The Resolution – This New Year’s Eve

We pride ourselves, and rightly so, for being a very knowledgeable and well aware generation to which no new avenue or vista are unexplored. We have woken up to almost every loss that will prove dire for ourselves. Be it the loss of forest cover, non-renewable energy resources, flora and fauna- in essence all the factors necessary to keep the balance clock ticking on the planet we call our home. Industries developing today are self-reliant in energy production, have reduced harmful emissions and are more stringently monitored. Agriculture is becoming more organic by the day. Alternate career opportunities opening up are tackling unemployment and the “Homo sapiens” have given due consideration to the other species. All seems set for the beginning of another glorious year in this century of development.

However, among a plethora of signs signalling this advent, and a better age of existence, we have forgotten a very important loss- a loss that has left deep, anguishing scars on the face of the human society. It is the loss of humanity.

The society at large has failed to achieve a mindset which is free from any negative virtues or thoughts. Well, in our defense  society hasn’t been that kind or accommodating enough to achieve a utopian version of itself. With development comes competition. Following next, is striving to make our presence felt in an ever-increasing crowd. If a person feels that they are not getting the attention or respect they deserve, frustration builds up and rears its ugly head around us in the form of crimes or anti-social events of varying magnitude.

We do not need flicks like “The Terminator or Matrix Series” or “i-Robot” to predict when the machine age will finally dawn upon us. Look around people! It is here and it is now. And please do not be mistaken, no one is referring to humanoids or cyborgs but it is we, humans who have become the mechanical forms of ourselves. Never before than now, have we displayed such inanimate responses towards the unacceptable events unfolding around us. We have become so accustomed to reading about crimes against humanity alongside everyday news, that the humane feelings of anger, sadness and the drive to do something ourselves have long since been subdued. If any outfit asks girls to refrain from western clothing and threatens acid attacks, warns N.E. immigrants to migrate back, ban the celebration of Valentine’s Day or issues any such arbitrary censorship, mostly everybody fits perfectly in this new system and very few dare to question it. We have perfected the formula for not allowing rage to engulf us and do anything rash thereafter. We are too afraid to disrupt the part we play in our lives that now itself resembles a smooth-running machine.

The world started celebrating “Malala Day” just because it was decreed by the UN, never trying to feel the brunt of the Taliban; this brave heart had to face herself. Frequent shoot-outs on innocent people, brutal violence against natives or people of other races with the guilty feeling no remorse about it, show how effectively one is capable of strangulating their conscience and let forth the monster within. We may have clamped down child labour but sadly not child abuse. The unfortunate incident in Delhi was incorrectly termed an eye-opener. On the contrary it portrayed how effectively we have shut our eyes and ears to the agony and indignation, half the population of the world had to bear, for so long. Moreover, the taboo in our society which should be directed towards the propagators of such evils is erroneously streamlined towards the victims. Thereby their rehabilitation is difficult and their lives become a living hell.

Leaving aside the societal level and upon introspection of our everyday lives, we find that – decency, respect towards each other, a happy and united family life; have all gone out of fashion, now that there is a growing demand for “personal space” in today’s mundane, hectic world. Man is no longer social and once you take the “social” out of the “social animal”, you are left with the term with that makes the state of our lives toady resemble that of our wild counterparts!

As i post this, the end of the year beckons and its culmination saw various events which shamed humanity in not only our nation but around the world also. So there’s nothing better than to resolve to infuse the sense of being alive once again into our existence. For every inhuman incident, the no. of protesters must outnumber the “robots”. The light of the flame of humanity should burn through the cold and gray stagnant mist which has engulfed us now. We must shake out of our deep slumber on the path leading to the development of the human inside us. Progress should not be limited to the scientific, technical and economic fields only but moral, social and ethical progress should go on at an equal pace too. We make up the society and should be the harbingers of its transformation also. And this my friends will be a resolution which should not go unfulfilled.

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