Monologue 2: Of Human Bondage

To start with let me first finish it. Hope that’s what you are looking for.  The basic question is eternal. It’s the answer in itself too. Or say there’s no answer to it may be. Hence, to understand the question is the only option given to us or that is left to us.

Now hope that gives you a breather. When was the last you breathed? Not as a matter of fact living. When did you breathe last with the consciousness of breathing? That’s hopeless. It’s like asking when did you look up at the sky last? When was the last time you walked alone long to lie down on that mount of rocks? When was the last time you spoke to your pet for an hour?

New Yorkers have a different set of problems. Mumbaikars have a different set of problems. Bhubaneswarias have a different set of problems. Villagers have a different set of problems. See I am just telling you there are problems everywhere. But this does not mean we are looking for solutions. This also does not mean we are not looking for solutions.

New York and New Yorkers have always been like that. Mumbai and Mumbaikars have always been Mumbai that is and Mumbaikars that they are. Villages and villagers have been there from time immemorial. And who has the guts to say they won’t be around like this in this way in some time from now? Does anyone have the guts to say that? No. Then?

Evolution, civilisation, survival, extinction are part of Nature and time and space. The gap in between is filled with life. The time and space in between are only filled with life. Now this also we can say only in case of life on earth, and more so of the species Homo Sapiens.

Now I don’t know if the course of observation and knowledge of life and Nature changes the course of life or affects the laws of Nature. Neither do you know this I am sure of. But the truth is any change, any enhancement will only increase the burden not lessen it.

The fight for survival, the struggle for growth and accumulation has always gone up in severity and complexity, especially for human beings; they being intelligent and capable of furthering the essential nature of tenets like desire for acquisition, rivalry, vanity and love of power that drives their behaviour. These basic desires will eventually lead to clash of individual interests and clash of civilisations; and hoarding of the pressure baggage and kind of an explosion of thawed expectations.

Are we yet ready to handle this clash, this explosion? Are we ready to embrace the response and reaction to our doing and our behaving? Can you carry your baggage? Isn’t our furthering a mound of gunpowder we are sitting on? Say.