A glimpse of the world we had left behind

To start with, the loudest message of this season is that human capabilities are nothing when faced with nature’s challenges. Man, who always conspired to dominate nature, finds himself in the stranglehold of nature, unable to break free of its vice-like grip. The virus has exposed man’s utter helplessness in times of crisis. The bravado of man is proved hollow. This is the one truth that the virus brought home in a wily fashion.

The fierce independence of man, the feeling of invincibility, is being challenged by the virus. Man, who prided himself in his possessions and wealth and as a corollary to this, his effortless indifference towards his fellow men, is now put to shame. Inter-dependence has now become a necessity, however disconcerting that might be to some. The truth that man is indeed a social animal is being whispered into his ears every step of the way. Everybody needs a good neighbour.

The whole world has been thrown back by a few centuries at once, in unimaginable ways. No air travel, no trains, no cruises, no express buses for months. We are back to the pre-industrial times all at once. It’s back to basics, to the real world. The lost world has to be rebuilt all over again after this season. The longer it lasts, the harder it will be to start the process and rebuild.

Communication is the most vaunted achievement of the new millennium. The same millennium now witnesses the snapping of all communications. The first stage of communication is human interaction, face to face. The virus has cried a halt to this human interaction. Travel that was the very lifeblood of the modern man is reduced to its barest minimum. Man’s immobility is making him most restless. He wants to be on the move all the time, but now he is asked to stay put wherever he is.

The global village concept has become real. Sadly, however, it has become a string of villages conjoined and separated at once. Every city and town has become a closed village bound to its own boundaries. The pristine villages have come back into our lives.

Isolation and silence were abhorrent to the modern man. He needed a crowd and a lot of noise to make his world. He thought that was the real world. Today, he has come to see meaning in isolation, and sweetness in silence.

The world was too much with us. We had no time to stand and stare into the distance. We could not spare a moment to look at the azure skies, the green expanse of a paddy field, the blue waters of the sea and the snowy mountains. Nature never seemed to matter. Now we realize that nature is all that matters. Civilisation has brought us to this pass. Shouldn’t we go back to nature? The inscrutability and profundity of nature looms large today, as against the littleness of man’s ingenuity and genius.

We were very smart when seated in our ivory towers. We had an answer to every question. We were bursting at the seams with our treasury of knowledge and wisdom, until we were shaken by a tiny, invisible virus. The emptiness and nothingness of man is exposed in no uncertain terms in one stroke.

Man toyed with the idea of evolution, and deserted God. Spirituality became a thing of the past, something meant for the common man. If at all, it was a social necessity. It was needed for certain rituals for the sake of the community. God was often a means to an end – for a living to the ones who ran the establishment and for social acceptance to its adherents. Religion became a commercial venture with all its veneer of solemnity and piety. The virus has startled the complacency of this lot, all scurrying to lisp a word of prayer to God. They all say, only God can save our country, or this world itself. God is back in the reckoning. Astrologers and quacks, too, have returned to make a killing, incidentally.

Speed is what epitomised the new world. Everything was fast-paced. Supersonic jets to high-speed trains to fast cars – all of them gloated over their speed. Speed was all man wanted. Slowness meant lack of growth, inertia. But today, man wants to go slow. He is in no hurry. He has all the time in the world at his disposal, to do nothing.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics whom we always criticised are the only ones who brave the onslaught of the virus, risking their own lives. The police on the roads were there to do the tough job of implementing the lockdown. Kudos to all those working tirelessly to keep us safe from the virus!

Home, sweet home was seen only in greeting cards and romantic films. Today, we are forced to turn our homes into places where throbbing hearts and warm hearths co-exist silently. The value of home and its relative permanence have come home to roost. Today, we know that in fact there is no place like home. Home is where hearts beat for each other. All else is ephemeral, and are there and then not there. So here we are, bound home, sweet home.

(The writer is Director, Little Rock Indian School, Udupi)

The views expressed above are the authors' own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH