Where Curiosity Ends

The morning of 20th May, as I was sharing my morning cup of tea with my mother, she started chatting with me mostly to brief me about the things that had happened in the family and in our neighbourhood. 

She broached the topic concerning a recently married relative of ours not going right. After seeing my non-interest to participate in the discussion, she changed the topic to the latest and most happening thing which has captivated the whole nation – the 2024 Election. Realising that most of her observations are a copy of the narrative created by the local TV channels - each of which voices the interest of one of the major political parties, I chose to caution her.

I asked her, why is she watching these channels which are out to manipulate her mind and influence her decisions and why is she curious to know about the life of the relative over which we have no influence or control to guide it for the better? Is it not a waste of time? 

She was visibly upset. But was she an exception? 

I think, all our mothers do talk about such general things. Do we expect them to discuss jobless growth and income disparity in our country with us? No. Every one of us indulges in such discussions occasionally in our free time; some more some less.

For us, it can be a discussion, to the person being discussed, it's gossip.

Same day, by early evening a Tweet from Rohit Sharma created a flutter in the media. He directly blamed the broadcaster Star Sports for intruding into the privacy of the players and releasing content that had nothing to do with the game being played. It was a private conversation between his teammates. He prayed for good sense to prevail and appealed to everyone involved to show respect, sensitivity and maturity while dealing with an individual's right to privacy and public curiosity. The channel realising the insatiable appetite of the cricket crazy nation to know anything and everything about their cricketing heroes publicised the conversation after being requested not to do so, in their enthusiasm, not respecting where to fix the boundary of the viewers’ curiosity before that turning voyeuristic which intrudes into peoples’ private spaces.

Such invasions are commonplace now with the advent of easily accessible and affordable communication devices. Unknown to us our privacy is violated by many, and we are gleefully violating others’ space too.

Two incidents in one day. The first is about our curiosity, how to stay curious and control it by directing it and regulating it to give positive outcomes without damaging us and things around us. The second is about how we are vulnerable to other’s curiosity and how they can or are manipulating us to get their interest achieved.

Curiosity is not a bad thing. 

Every journey of major scientific discovery has begun by someone’s curiosity. The history of scientific discovery is filled with stories of how individual curiosity has resulted in great scientific discoveries that have optimized human efforts of that time and resulted in the overall well-being of society. One can’t be curious about everything at once. Such curiosity is naturally drawn to a specific topic based on one’s interests, experiences, and biases. The journey gives us unknown knowledge and the chance to discover unplanned and unexpected objects and results. That journey comes with its cost. It requires a great deal of focus, attention, time, and financial resources. 

We are generally curious about famous people like politicians, sports personalities, cinema stars and successful new-age businessmen; to know more about them and their private lives beyond their work. If their authorised biographies sell like hotcakes, their unverified salacious sides them make rounds through gossip circuits and unregulated media. Many draw inspiration from the various situations they tackled in their lives and use them to manage their own. This also has led to the existence of the paparazzi culture which relentlessly tracks famous people and feeds the hungry audience with the minute details of their private lives with photos and saucy news creating a multitude of speculations. A casual dining out with a male friend at a restaurant leads to a national debate about whether everything is fine with her marriage. Excessive curiosity turns into obsession leading to unrealistic expectations and develops a cult personality around celebrities. This constant push and pull between the public interest and someone’s privacy leads to an ethical dilemma for the news outlets that thrive on TRPs, journalists who gather and post such stories and the fans who consume them.

If curiosity is good, unbounded curiosity comes packaged with negatives. Unethical exploration and exploration of the unknown and unknowable can frustrate us and lead us down paths that are harmful to us and others.

Every man is born curious. Scientists are curious, and so also, the cat in our house, and the monkey sitting on your balcony. What is the difference between us?

When we pick up a particular book to read, turn on a TV and tune in to a particular channel to watch a particular show or the particular anchor of a particular news, pick up a particular newspaper, choose a particular item to read in detail, trawl the internet, scroll the phone screen for a particular type of content, call a particular person to discuss another particular person, behind our general curiosity, we are naturally drawn to specific topic based on interests, experiences, and biases. It shows a predictable pattern. Our innate instincts drag us to what now can be called as Voyeuristic curiosity. A conscious mind can know when he wanders off from the track of positive curiosity to voyeuristic curiosity.

