Padma PeguSo much is happening in the world, it’s all quite too much. Somewhere women are being conferred with the Nobel for chemistry and physics, elsewhere someone is getting raped and all but butchered. People are dying of hunger and other people are fearful of dying due to complications related to obesity/being overweight from overeating/bad eating. There is excess and there is less and less. There are megalomaniacs and there are those who live knowing their lives are of no value to the government or the ones who dictate how things will run. Truth is not non-fiction anymore; it is fiction, as much as fiction is truth – they will tell you and you better believe, else you will be incarcerated.
There is air pollution and there is, yes, the coronavirus. Yes, yes, it is still there. One would be fooled by the general air of celebration and gaiety at show in sundry places across the country. Of course it is understandable that we want to be out there, that there is only so much of the pandemic-induced restrictions that we can take, that we want to believe what we want to believe. It does get a bit complicated and confusing, what with all kinds of news bringing in all kinds of tidings – each more overwhelming than the other, giving out numbers and technical explanations and prognoses and so on. One can’t be too sure of anything, it seems. For example, which mask should one be using now (that is, if you are a mask wearer still) – the pollution one or the virus one? Is there one that is a universal protector?
Is this ‘going about the daily business of life’ attitude generally an Indian thing, I have wondered many, many times.
Crossing one dirty town after another during our road trips through northern India, before the pandemic year, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the sight of people going about their businesses/lives with a determination that puzzled me. Determination or resignation, I can’t be sure. But it is something.
Do they know something that I am yet to grasp? That the accident of life is a blessing perhaps?
So are we supposed to accept everything gratefully because we believe it’s a blessing? Dirt, pollution, poverty and pesticides included? Are we lucky to be just born? Whatever the circumstances? The question may sound philosophical, rhetorical, indulgent even, but it still begs an answer.
Because with reflection comes understanding. That’s the hope anyway. The world order is such that even as corporations and governments mine a huge portion of the earth’s resources to engage in business, to keep economies running, and to maintain status quo, they are also telling us that they remain committed to sustainability and their corporate social responsibility.
To my mind, running a business that gives us sweetened water in plastic bottles and deep-fried, over-processed snacks cancels out any real commitment to sustainability, say what you will. Ditto for a business that gives us gas-guzzling machines or one giving us microfibre-filled clothes that are going to end up clogging our oceans. Basically, any and all ‘extreme unsustainability’ enterprise. And there are lots of them out there. Here I have cited the very obvious ones, because the consumption side of it implicates potentially all of us. Unless we are trying to be conscious consumers.
The thing about being a conscious consumer is that the more (we think) we know, the more there is to be found. About 10 years ago, I stumbled upon organic food and as its corollary learnt about chemicals in our food. The next discovery was about dirty cotton and polyester and microfibres in clothes, leading to my since-then deep distrust of fast fashion. Then there were the SUVs that were selling like so many hot cakes (because everyone forgot to mention carbon footprint – but even if someone did, someone else would have said other vehicles were gas guzzlers too, maybe less but still), the plastic, the unsustainable side to air travel, the other side to consuming dairy products, and so on.
Yet, it is all like scratching the surface merely. Because after you scratch, you realise you have to dig, and once you start digging, there’s no knowing what all you will find. This finding out is the important part, though, and it’s a continuous process of being alert and smart. Because we have to do well by ourselves, yes, but also by this earth”this glorious and sturdy earth, but also increasingly so fragile.