a peaceful analysis of our own habit will prove the same.

Take a look around. We find ourselves talking, almost always. Be it at home or in office or elsewhere. Seldom have we witnessed ourselves keeping quiet, sometime not even in sleep! Humans want to be surrounded by fellow humans not because they are scared of feeling lonely but because they feel that they will not have any one around to talk to. Being alone per se is not such a big deal in today’s era of mobile phones; access to people’s voice anywhere anytime has solved this problem to a large extent. It is a different matter altogether that mobiles have also separated actual beings in real life setting with both being busy most of the times on their respective handsets talking to people invisible in the surroundings but being oblivious to the person in the vicinity. 

Many people talk just because they have to talk; unfortunately we all been subjected to the merciless symptoms of verbal diarrhoea! Others sentiments and frame of mind are of no relevance when they are on a roll; so what if others around are feeling like fainting or punching the talker! These talkers are almost always suffering from i-know-all syndrome! Then there are free advisers; so what if they themselves lead a messed-up life! The regard for a balance in any conversation is hardly maintained; almost in every conversation there is a talker and there is a listener; talks between young friends are altogether a different proposition where everybody is talking and nobody is listening! Even scarcer is somebody walking his talk!   

So ‘talking’ is our prime hobby, undoubtedly!

However, a sincere appraisal of God’s gift of gab to us humans leaves me wondering. That how have we managed to remain aloof in a conversationalist world; that if historically we have been talking then how come the world is still so ignorant of everybody and everything else. Why even after living in a universally-connected world through the internet we humans have failed to connect with fellow humans all across the globe. Why is it that in spite of talking always we have sustained the mentality of “Us vs Them”?

We all have continued to survive in our cocoons since ages. We have created boundaries all around us. There are countries and communities and regions and religions and all other reasons to divide the world and humans repeatedly. Though we share the same DNA sequence as human beings but we have remained separated by our self-created shared beliefs in our own superiority over all others. It is quite amazing!

I am sure in a moment of honest reflection John Lennon must have composed his memorable ‘Imagine a world’ song!

Imagine, we keep talking all the time – in place of living, in place of work and everywhere else. Still we find people as parents and children not understanding each other; companions – husband-wife/girlfriend-boyfriend  -still being apart after years of living together; whether it be siblings or colleagues or neighbours, everyone is a stranger to everyone else around. Incredible, isn’t it?

Then why do we indulge into so much of talking? Are we scared of being alone and lonely? Do we don’t know anything else to do and, thus, as a time-pass, we do nothing else but talk aimlessly and foolishly? Well, I haven’t really understood the necessity of talking all the time when we cannot understand each other through our words and also gestures.

If conversations could help, there wouldn’t be so many humanitarian problems plaguing the world. If only like crumbling talks, we could witness crumbling boundaries! In today’s times also we see numerous crises continuing unabatedly. Millions of refugees scattered all around because of inter-nations conflicts; religious fundamentalism thriving and slicing the world; ambitious nations bombing other nations in order to expand their territorial boundaries but in effect narrowing human hearts and minds. We witness the world flare up with scant so-called provocation in terms of a film or a book or an art piece or an innocuous comment, contradicting the age-old beliefs on a particular subject – the most inflammable being the one of a religion. If millennia of existence with the power of speech haven’t been able to make humans know each other, then would the world have missed human talks if we were born without a tongue?

Imagine a tongue-less world!

Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General of the United Nations once commented famously in defence of his organization that “It is better to Jaw-Jaw than to War-War!” And “Jaw-Jaw” was at its liberal display – like always - at the recently concluded UN General Assembly! Imagine a UN without endless political speeches! If only these speeches were a bit less hollow.