Curiosity and voyeurism offer a very thin strip of land to navigate between, especially when it comes to other people.

Ideally, curiosity about a famous person is fuelled by a genuine interest in their work, accomplishments, or public persona. This information is often readily available through interviews, documentaries, or public appearances. But when curiosity ventures into seeking out private details or experiences a person hasn't chosen to share, it edges towards voyeurism. A healthy curiosity often seeks to learn, understand, or appreciate someone better. But voyeuristic curiosity is often driven by a desire for excitement, titillation, or a sense of power over someone's privacy. Curiosity can be a positive force, inspiring fans to emulate good qualities, support causes, or appreciate a person's talent. However, voyeurism can have a negative impact, causing emotional distress, damaging reputations, and fostering an unhealthy obsession.

Many of us are slowly becoming aware of our vulnerability to someone else’s curiosity. Big companies like Google, Meta, X, and Instagram gather real-time data from our smart gadgets and sell it to the marketeers at a price or charge a fee as a marketplace. Unknown to us, newspapers, advertisements, social media platforms set traps to know more about the behavioural patterns of our consumption choices, preferences, and lifestyle, and income to drive traffic to our screens to grab our attention. Smart advertisement makers have realised the chink in the armour of their target audience and use the potential of social media to take advantage of this weakness and create contents to control and manipulate people’s minds towards a product, misinformation, and a political support base. The whole game of marketing involves discovering and exploiting these cracks and biases of human psychology and planting their seed to grow inside their target audience turning them their slaves.

We are privy to the power of WhatsApp and WhatsApp University and the damages it can cause. Thousands of digital warriors with pseudonyms were made to sit in front of their terminals to produce and push content to your screen which used an algorithm that exploited these patterns of yours. Highly educated and rational people these days are seen forwarding false, and doctored videos even without checking their veracity. If there were a thousand trolls in the IT Cell a decade back who were pushing one agenda, now every house has one or two who are fighting a non-existent enemy forgetting the immediate issues that concern him. Unknown to them their unbounded curiosity has slowly killed their rationale and turned them into zombies or puppets who are controlled by an invisible force to achieve his agenda.

Ultimately, the line between curiosity and voyeurism is subjective. By considering the factors mentioned above, one can determine if his interest in another person is healthy and respectful, or if it's veering into an intrusive and potentially harmful territory. A healthy balance is the key. Curiosity can be a positive force that fosters connection, but it's important to be respectful of others' privacy and boundaries.

_ * _

Pakhala – Our new cultural symbol

What's this brouhaha about Pakhala Dibasa?

Pakhala existed wherever there was rice - grown and consumed as a staple. Leftovers were treated the same way to preserve them till the next meal everywhere but called by different names.

Then why are we celebrating it? And why it's so important to us.

Odias despite their rich history and cultural superiority in many fields, for close to two centuries had to live under the shadows of more dominant neighbours at their north, south, and eastern borders. With their short stature, meek personality, agreeable, unassertive, and peaceful nature, they became the pushovers of the big boys who grew under the colonial patronage and exposure and on whose geographical fringes the Odias lived. Made to take subordinate roles always, words like Chuda, Mafsalia, and Gaunli were liberally used to describe the rural backwards to show them their place. Pakhalakhia was generally used to describe their preference for an easy-going life and insistence on a siesta after partaking it. They gulped the indignity showered on them, accepted the description and blamed themselves for their situation.

The scene has changed in the last 75 years and Odias are now everywhere from the leadership positions across the globe to migrant labourers. Places in Odisha are not in the remote outback or a pixel on some old maps but its pictures are found and flaunted in the metro stations to international airports attracting millions.

Odias are no pushovers now.

Celebration of pakhala symbolises the resurgence and assertion of Odias from their earlier state to the current where they stand shoulder to shoulder with others on equal terms. They turned the stick which was used to humiliate them into their totem pole. A successful person is never shy to show his humble past. He flaunts it when he is successful. Odias are successful - is the subtle message.

Who led the campaign?

