WORLD AT CROSS ROADS

The entire world is fighting a unique battle where the enemy invader Corona Virus is not only invisible but highly unpredictable and there are no weapons to finish this. This war is not following any rules which the world had been following in the past centuries. The initial starting point of the outbreak was suppressed for days by the country of its origin thus endangering the lives of millions of citizens in many countries.

Wars have been fought for power, wealth, land and religions since time immemorial.

In the medieval  times the invaders like Alexander, Mahmud of Ghazni,  Nadir Shah,  Changhez Khan invaded countries for their wealth and after winning went back to their country with the loot.

After this the trend changed and the wars were fought to expand their empires and the invaders after winning started settling down in the countries defeated. Moghuls, Portuguese, Britain belong to this category. When the victorious countries settled in defeated countries they tried to completely destroy cultures, and annihilated the original tribes as was done to Red Indians in America or in Tibet by China.

This lust of acquiring land and expanding their empires reminds me of the story by Leo Tolstoy titled” How Much Land Does a Man Need”. The story tells us about a farmer who was obsessed with the idea of possessing large piece of land. When this farmer was offered that he could own as much land as he travels in a day and return by sunset, he took the offer. He was asked to dig holes to demarcate the land covered by him. The man walked without taking rest and suffering inclement weather for ten miles and then started back to reach before sun set. When he reached the starting point, the first hole dug by him, he collapsed and died. People buried him in the hole dug by him  which was six feet long .The moral of the story is that a man only needs six feet of land the rest is to satisfy the  greed.

The mad theory of Hitler  believing that only his superior Race deserved to live and the other inferior human Races needed to be eliminated resulted in two horrid world wars and killing of millions of innocent  people  in  barbaric manner.

But the wars in the name of religions have continued till date. Though all the religions of the world preach the same principles of love, peace, harmony and co-existence but so much bloodshed and acts of hate are perpetuated by their followers. It is most paradoxical that the entire world is in turmoil because of religious fanaticism and terrorist activities which do not allow people to live in peace. People are killing not only innocent citizens of other religions in the name of religion but even those of their own faith belonging to different sect.

THE WORLD IS NOW AT THE CROSS ROADS and has to decide what road it intends taking. 

 Road one traversed up to now by all countries had only focus on development and supremacy over Nature. For being supreme and conquering Nature  mankind had been plundering natural resources, polluting environment, destroying rivers, seas ,forests and recklessly  continued  these activities. Experiments have been done to change the basic structure of animals, plants and human genes.

Time has come to decide whether mankind should take the road to a life in harmony with Nature or continue the reckless destruction of Nature. Nature in no uncertain terms has given the warning for changing our ways or perishes. There have always been warnings in the form of natural disasters like floods, forest fires, droughts, cyclones and pandemics in the past. But this pandemic was beyond the imagination of anyone and almost entire world is affected by it. It has brought the world to a total shut down and mankind living in fear.

Everyone knows that time is all powerful but the good thing about time is it changes. There is a story about it. Moghul Emperor Akbar asked his minister Birbal to tell him a sentence which could make the unhappy person happy and a happy person unhappy. Birbal told him “Yeh Wakta Badal Jayega”( This time will change}

These are difficult times but let us keep our optimism intact that the worst will be over soon. This crisis has obliterated the class consciousness. Most powerful  people , the super-rich as well as the arrogant people who were always showing off  asking “don’t you know who my father is “ are in the same boat  facing the same situation  It is very clear that one needs very little to live in this world.

THE CONCEPT OF FAMILY is also at the CROSS ROADS.

Following in the footsteps of the developed western countries India’s joint family system has been shrinking   but now the younger generation will have to do rethinking. In times like these when you are locked down for days it is easy to spend time in the company of family members. The news of people dying alone and the picture posted on Facebook of bodies being handled crudely send shivers to people like us.

The young will have to decide how to treat their older generation.

EVERYONE FINDS SOMETIME ONESELF AT THE CROSS ROAD

I in my life faced this situation twice.

First time was when from a city life full of family and friends I faced a life on an isolated bungalow where the nearest neighbour was miles away. For once a week social contact one had 70% British and the rest  30% followers of British way of life ,the Desi Sahib and Mem Sahibs. The question was whether to  save my Desi identity, which appeared extremely difficult, or to adopt their way of copying British life style. I had nothing against the British way of life but I loved my way of life more. This decided me to take the difficult road. When other Indian women were cribbing about lack of city life pleasures, I spent happy times with multi tasks of rearing my children, looking after pet animals, sports, stitching, knitting and experimenting with cooking Indian sweets as well as chocolates and toffees.

Next time while facing the adversity in life I had to choose between a traditional road of taking a job to support my family or to take the challenging road of entrepreneurship.   In India where the word business is synonym with corruption ,to try to run an honest business ,in a totally unorganized sector, alone seemed  highly foolish.

But both my decisions were in sync with Nature and surprisingly Natural forces not only allowed me to survive but  rewarded my decisions in life with praise and awards. Honest business is not impossible.

Happiness is just a state of mind and those who can pass this trying time happily will come out victorious from this pandemic crisis.