Similarly, imagine an India without its own share of political gabfest in the Parliament! (Talking with ‘forked tongue’ is still a tolerable trait in our ‘honourable’ politicians but talking with fists and chairs and tables and microphones and all that is ‘handy’ is … Well, I am sure you must have understood my words on ‘mute’ here :)

Well, in the same breath, if we imagine a world without being able to communicate, the scene is pretty scary. I see ourselves being silent always as animals, busy fending for ourselves and being with each other just like animals, wandering aimlessly. No sounds, no words, nothing to hear, nothing to say; no songs, no poems, no stories, no lullabies; no love talks, no quarrels, no gossips, no time-pass talks; no cinemas, no plays, no dances, no theatres; no lectures, no speeches, no debates, no arguments; no television, no radio; no sound of life, no sound of death; not even the sound of silence … 

Therefore, let us Keep Talking! However, while talking, let us also apply ourselves in understanding ‘others’.  Then only our tongues will serve its purpose and the world will be a better habitat.

No, today is not the World Day for Talking. I just felt like having this heart-to-heart chat with my fellow humans all across the earth, and beyond, if my words and voice could reach to the life blossoming in the outer spheres of our Universe … :)   

Nargis, Welcome to this Big, Bad World! ...

Hello, Nargis! Congratulations for being heralded as the 7th Billion Baby on this Earth!

And, sorry for spoiling your 1^st day on this planet by presenting the facts of our world as being ‘Big & Bad”.

I know you are too small to understand the irony of this “distinct status” but I still thought of not being untruthful to you on your first day in life. Actually, I could not summon enough courage to tell you anything other than the truths. But whatever I am going to reveal to you are relevant from the Indian perspective only. If you were born in a more developed part of the world, your could grow to be a true Destiny Child! Not in India, unfortunately.

Nargis baby, let me introduce us Indians to you. We Indians are amongst the most hypocritical of the lot and, therefore, we behave in a manner which could be best described as “unique”. We love to believe that we worship female form of God’s creation by pretending to be worshiping Goddesses – and we have plenty of them, all described and presented as the most powerful & feared ones! But in total contrast we indulge into meting out some of the most despicable treatments possible to a human being i.e. to our women folk – spanning the entire stages of life.

On birth of a girl child we mourn. This is when the female foetus could survive. Else, we finish the root cause of our misery in its inception stage itself and we feel no remorse in practicing female foeticide. And that is the reason India’s sex ratio is pathetically skewed towards males (1000:835 approx.). But this is what we are made to believe based on the internationally established benchmark; for us, a male child is a divine blessing! And, vice-versa for a female baby – needless to repeat.

Then, if a girl child survives in spite of the harshest of the conditions being ensured around her birth, she is ignored completely and allowed to grow on her own. The mother’s contribution is not much besides feeding her with her own milk in the initial few months and then leaving her to survive on a mal-nourished diet comprising of “leftovers” – a diet which is going to stay with her as a “habit” for her lifetime, till whatever time she manages to be alive.

Barely she learns to walk that she is made to do household chores like sweeping, cleaning utensils, washing clothes, graduating to cooking while still a child and contributing to rearing of her male siblings, if the mother is blessed thereafter! (The scene in an educated household is a bit better in terms of facilities and treatment but at the core the disdain is almost the same. Mind you, the female foeticide cases are more in urban areas in comparison to the uneducated rural settings.)

Education for a female child, if undertaken, is taken with great difficulty and is still viewed as a necessary formality. Many of the females still get left out from the ambit of formal education. Even in today’s modern 21^st era, interestingly, education is considered to be an “investment” towards getting a better groom at a lower cost!

Yes, a female – irrespective of her family’s social and financial background – is “sold out” at a pre-fixed price to the prospective groom which is otherwise termed in the Indian society as “dowry”. If the dowry amount is not satisfactory, the bride is burnt without mercy!

And in between her life from being a baby to being a bride and beyond, she is expected to play only “roles” – of a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a mother-in-law, a grand mother. Never she gets to live her own life as “She”. She is always somebody’s something!

This is the simple part of growing up as a female in India as far as that “somebody” is your “own” family. The complexities arise when the “others” start to exercise their “rights” on you just because of your gender. You will understand it fully when you grow up and try to walk the streets outside the walls of your home. Nargis, you would be utterly disgusted to see the other half of the population – males – behave in the most gutterly (gutter-like) fashion! They will ogle at you, pass vulgar remarks at you, try to touch you in public, harass you, physically abuse you and if the “opportunity” presents – or not – many would not even blink before deciding to molest you. And when you protest, you could get killed. And, if you survive, and decide to get the culprit punished, the honourable courts proceedings will make your life so miserable that you would either commit suicide or would end up as a mental wreck forever. You know, Nargis, in India, the onus is on the raped girl to prove her innocence!