Not the urban elite but the ones who are the product of the IT boom. They didn’t stay at Bhubaneswar to shed their muffosil blood by intermingling with the already settlers. They migrated from rural anonymity to metros like Gurugram, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru or foreign destinations after a short stay in some engineering colleges of Bhubaneswar. The early settlers were the self-deprecating self-flagellating who were defensive of their rustic past. Not this gang. Fired up by the new money, their rusticness couldn’t prevent them from asserting their place in society to be accepted as they actually are. They didn’t bother to wear the layers of makeup that others had put on to gain acceptance in the new landscape.

They have pushed the food of the poorest to the tables of the richest and the most powerful. Heads of the states are treated to the fare and celebrated chefs see immense merit in it because of its low calorie probiotic loaded goodness.

The only downside is the poor Pakhala who for thousands of years had basic salt and humble onion as her only company, now is surrounded by a galaxy of Uber side-dishes thus making her feel a bit like Sudama at Krishna's palace - out of place.

Pakhala is a witness to our glacial evolution; from the days of self-preservation to self-assertion through a small period of self-flagellation.

How are you, really?

Today is the 3rd day since Mohanty Babu passed away from a sudden cardiac arrest. A midlevel executive in a government department, he was to retire in May. These days when we see young people in their thirties, fit and fine with no medical history to worry about dropping dead without notice; the death of an almost senior citizen should not raise any eyebrow.

It was just one of those events which happened every day.

 

It was quite a shock for his wife as she had never spotted any signs of illness or stress which could be possibly corroding him from within; ditto his colleagues and relatives. His family stand devastated and distraught.

 

More information emerged about him after the usual chaos and hurly-burly of cremation got over.

 

Mohanty Babu married late because he had to settle his brothers and sisters. Now all of them are settled outside the state, he continued to be the sole bridge of his joint family taking the load of every small and big social and financial issue. He was the local face of his big joint family. He has not been able to build a house for himself and his daughter has just passed +2. His close relatives were naturally concerned. It was obvious that he must have been under a lot of stress and was possibly staring worryingly at the post-retirement life and the liabilities he was saddled with. His calm demeanour and routine lifestyle have successfully camouflaged the fire inside.

 

Are we going through similar worries that are choking us? Have we shared it with anyone close?

Was he alone or many are going through the same phase? Have we tried to spot them and tried to know?

 

When someone says "Hi, how are you?", it is typically a friendly greeting and a way for the person to show that they are interested in your well-being. It is a common greeting in English, but it can be a great way to start a conversation. It shows that you are interested in the other person and that you care about how they are doing. It's a way of asking someone how they are doing, both physically and emotionally. It can be used in both formal and informal settings, but it's more common in informal settings.

 

There are many different ways to respond to "How are you?". Some common responses include "I'm fine, thank you.", "I'm doing well.", "I'm good.", "I'm not too bad.".

The way we are expected to respond will depend on how we are actually doing and how well we know the person we are talking to.

 

If you are close friends with someone, you might be more likely to share more personal information about how you are doing. If you are talking to someone you don't know very well, you might be more likely to give a more general response.

 

A person can ask "Hi, how are you?" as a form of greeting while not being interested in the answer. In some cases, this could be due to habit, social convention, or a lack of genuine interest. In these situations, it's common for people to provide a standard response, even if it is not an accurate reflection of their true feelings.

 

Let’s try to recollect when was the last time we responded by saying "I'm hanging in there.", "I could be better." Or "I'm terrible."? Perhaps never.

 

In the era of social media, we have become accustomed to raving and ranting about the state and projecting a filtered successful and happy picture of ourselves. In this pervasive culture have we turned secretive ourselves or feel that our worries are not anyone’s concern? Or, we have turned passive to others’ worries in the name of not being too inquisitive or respectful of their wishes and privacy?

 

This shows how as individuals we have learnt not to share our worries with others and collectively as a community, we have stopped paying attention to other’s worries. 

 

Men are the biggest victims of this. From their childhood days are taught to be tough. They are socially conditioned not to complain about their pain both physical and emotional, people in their lives, their personal and professional situations and if they do, they are seen as weak, a loser, feminine and a whiner. When he grows up, he learns to accept the situation without complaint and fight it out and to protect the ones he is responsible for like his immediate family by not sharing the details of his problems. He does not want them to get affected by his worries. Somewhere there is that confidence that he can solve it with time, alone.

