The Statesman,
January 13, 2022
Some years ago, I saw a mesmerizing dance show at the Purana Quila in Delhi where the accomplished dancer Astad Deboo, straining every nerve and sinew, slowly contorted his body into a tight ball – he was simulating an embryo. Today I am reminded of that contortion as I look around. The Pandemic and man-made factors have relentlessly compacted our lives to fit into the shrinking spaces around us.
Concerns around disease transmission have restricted our
physical space. Humans that once roamed free on Earth are not able to do so now.
Students do not have the pleasure of attending schools, gym enthusiasts have to
lift weights at home and increasingly, access to public places is being
determined by vaccination or RTPCR status. Humans are experiencing the same uncomfortable
reality of depleted common territory that so many magnificent creatures of the
wild have been subject to for several years.
Almost 68% of wildlife has declined due to the large-scale
attrition of forest cover which now stands at a mere 31% or so of the total
land area. Commercially driven takeovers of their habitats have forced animals
into close proximity with humans. Despite now understanding first- hand what
being hemmed in feels like, many humans remain unempathetic. For example, several
resident welfare associations are deeply divided on the issue of the need to
provide shelter and food for stray dogs. This is a far cry from the days where
we grew up watching our older relatives regularly feeding birds and kind-heartedly
throwing a morsel to dogs and cows that wandered close. Displacement regularly affects
humans as well, now. Human conflict, ethnic cleansings and calamitous natural
phenomena brought on by global warming have created homeless refugees. Such people
often face hostility and have a poor quality of life in the countries they flee
to.
Women have had it a tougher since the Pandemic has
kept people confined to their homes. Domestic violence has risen – even by as
much as 30% in some countries. With the entire family being at home, their
space for quiet reflection has been lost in the interminable swirl of increased
household chores.
Authentic, fun-filled online social media exchanges are
getting swallowed up by the superficial quest for ‘likes’.The fulfilling and
joyous banter amongst private groups of friends, college and school mates, or
neighbours is corrupted by having to designate one (or a few) as the overall
administrator - responsible for the ‘conduct’ of the group. Surely the
responsibility of not hurting others with our speech rests with each adult
human. There are well established laws against hate and incendiary speech. The deliberate
creation of such a post strongly places the entire group at the mercy of the
administrator’s own personal and political biases.
In the more public platforms, interesting conversations
leading to a build- up of consensus among groups or the emergence of sustainable
solutions on diverse issues are quickly thwarted by trolls who instead flood the
platform with politically motivated, sensational, and fake news. They stalk and
abuse women online. We recently witnessed an extremely depraved attempt to
auction Indian women on cyberspace. Not surprisingly, the online places where
women feel safe and welcome are reducing.
The space to love someone of our choice and even to
pray to a deity of one’s choice- two integral aspects of life- is dwindling. Even
in this modern era, we hear of young lives being sacrificed to caste related ‘honour
killing’. Some state laws make religious conversion punishable. Hoodlums
masquerading as moral keepers of society tyrannize young couples in interfaith
marriages. Many such young couples facing harassment are compelled to seek judicial
intervention.
The space for seeking the truth and telling it is
contracting. People are subtly manipulated or outright coerced into following a
particular political ideology. Dissenters are treated shamefully. Genuine
investigations of crimes or scams are thwarted and instead a lot of money is spent
on covering up or whitewashing the incident. There have been instances where
journalists out to uncover the truth have been harassed, bullied, jailed and
outright killed. Whistleblowers, usually people of rare courage, are made to
feel as if they have done something wrong in exposing the truth. Powerful
lobbies accused of fraud swing into damage control mode and save their own
skins while making whistleblowers look like fools and liars.
The scope for fun and laughter is lessening. Jokes
which made us laugh because they were funny and irreverent, now can elicit
punishment rather than laughter for the teller. This is because many disgruntled
authorities lack a sense of humour and can be childishly vengeful. The regular
umbrage-taking by those in authority creates an atmosphere of all-pervading
seriousness, vastly different from yesteryears where the wonderfully satirical
cartoons of RK Laxman brought a smile to the face of even the crustiest
official!
The chance to get a proper education is reducing. Extremely
high entrance cut-offs make securing a university seat a nightmarish struggle.
For those who are lucky enough to gain admission, there are frequent
disruptions in their studies – usually due to some ruckus created by the student
wings of political parties. Even the choice of thesis topics has become limited.
Rather than subject experts being allowed to design such studies as will
address gaps in the current knowledge in that field, they are unethically
pressurized to allot research topics of ‘national interest’.
The space for thinking critically and heartily
examining controversial topics through debate or discussion is shrinking. There
is a sustained attempt by those in power to introduce a conformity of thought
and ideas, forcing even the imagination to shrink.
Mirroring the ever-expanding universe, a human’s imagination
is limitless, and a stifling of this deep resonance between a human and the
stars above is to shrink the very essence of being a human. In astrophysics, black
holes in space are bordered by a line called the event horizon. Cross this
threshold, and you are sucked into the infinitesimally dense void of the black
hole where even light cannot enter. Similarly, if the room for expanding one’s
thoughts and expressing one’s views gets compressed further and further, it is going
to be impossible for the light of knowledge and discovery to enter.
Meanwhile, a few things grow rapidly, out of tandem
with the world around them. The virus is unfettered and continues to multiply
its presence exponentially by making neat alterations to its spike proteins. Several
billionaires’ financial net worth is still growing by leaps and bounds in a
world with a decidedly inequitable distribution of wealth. Some powerful
leaders across the world expend their energies in lengthening their own
personal ruling tenures, fairly dismissive of environmental and citizens’
concerns, even as our planet sinks deeper and deeper into peril.
In a world that seems continually programmed by irresponsible
leaders and a relentless disease to cave in upon us, we can regain valuable
space by expanding our own consciousness, broadening our thinking and enlarging
our heart’s capacity to give and receive love. The greatest gift in these times
of paucity is to just allow a fellow being a little more space to live, laugh or
learn. A little more space to breathe. And watch Astad Deboo’s ‘embryo’ blossom
gracefully into a contented and complete being.