Baby Nargis, you would have understood the value of a female life – and body – in our esteemed country which so hypocritically prides itself on being female Goddesses’ worshipers!

And that is the reason I wondered at the hype being created upon your birth as the 7^th billion baby on this earth! Firstly, because Indi as already over burdened with 1.2 billion people and secondly, but most unfortunately, you being a baby girl in India! (Again, mind you, an average Indian male’s life is also nothing to aspire for, but on this later …)

Therefore, Nargis, I wish you were born in a more developed parts of the world where your birth could be “welcome” in the most authentic manner and not as a mere “symbolism” – for what, I am yet to figure out! Where you could get an equal respect and opportunity towards everything in life – from life to life partner(s)! Where you were “you” and not somebody’s something merely.

Anyways, I wish you All The Best and Welcome you again in this Big and Bad World which is India! May God be with you always, baby Nargis … J

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The irony of the name Nargis is not lost on me: Nargis means a flower symbolizing life per se; Nargis was also the name given to the deadly cyclone which devastated Burma in 2008! Hope this baby Nargis always keeps growing like a flower J

Nature: a Friend or a Fiend?

I had penned down the below given thoughts in ’08 and surprisingly the same sound relevant even today when we witness the still continuing brutal dance of Nature in Japan… The scenes of monumental destruction make you wonder if The Creator is still existent! Otherwise, how could It let It’s own creations – aided by humans on Earth – get destroyed so comprehensively! Earthquake of the highest intensity followed by Tsunami of unprecedented proportions followed by Nuclear scare of extraordinary levels … the carnage continues …

I salute the fellow humans in Japan; their dignified attitude even in the face of massive adversity is simply incredible! May they continue to draw required amount of internal – mental and physical and social and economical and political – strengths to pass through their undoubtedly the darkest hours, which too shall pass … And, Japan will soon be back at being The Land of The Rising Sun J

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“If people thought Nature was their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy,” said Kurt Vonnegut, the accomplished American novelist and satirist.

The recent flurry of Nature’s fury makes Vonnegut’s caustic comment sound almost like a gospel. Before the world could adjust to the magnitude of destruction caused by the cyclone Nargis, there was this earthquake of very high magnitude devastating buildings and bodies alike in China. And in both cases – like in all cases of Nature’s onslaught since the start of evolution – humans’ body as well as souls got battered badly. The culprit: Nature.

Now, can this kind of Nature be anybody’s friend? …

Well, till one is himself or herself not in such a godforsaken situation, one cannot say yes or no to it. And a simple yes or no will not suffice, anyway.

It is a deep debate which requires profound understanding of the nature of Nature!

Here, we need to recall what Lao Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher and the founder of Taoism said once, “Nature is not human hearted.”

“Human-Hearted” – an intriguing adjective! What does it mean in essence?

If Nature isn’t any human’s friend, then is a human a friend of another human? Aren’t the Burmese military generals “humans” too? Then why have they left the millions of survivors to suffer further with their unrelenting refusal to allow international aids? Moreover, another aspect which should not be neglected is that why did the brutal military regime neglect the cyclone alert forwarded to it by India at least 48 hours in advance? Wasn’t it a conspiracy to kill its own countrymen? Should Nature be blamed here solely?

In contrast, what was remarkable about China's handling of the crisis was the swift action of the Chinese government. The presence of the Chinese top leaderships at the sites of devastations was a great comfort to the unfortunates and a lesson in disaster management for many so-called political leaders across the world.

So, who is humans' best friend - a fellow human or Nature? ...

Perhaps, Albert Einstein could help: "What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can understand only imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility."

I pray that some wise man’s ‘once-upon-a-time’ said words come true for the affected Burmese and Chinese: “The Rainbows of life follows the storm.” …

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The world – India included – will have to let all its thoughts and ideas converge and debate hard about putting billions of lives – humans included – at enormous risk by pushing hard – diplomatic pressures are immense on countries like India – for the much celebrated nuclear energy options …