 

He unknowingly subscribes to the saying – Mard ko kabhi dard nahin hota. In the bargain, he lives like a living pressure cooker ready to explode anytime.

 

The solution lies not in the final resolution of what is causing his worries but in learning to destress himself by sharing his worries with a close confidant or sharing them with the people he wants to protect from these worries.

 

What are we doing to inquire about others' worries with the tone and intention to offer a solution or do our bit to alleviate his fears?

 

The answer to that lies in establishing a close relationship with your near ones where you can spot is worries from a distance and ask, “How are you, really?”

 

Which in no uncertain terms means “Cut the crap! And tell me what's wrong?”, “Dude, you done being so formal? Now tell me what's going on.”, “I know you lied that you're fine. I care for you, tell me what's bothering you.”, “Oh you depressed? You look pretty happy in your pictures. Now please clear the confusion & tell me how you are.”. 

 

Kaifi Azmi captured the same emotions when he wrote his famous song – Tum Itna Kyon muskura rahe ho, kya ghum hai jisko chupa rahe ho.

 

Do we have such a friend in our life who can see the pain behind our smiles and ask us “How are you, really”, and do we have the ability and attitude to say “How are you, really” to a friend who possibly is grappling with pain behind his projected happy façade?

 

Our empathy and sincerity in participating in somebody’s problems will develop a culture that will save dozens of lives around us, including our own.

 

*

What Do You Do?

It was still fifteen minutes to daybreak.

Usually, in the winter season, you don’t expect many people in this part of the park unless they are serious morning walkers. And I was preparing myself for a solitary walk in the misty dark morning.

But I was not alone; there was another walker ahead of me - I had company.

I, with my longer strides, chose to overtake the person who had made it to the park ahead of me. I came close and realized that though his strides are small, he is equally fast. After walking alongside for a few strides and making eye contact with him, I realized that I knew him. Here not wishing him was not an option. We met during some official event maybe a year back.

I wished him by nodding my head and with a smile and he reciprocated, I chose to walk at his pace as it suited me too. And we got talking about things in general. A lot of our interest areas were common. And as is my wont, I was quite candid about putting my tuppence in about things without bothering to know what he thought about it. He voiced his own opinions and agreed with most of mine either by voicing a laugh or by adding his to it and to the ones he didn’t agree with, he remained silent.

Amidst our discussion, he asked me – What do I do?

That’s the Indian way of asking for your professional position. I gave mine. And told him where we met last. I realized that he didn’t recollect our encounter.

I continued with my conversation.

After about ten minutes I realized some change and when I looked at him a little surprised by his reticence, I saw a mask of absolute disinterest in his face. While we were in an animated conversation a few minutes back, it had turned into a monologue. While he agreed with most of my points then, now he is dismissing it with an air of finality to end that topic.

He chose to pause without giving a reason. Almost asking me to go ahead with my walk.

The reason for his changed behaviour did not escape my eyes.

Another incident a few weeks later in the same park.

I saw this man in his late forties, with a typical successful businessman look coming towards me from the opposite side. We got close and he wished me with a Namaskar, and I reciprocated by doing the same. I didn’t know him and was quite touched by his gesture early in the morning. While exiting the park some thirty minutes later, I saw him standing near the gate with a few community members – I knew some of them. The next day almost at the same spot I saw him coming, and as I was gearing up to smile and wish him, he didn’t react. We breezed past each other as two unknown people.

The reason for his changed behaviour didn’t escape my eyes.

Neither of them knew me and was possibly misled by my important-looking appearance. It misleads many. The former, upon knowing my profession (What I do) realized that I don’t belong to his power hierarchy or social league and by mistake he had given me more time and ear to my conversation and chose to detach himself from it as I was not his equal; the latter, upon knowing from my acquaintances about what I do, realized that I am of no immediate value as his contact.

I introspected and realized that I am of no immediate value to most of the people in our community. I live in a community where I am not equal to many in terms of material wealth, power, and position and to those I am superior, I pose no threat to their interest or don’t offer any potential benefit – directly or indirectly. To both segments of people, I am not a potential contact they would like to nurture.

I was worthless to both.

This realization of worthlessness can be devastating to one’s self-worth and ego, especially to those unfamiliar with how Indians operate. Your identity as a person having other talents, capabilities, knowledge, and wisdom pales when put to test in this Risk-Benefit model.

