Ever Wonder Why?

In our congested city of Mumbai, there’s an endless yen for newer and more cars per person, per family – in utter disregard to the fact that the island city cannot really expand breadthways to accommodate more road lanes.  Underground subways require digging into unmapped, disintegrating networks of aged sewerage pipes and an interlock of water pipes, gas piping and phone cables. Citizens of relatively underpopulated European countries like Switzerland for example have wholeheartedly embraced the bicycle as an eco-friendly, healthy, enjoyable  way of commuting - a trend  encouraged by separate cycle lanes and right of way to cyclists at crossings.  A trend that is increasing in the Western world. Yet we in India’s crowded cities continue to aspire towards bigger, newer and more cars. Ever wonder why?

In a world awakening to the compulsions of environmental responsibility, in a country whose people thirst and hunger in the midst of droughts and famines (while grain stocks rot and rivers flood), why is there so little environmental and social activism on individual, local and community levels? How come we, the country’s rising middle-class, have not thrown up mass movements of the kind spearheaded by India’s independence freedom fighters?

In a nation whose people pride themselves on a rich tradition of hospitality and generosity, how come we have such scant regard for life (other people’s)? Why is it that tragic loss of limb, life and livelihood in the wake of avoidable calamities such as floods, landslides, famines and droughts are mere statistics that we glance at and immediately forget?   Every wonder why?

In a country where the rich compete in outspending each other, how come there is so little “organized” philanthropy and philanthropists of the likes and scale of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet?  How come we don’t compete in outdoing each other in espousing and spending on causes which would benefit thousands if not millions? Literacy-wise… health-wise… environment-wise..?.  Have we lost our sense of fellowship with those less fortunate than ourselves? 

The slightest (most often misplaced and misguided) perception of injustice towards our deities, for example, agitates us to the point of violence (we will even kill to defend and avenge our gods ).Yet  we hardly blink  at the injustice and discrimination suffered by  human beings –  who are divinity’s  creations? Glaring inequalities - social, educational, legal …. malnutrition, child labour, starvation deaths, female infanticide  – none of these move us even an inch towards action. Ever wonder what our deities think about our dogmatic sense of right and wrong?

India’s streets should be paved with gold, going by the reported abundant black money in circulation and rampant spending. Yet so many of India’s people live below the poverty line in dismal conditions, without basic drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facilities – forget about shelter. Do we ever experience a twinge of guilt when confronted with  abject poverty that stares us  in the face?  Do we, so caught up in aspirational consumerism, ever reflect that the bills we run up on stuff that we don’t need at all,  could perhaps support a BPL family for a month …or more? 

Have the educated, the moneyed, the elite and the middle class, like the frog on a slow boil, become immune and insensitive to ground realities? Do we realise that our survival, in the grand scheme of things, is ultimately intertwined with each other and indeed every living being and natural resource?  Are we, known for our shrewd practicality, intelligence and innovation, moving uncomprehendingly towards lemming-like mass destruction because we refuse to see and think beyond ourselves,  beyond today?

The answers are not blowing in the wind. They lie with each of us. As do the choices. 

- Charmaine Sequeira