Talking Shop: When Cuddles Be Dearer

“The belief that the world

is getting worse, that we

can’t solve poverty and

disease, isn’t just (badly)

mistaken. It is harmful.”

— Bill Gates

I have three women in my life but no job, which often leads my friends to ask me how things are. “Not too good” is my honest reply, one that I blurt out as I check out the variegated troika that retired life has thrown my way. My bluntness stems from the fact that two of my chosen three cuddle me lusciously many times each day, while the third generally hisses and makes seething sounds. This curious life-lesson is a source of wonderment – how can two little cats purr and snuggle up to me so much, and the one full-blown woman in our life only hiss? Only a married man can tell, I suppose. I can but share what Lorenz Hart blurted out once, that “man is often bewitched, bothered and bewildered”.

Cats and woman aside, the real cause for my bother and bewilderment is what I see around me; a world that is cruder, harsher and tougher. This is not what I expected five years back, when I hung up my boots to watch from the shores as life continued to sail on for others. I may be guilty of expecting too much – idyllic times and climes; smiling and content people; lilting and titillating fields of corn, wheat and maize; pelting of raindrops on my fast-balding pate; ladles of mistletoe dangling wherever I venture; lush-green and undulating mountains, a growing and maturing economy; and all other things that make up a beautiful dream.

Things couldn’t be further from that (pipe)dream. The climes are getting very unpredictable, people almost never smile, harvests are getting bleaker, rain is now typically acidic, there is next to no mistletoe to be seen in my vicinity, the only thing undulating is the huff and puff of the babus working overtime to mask our economic travails, and the average Joe on Planet Earth is scratching his head to fathom this absurd life-reversal. What has transpired to make things so very lacklustre?

Sense is hard to find

Be it within our homes, on our bustling streets or inside Parliament, sense is conspicuous by its absence – how else do I explain the incongruity of responses both to life’s simplest and most complicated questions? The solution to household standoffs involves shrugging one’s shoulders and a “what can I do” lilt of the head. Our streets are filled with the disgruntled, the dismayed and the disproportionate, all only sharpening their claws to rake up someone else’s cheeks, for “they are at fault”. As for Parliament, we are witnessing renewed one-upmanship with everyone raising a finger and eyebrows to mimic non-sequiturs – all around them, bridges tumble, Haathrases stampede and Manipurs continue to exude smoke.

In the global scheme of things, the scenario is similarly eerie and discordant. Our very own British Prime Minister of Indian origin, Rishi Sunak, has been sent tottering at the hustings, with the Tories handed out a rout they will not forget in a hurry. The Tories’ banwaas is unlikely to last for 14 years, as it did for the Labour Party. Meanwhile, the US-Iran Red Sea standoff continues, as does Israel-Palestine eye-balling and the Russia-Ukraine affair of self-proclaimed supremacy and staying power, respectively.

In Presidential debates across the Atlantic Ocean, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are making news for all the wrong reasons – fading memory, mental pyrrha and downright buffoonery. Unlike in India, there are no teleprompters facing the dais in the US, but Biden and Trump are managing to outdo each other with verbal frenzy and pregnant silences, these opposing traits interspersing the mutual stare of two Presidential candidates willing the other to wilt. Unfortunately for America, one of them will win.

Hatred is very pervasive

Within and across our international borders, we have managed to breed a level of mistrust that has been carefully conceived and deviously effected. Gone are the days of domestic bonhomie within castes and cultures, as also global slogans of affection such as ‘Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai’ – we now live in times of affectation. Such is the extent that this rot has been manifested that for the sake of a few extra votes or seats in Houses of power, a society that existed on the basis of mutual love, respect and tolerance has been ripped to shreds that are unrecognizable. Lest you assume that I mean India alone, you are mistaken.

Around us, we see instances of micro-aggression, lack of accommodation and acceptance of religious practices, vandalism of places of worship, hate speech and rising physical violence – predominantly acts of intolerance and discrimination on the basis of religion. Look at the numbers thrown up by research. In all, 52 governments, including in populous countries like China, Indonesia and Russia, impose either ‘high’ or ‘very high’ restrictions on religion, up from 40 countries in 2007. Countries where people are experiencing the highest levels of social hostilities involving religion has risen from 39 to 56 in the same time period.

Be very clear that these are not acts of God(!), but very carefully-perpetrated shenanigans, typically puppeteer-ed by those very leaders that people have chosen to govern and guide them to the path to peace, well-being and… Talk about monikers being used to exploit those very people who gave some the titles in the first place – that’s life’s exhibiting sarcasm and raillery in a manner that would put the greatest wordsmith to shame.

Need to build a door

Thus, it is, that ambiguity threatens us all, at least insofar as the future is concerned. Again, this is an elastic that stretches way beyond our own country, as economic fears set off protests that have sometimes turned violent, including in high-income nations with stable economies such as Poland and Belgium, as well as those struggling with out-of-control debt, such as Argentina, Pakistan, Tunisia, Angola and Sri Lanka.

For India, there is a saving grace, in that we have a new Government in place now. As with anything new, ‘new’ can be achieved, provided the blinkers are off and the intentions clean. The General Budget that will kick off the Monsoon Session of Parliament can be a great leveller and make the plank-walk smoother, provided that the balancing beam is held right and true. In a tremulous global economic scenario, India still finds pride of place as a growing financial destination, one outdoing much of the world. If the powers that be shed inhibitions and internal insouciance, this is a fantastic opportunity of not just leading the world, but to be seen as doing so. “India Leading” would be a great sounding board indeed.

Bigotry, nonchalance and chutzpah have cost us dearly, and the time to act and correct the wrongs is now, before the sand runs into the lower half of the hour-glass. Efforts have to be made now at re-building homes, society and nations themselves. A lot has gone astray and things have run amok. Getting into the whos and hows of this non-mystery would be a rigmarole not worth the paper this column is written on. All we can do is perhaps take a leaf out of the life of Milton Berle, who said: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on [email protected]. Views expressed are personal