Can you affect their interest negatively because of your position or positively by providing beneficial opportunities that determine your relevance in the community and the related interest to socialize with you or befriend you?

Is this a general behaviour?

While travelling in public transportation like a bus, train or flight, if you strike up a conversation with someone; the fourth or fifth sentence would be a question – What do you do? Don’t read it literally and answer. By that they don’t want to know about what you do at your work, they want to know a lot more. The sector you work in; private or public. The rank and position you hold. The country or city you work in.

Your answer will help him know your ‘Auqat’ – your worth, your value for him, which will make him treat you like God or Dog. The position that will give you an unbridled opportunity to abuse the power with zero accountability is hilariously called ‘Service’. Indians love that trophy behind that service and worship the one who sits there. No wonder we Indians are so obsessed with a few jobs. Either you make it to those positions or at least develop contact with them so that you can enjoy some of the largesse that can come your way.

In the book, Being Indian, Pavan K. Verma surgically bares open this typical trait in the Indians. He deals with this matter in the chapter – Power and how your worth is evaluated by your fellow community members.

Beneath the veneer of modernity and development we project, we are a deeply divided lot - Insular and class-conscious. We are ready to genuflect before the one who wields power to harm us or benefit us and not bat an eyelid to destroy or misbehave with someone less powerful or below us.

Some positions can be described in just three abbreviations which can make the person in front of you change his body language; take his hands above his ears bend his spine and give that smile that a small male monkey does when he meets a baboon bigger than him, and there are ranks which will make him see through you and dismiss your existence as some doormat.

Why are such achievements so aspirational?

Is it because of our background of being ruled by the erstwhile kings in a feudal set-up? Why do we want to give a substantial part of our life to catapult ourselves to a position that will make our fellow beings treat us as their rulers and we can treat them as our servants? It’s quite normal if they expect to be treated as royalty and you to behave subservient to them. Society neither resents it nor tries to change it. Why is it that despite being one of the largest democracies, we want a leader who doesn’t look like one of us but like someone sent from above? If he is one of us or from ranks below us, we will only respect him if he stands to cause harm to our interests and help us in achieving our aspirations.

Will this behaviour ever change? The answer lies in the question - will we change?

Not so Jawan Anymore

She refused to buy tickets for the movie Jawan for the 7th time today.

The movie Jawan was released on the 7th of this month and by today the global collection stands to cross 750 Cr. Each time its collection crossed a 100 Cr mark, I would get curious to see what was attracting people in hordes and would goad her to buy tickets. “My friends in Hyderabad have seen the movie and I know you and your taste; you will fret and fume and leave the hall halfway dragging all of us out with you. I don’t want to spoil my evening” was her reply. She was clear and firm on her stand this time too.

 

With my sole online booking agent refusing to comply, I am left with the only option of counting the box office collection without contributing a rupee to it. Both my taste, and opinion, and not buying its ticket are irrelevant to the success of the movie.

 

Our exposure to the world of cinema started in the early 80s when we had an array of movies to choose from. If the kitschy deluge of southern productions led by Sridevi and Jayaprada made us whistle and hoot; the best of parallel cinema by Ray, Mrinal Sen, Gautam Ghose, and Shyam Benegal made us think and Sai Paranjpe, Kundan Shah brand of humour made us smile and yearn for more. We always identified ourselves as what Ray would have termed as that sophisticated movie viewer who had the class and intellect to understand certain types of movies his ilk made.

 

To the current industry neither his review matters nor his contribution to the till. He is as irrelevant as the Khan Market intellectuals in the glitzy and noisy market of joy and celebration of India.

 

A few months back Nattu Nattu from the movie RRR won not only the Golden Globe under the best original song category but stunned all of us by winning the 95th Oscar. 

 

Deepika Padukone in the award ceremony stunned the audience with her looks, presence, and her electrifying smiles and spoke in her Indian accent, social media was abuzz with heaps of appreciation for her. Her speech to introduce the story of RRR was interrupted by intermittent cheers when she introduced the song Nattu Nattu as a Banger. The audience had not seen anything like this earlier. A team enacted the song on the stage and so riotous and energy-filled was the performance that the presenter Jimmy Kimmel was almost driven away by the dancers who performed on stage. Jimmy said, “This year we are not gonna play you off stage instead we have a group of performers from the movie RRR who are going to dance you offstage”.

