I’m standing atop a double storey house in the middle of a very busy lower middle class colony amidst a very posh locality in the heart of New Delhi. Adventure with life's in full swing in here at every split second from first ray of light till midnight. Its second half of the day at the moment – post lunch session. Time of the day when only half of the population is actually at work (as half of us are sleepyhead after having out extra heavy lunch – Thaali) but still there’s no reduction in the rush in any sphere of life, whatsoever. I always wonder why our meals are so voluminous, extra oily and damn spicy whereas it should have more milder compared to others and more nutritious with lot of liquids in view of our geographical condition and considering how we generally behave on a typical day.
Life’s is dancing on the tip of a needle – there’s no scope for errors, one small mistake and it costs a life here. The other day we were talking about swine flu and it's impact in India. I laugh at the very idea of people putting a mask (as a fashion statement or what?) or rather flu bacteria would be confused whether to infect us or not. I used to hear the epidemics of cholera, small-pox, and malaria during the older days, and our elders have lost their beloved ones in quite a big numbers. I feel nothing much has changed since then in hygiene, except that we have vaccines ready for almost all those well known diseases, but health services are still pathetic and not accessible to the common mass.
I can see kids are playing in the middle of a very busy traffic which consists of all possible kind of vehicles. Dust is so thick and dense that I wonder how much percentage this dusty air is actually air (and how much finally oxygen?). I see people practicing zero tolerance everywhere, especially while driving - a biker's checking his front hood for dent, after hitting a cyclist head on, rather than checking for his well being after this big bang (anyways he has already cut his wrist badly). Everyone's honking every now and then, even if there’s no reason (I recall a roadside note some days back saying “honking is a disease” and I really feel that its a pandemic in India. Foreigners call us “noisy and smelly Indians” (this's atleast what I've been hear among the folks with whom I work). Yes, many of us are not very rich and can’t buy costly perfumes but we can atleast practise basic hygiene (‘Ittar’-traditional herbal scent still comes just for 10 bucks) and basic common sense (care for women and children?).
How cheap is human life and human emotions in here. I see two young guys fighting - tens of others joining in but what's this? Rather than put it off they are adding up to the fuel.. now I see a crowd of around hundred people having these two guys in the middle and both punching each other profusely and all watching with lot of fun. To my surprise no one is interested to put them to rest.. who cares? they’re getting a free show.. a free amusement fight club?
I’m stunned to see small kids crossing these roads (with no pedestrian care – what’s pedestrian care btw they’d ask me if I intervene). I’m stunned to find that they’re touching and eating so very dirty things that I wonder what would happen had we exposed the kids of developed nations to the similar circumstances. Body’s immune systems is beyond anyone’s understanding- if we care for it, it goes out of our control and when we surrender to it due to dire compulsions then nature takes care of it keeps itself intact even in most unhygienic situations (however it doesn’t give any excuse to the inefficient administration due to which these situations prevail here).
'Struggle for survival of the fittest' is the perfect statement for the chaos I see in front of me. I see a ‘sense of urgency’ on every face and feel that the ‘peace of mind’, ‘sense of satisfaction or gratification’ always missing from all these faces. Everybody is just rushing for somewhere or something.. there’s a tremendous rat race going on every minute but at the end of each such rat race starts yet another rat race and it keeps going on and on and on, taking each one of us to even more higher level of frustration, even more thirst and even more gloomy faces appear. Kids are growing faster, rather I’d say joining this struggle race bit earlier than we did. They’re talking all materialism earlier than ever before and adopting this artificial life as a fashion statement even before actually perceiving it, and loosing the charm of life sooner than later.
“Celebration called life” is ultimately getting lost in this survival struggle. We may feel that we’re getting benefited out of it but actually loosing on the social front massively. There’s no value for human life and emotions here.. Human life and emotions cost nothing here.. We’re just concentrating on accumulating wealth and that too in quickest possible time, and while doing so we’re missing the very essence of life – Celebrating the festivity called life.
-ANSI
