By Azizur Rahman,
The existence of the human being on this earth is as old as the existence of the Earth itself. As the initial handful population of the world has increased over billions, gradually the human civilization has improved as well. With the passage of the time, things have absolutely changed and keep on changing day by day. But these changes have their merits and demerits. We cannot claim that all the changes and developments that the world has witnessed so far, have been positive and useful for the people. Let us analyze, whether we are actually benefiting from these changes and so called developments, or else we are gaining less at the cost of losing more.
Religions might differ on what is the purpose of one’s existence in this world. However, all would be uniting on the point that whatever is there in the world should be a source of benefit, comfort, solace and happiness for the humans. But nowadays, we are witnessing that the advent of industrialization and highly sophisticated technologies; instead of providing quality, value, peace of mind and happiness, they have boomeranged on us and proving to be counterproductive for our well being.
As per my perception, the life of a laborer and daily wager who somehow manages to earn his daily meals, and has a sound sleep, is far better than those billionaires who resort to sleeping pills to have some rest.
Though the industrialization has eased the life of people, by offering a huge range of products, but at the same time, it has snatched away the quality of atmosphere, polluting the air through toxic and poisonous emissions. We feel comfortable and relaxed travelling in planes, trains, buses and cars, but we should be mindful of the fact, that we are equally contributing towards polluting the environment. We have compromised on the quality of life, in exchange for a short-term convenience. Though the life in ancient times was lacking modern amenities, but it had quality, peace and happiness. The industrialization, the norm of packaging each and everything and adulterating products, has resulted in reducing the life expectancy of the people. Earlier, while the life span used to be 80, 90, 100 years and sometimes even more, nowadays we finish off the chapter within our 50s, 60s or 7os.
Technology has been making our life faster. There is no full stop to developing technologies. There is always an attempt to replace the existing technology with the latest and most sophisticated one. This has entered in each and every walk of life. The sole purpose of these technologies is to make things easier, faster and time saving. The world is so crazy for technology, that even the water taps are getting fitted with sensors, not requiring you to handle it manually, they will dispense water just upon keeping hands under them.
There is a limit of positive use for anything. The technology has gone beyond this limit, minimizing the physical movement, thereby crippling the people gradually. Apparently these technologies have made our life faster, but they have actually narrowed the gap between our lives and deaths.
This is only the bounty of the technology that a sizeable population of the world is reeling under a high level of pressure, stress and depression. The faster is the technology, the more will be the consequences. I believe that by achieving industrialization and state-of-the-art technologies, we have not done a fair deal. Instead we have lost freedom, peace of mind, happiness and complacency; and in turn we have been gifted with modern diseases like depression, stress, tension, obsession with materialism and the loss of values.
As we have provided ample opportunities, today “stress management” has become a full fledged industry. Clinics offering stress management solutions have mushroomed across the world. They tend to increase in future, as we keep providing fuel to them. It is ridiculous that first we create diseases and problems, then struggle to look for solutions, while we should assess the consequences of our initiatives in the very beginning itself. It is tantamount to promoting tobacco farming and the associated products, then setting up research institutes for finding out remedies to cancer; and it amounts to owning a confectionary when you are a diabetic.
There is no use of millions of dollars; there is no benefit of magnificently built homes; there is no meaning of working in air-conditioned buildings walled of glass and provided with the latest world-class amenities; there is no rationale behind carrying and having the state-of-the-art gadgets; if these are eating away our quality of life, our freedom, our relations, our happiness and our sleep. After all, God has created things for us and not created us for them. It is up to us to decide whether we want to let things to overpower us or not.
With a slight deviation from the topic, before winding up this discourse, let us examine the amazing role of technology in elevating things from nothing to everything that is actually positive for some, while it is negative for others. There are a number of things which had absolutely no or minimum importance before the emergence of technology. But the technology has dramatically changed the destiny of these things. For instance, let us see the magic of transformation that has happened to cricketers and actors. The glory, fame and glamour they are enjoying today, were a dream a couple of decades ago. The television has played a pivotal role in sensationalizing and catapulting them to the pinnacle of fame and stardom. They have created such a buzz and sensation that our 7-8 years old children aspire to be Sachin Tendulkar, Rajnikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Roy, Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu, Mallika Sherawat, Brad Pit, Angelina Jolie and so on; before aspiring to become Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Einstein, APJ Abdul Kalam and Mother Teressa.
These so called cricket and cinema celebrities are considered role models and icons by our young minds. This is so, only because of the immense popularity, fame and money gained at the mercy of the technology, in the absence of which these celebrities would have gone in to oblivion. But what to do, they are seen as if they are our real heroes contributing towards uplifting the life standards of the people.
I am not against the popularity, fame and moneymaking of these people. Just I want to highlight the role of technology in getting them huge money and immense fame for entertaining us. They might have their justifications for being rewarded so much for what they do. But the problem is with those who are really working hard to contribute towards nation building. Let us take the example of our scientists working day and night in research centers and laboratories; and the example of university lecturers/professors who do a noble job for the society. The money earned by them throughout their entire career hardly goes up to 3-4 crores. But for these cricketers and actors, it is just a matter of smashing a couple of boundaries and shaking legs for a few minutes.
We should not have any grouse against making money in this manner, as we are not paying them from our pocket, but what really pains is that all the people are not getting their due compensation for the works which are far more constructive than handling bat/balls and shaking legs. The former has no adverse impact while the later distracts attention from doing things which are really constructive for the nation. This is a painful phenomenon that a move on “Sheela Ki Jawani” “Munni Badnam Hui” and “Ooo La La” is more powerful than toiling day and night and breaking head throughout the day to earn a meager sum.
Let us think on the above, and strive towards making our life happy. Let us resolve to not let the external forces dominate and dictate terms in our life. Let us also nurture the culture of awarding things only their due importance and see how beautifully it shapes our life. To lead a happy life, it doesn’t necessarily demand for money beyond a limit; it doesn’t either demand to live in an industrialized world; and it doesn’t necessarily ask for totally relying on technologies as well.
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Originally from Balrampur, UP, Azizur Rahman works in Chennai.