 

Remember, a few years back the same Western movie world looked quizzically at the song and dance sequence of our typical movie. The characters breaking into a sudden song or a dance at every situation be it comic or tragic was something the Westerners couldn’t understand. 

But undaunted we kept producing such content because we loved it. 

 

The best of our directors and parallel cinema never got the attention of the Western movie industry barring a copy of Ray by Spielberg and a fan note by Scorsese. Now many like Priyanka Chopra have established themselves as mainstream actors doing a variety of roles and not playing the typical Asian immigrant anymore.  

 

The Bollywood songs and steps and Bhangra Punjabi beats are now an international culture to reckon with and the inspiration behind millions of views of reels, and shorts in the social media. The ones who have joined the bandwagon are just not Indians but people from the world over. 

 

A person with a rational mind and sophisticated taste can never sit through the antics and actions of a Rajnikant movie but the fact that he has more than 50,000 registered fan clubs and millions of fans in India and across the world is a tide big enough to throw these sophistication and sensible minds to the roadside.

 

Today no movie is running in parallel for that sophisticated viewer and no political party is ready to accommodate the Khan Market liberal narrative of the current situation. Those viewers with fine taste and sensibility are seen secretly wishing to see SRK and Nayanthara dishing out outrageous acts from the widescreen along with the masses and those ivory tower liberals are making rounds of the temples aligning themselves with the majoritarian. 

 

The kitsch and subaltern have arrived and are here to stay.

The lower segment of both social and cultural classes of society has crashed into the upper segment of higher consumption. And the market like a prostitute is too flexible just not to accommodate them but to bend itself to their liking. Sad but that's how cultures get formed and evolved. Market forces and popular politics are not the best ways to determine the right economics and politics for a country. At times I agree with Plato when he said not everyone should be given the power to vote.

If movies like Jawan, Pathan, and Gaddar 2 eat up 100% of the market. I don't hope to see a movie like Lunch Box will be ever made. It's a great loss to our cultural landscape. If everyone in the country becomes a fanboy of one person it will be a great loss to our democracy. 

 

The message of India is clear, love us, hate us, ridicule us, or ignore us but we are what we are. We don’t need your approval. We are mast in our world and your fine taste be damned. 

 

We are a world!

Science and Superstition

ISRO successfully launched Chandrayan 3's third lunar exploration mission on 14^th July 2023. It is expected to make a soft landing on the southern lunar pole after a month-long journey on 23^rd August. When the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota as per the scheduled launch time at 2.35 PM, the roar of the engines symbolically matched just not the joy of the people behind it, but the euphoria of the whole nation who celebrated the achievement. India stands to become the 99^th country that has such technological capabilities. The picture of ISRO scientists carrying a rocket on a bicycle to this launch of the 14^th describes the story of India which in just 75 years emerged from its struggle with poverty, malnutrition, disease, and early mortality to assert its position as a global political, economic and knowledge power to reckon with.

Basic knowledge empowers us and can make us arrogant but higher knowledge and wisdom make us aware of the limitation of our knowledge and our powerlessness.

When a neuro or a cardiothoracic surgeon bows before his God, before attempting a complex surgery to save his patient, his act demonstrates that he is nervous and aware of his limitations and the large number of exogenous factors which can affect his best-laid plans and efforts negatively. He is aware of the hopes of the patient and his relatives who think that he only can pull off a miracle after God himself. He is in the same situation as a gladiator who is expected to slay the lion by hundreds of onlookers in the gallery. He just prays for those uncertainties, and unknown and hostile forces not to act here. The doctor and the scientists are not allowed to philosophize about failures.

It's difficult for a rationalist with primary school-level knowledge of science to understand that the doctors and scientists at ISRO are not superstitious - they are humble, sincere, and wise; they want their efforts to succeed.

When Oppenheimer quoted Bhagawat Geeta after the first nuclear test, he didn't speak as a Hindu fanatic but as a wise man who knew how that act stands to destroy and change the world forever.

