A sequel to somethin serious...

After a slew of three exams in a row which came and went like a tornado, I decided to take refuge in some poetry. Luckily I had a book of poems from my graduation days. And as I was reading through a poem “Late Tutorial” by Vincent Buckley, I chanced upon a very beautiful and meaningful line.

“O man is sick and suffering from the world”- says Buckley. Although this poem was written during the 1940s the metaphor still holds good. My thoughts then went back to the victim of the Bhagalpur violence (who as predicted was now out of the newspapers). Now you must be wondering why. Well I was just thinking who was the one with the disease here- the victim or the perpetrators of the crime? Or then maybe both?

What disease could prompt people to be so cruel and heartless? Desmond Morris in his book “Human Zoo” explains how animals behave in the wild and in captivity. In the wild, they are at peace with themselves. They do not attack unless their territory is under threat. They follow the rules of the wild. But in captivity, their true nature is stifled. They lose their senses. They even kill their own kind. This is exactly what is happening to man these days. He is the only species who kills his own kind for reasons as trivial as their religion or their skin colour. Somewhere along the chain of evolution and development man lost his true self. Maybe the change is in his self or in his surroundings.

Or maybe it is about some unsatisfied desire. Think Maslow’s Need Hierarchy (I wonder why it never occurred to me before). Why would a man be prompted to steal? Obviously because of some unsatisfied desire in him. Because his life isn’t secure- his basic needs like food, shelter and clothing are not being met. And why would a policeman act in the way he did? Because he hasn’t got the recognition he desired. His self- esteem needs have not been met. He yearns to be something in the eyes of people and he jumps at the first chance he gets, irrespective of the fact that in doing so he was committing an even greater crime.

Even Freudian theories can be applied when looking for an explanation to this. Freud says that a man’s actions are reflections of his unsatisfied desires. The man who years for recognition will then act in a manner so as to gain it. A man who doesn’t have the things that he yearns for will thus act in a manner so as to satisfy his desires.

Well enough of Morris and Maslow and Freud. What I am trying to say is that, man is no longer his usual self and until and unless he realizes this fact and tries to do something about it, nothing right is going to happen in this country or the world for that matter…

To end I’d like to quote one of my favourite poets, Margaret Atwood.

“This is the place
you would rather not know about
this is the place that will inhabit you
this is the place you cannot imagine
this is the place that will finally defeat you
where the word why shrivels and empties.” This is India.