Time to grow out of the ego state empowered by the mechanistic and reductionist interpretation of the science we know so far and bow before those limitless powers of which we are not even aware. The scientists of the Western world who propounded and popularised those models are realizing their own folly after bringing the world to the throes of destruction in the name of industrialization and economic development.

Many treat those unknown powerful forces as Gods and not everyone who bows before those forces are religious and superstitious.

The Weed and our losing battle with it

Hold your horses. I am not going to discuss the kind of plant whose parts make some people get high and happy. The title is a bit misleading. This piece is about any plant growing where it is not wanted and our losing fight with it. The story of our fight with weeds is just not limited to the state excise department burning them deep inside some forest or apprehending the contraband in baleful during transit. 

It is as old as the fight of humanity with hunger.

Perhaps humans dealt the first dent on nature by altering it, when they identified the plants they need for their food and shelter, and they understood how and where the plants grow the best. And then he chose to be a settled agriculturist from the hunter-gatherer life of his earlier generations.

Human civilization blossomed when humans were assured of their basic requirements of food, clothing, and shelter. His engagement with agriculture provided those basics. He kept on improving that craft and his skill to deal with agriculture. That craft made him alter the contour of the land, change the quality of the soil, and regulate the quantity of water that is required for the plant to yield its best. And obviously, he didn’t want to share these carefully and painfully curated resources with anyone else. He built borders to lay his claim over the land, built fences to prevent wild animals and other humans from eating and destroying his crop, and developed various poisons of a special kind to keep the weeds, microorganisms, and animals trying to live off the same soil by consuming its nutrients.

If June made us rejoice with the arrival of monsoon, by August we are seen suffering its excess. Flood, vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue, and water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, and dysentery become commonplace. Not to mention cold and cough which visit every household. The rainy season in our kind of semi-tropical climate is known as the disease season. The abundance of water and sunshine make plants of every kind grow much faster. Man, while struggling with excess water, has also to deal with diseases and overgrown trees, and shrubs everywhere. On the roof, at the shades of windows, driveway, garden, under the trees, and is well-curated lawn. Knowing that any effort to take them out is pointless, he patiently waits for the rains to stop before he does a major de-weeding.

This battle of man to banish the weed and the millions of known and unknown microorganisms which naturally lived on the land he has staked his claim recently is an interesting one.

The size of the academic institutions and research laboratories and the industries which collectively supply him with the knowledge, technology, tools, tackles, equipment, and chemicals are of staggering size. Man’s struggle with the weeds is routine and perpetual. It’s like the fight between Tom and Jerry of the Walt Disney animation series.

And both parties are stubborn not to give up.

So sure is the man about his confidence in eliminating anything and everything that he doesn’t want or is of no use to him, that he has forgotten that such pursuits have rendered the air he breaths, the water he drinks, and the soil he grows his food poisonous because of the novel chemicals he is mindlessly pumping to control the living beings which are not to his liking.

A documentary by David Attenborough on such plants comes to mind.

There he throws a different light on these plants. He showed how these resilient species strike their roots in the most inhospitable places like cemented courtyards, stone walls, cobblestone paved sidewalks, and a small hole in the drainpipe system to strike their roots and grow. Not only do they strike their roots for a short period, but they allow similar species to colonize their surrounding areas. It’s said if humans vacate their modern habitations and dwelling structures, nature will reclaim these properties in just a few years and these weeds will be at the forefront of such reclamation. The stone structures will last hundreds of years but steel and glass won’t last more than a few decades. Trees will certainly dominate the landscape within just a few years.

Natural processes continue in and around even occupied cities. One could reasonably argue that once cities are abandoned and human influence is removed, it is immediately reclaimed by nature because all that’s left are wild animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. In the case of Chernobyl, a 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone was abandoned 31 years ago because of a nuclear power plant accident. It has been reclaimed by plants and wildlife that appear to be able to live and reproduce despite the radioactivity.

The hubris of humans to de-weed the world is rightly matched by the nemesis of nature which threaten to recolonize their lost land anytime. These weeds are lurking all around us waiting to find a small crack, a crevice to find a toehold just enough for its seed or spore invisible to us. They need only time and our absence.

We should be happy about just this one thing. 

That if the human species is wiped out from the face of Earth for its follies or due to some dramatic natural calamity caused by any extra-terrestrial events, there is still hope for this blue planet to regenerate to its past glory.