Category: Articles

State of the world

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

Maybe my mood is low.

I was suddenly reminded of the emaciated, female polar bear that wandered down into Norilisk this June. I wanted to know how she was doing. But there was no new news about her. Instead I saw some pictures of how polar bears are drifting towards human settlements and scavenging in the rubbish, piled into the snow. There is a picture of a bear, thin as a rag doll, collapsed in the snow that stays with me…

Spring 2019, an emaciated bear pictured eating rubbish at Olyutorsky district (far north of Kamchatka Peninsula)

I don’t know what is happening to the world around me. the disillusionment is so great that it chokes me and I near a panic attack. I see people killing each other in the name of God, which is nothing new, I see politicians pit one person against another to garner power, and that is nothing new either. So, I am not surprised that polar bears are wandering down into our midst, stricken with hunger and anxiety. I see cruelty towards humans, and wonder what have we as a thinking species learnt from history.

Fascism overtook the world just eighty odd years back. We’ve heard and read of mass genocides happening in the name of some belief in the purity of blood. Of course, we also know the politics behind it all. High school students are taught this. But what have we taken away from it all? The human species forget about catastrophe. It is not imperative to dwell over the horror, but, for crying out loud, we need to be aware of not making the same mistakes again.

I have no children of my own. Thankfully. Imagine the world I shall be leaving them in! Animals I knew and love could be extinct within the next decade. Water levels are rising, but not the water we drink. There could be no water left in the coming few years and here we are thinking about making bullet trains and exacerbating the tension by cutting down more trees than ever. The plastic in the ocean has reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench and no one who isn’t an environmentalist seems to care!

This world is all we have. We have made no space shuttles to take us to an alternate planet. Which on hindsight I think is another blessing because it is best to keep the human species away from an untouched planet.

I wonder what these people who run after power seem to think. Does money and power help you in the wake of a tsunami? Will your gold bridge a wall against a tidal wave? Will a large fan-following help if there is no clean water left to drink? When a fire is at your door, do you stop to collect your awards or do you call out to the ones you love?

Statistics of what we are doing to the world are bleak. Bleaker still is the apathy towards this malaise. A polar bear wandering hungrily on a city’s roads may not make many people interested in the state of our times. But it should! There are things that are spiralling beyond our control and we do not seem to think that this will affect us at a personal level in any way. Call it hubris or ego or stupidity that makes men think that they are above death and horror. A polar bear dying in a garbage heap is linked to each and every one of us. You may not see it now, but you will eventually. Making people hate each other doesn’t do anyone any good – people who hate are sorry excuses for human beings. But the point is that even they must be helped.

A bear walking into a garbage heap is aiming for its own survival. Its needs are basic. It has no higher reasoning. It fights no wars based on right or wrong. It lives by a simple code. The problem with human beings is that we believe we know what is right and what is wrong. We are not satisfied with what we have, we want more. But we also have the capacity to think ahead and plan, so that we don’t have to go scavenging for food when we get hungry. So, let’s just think about this.

We have higher faculties of imagination and intelligence and empathy. We need to use these and come together. It is such high time!

The Fellowship of Fantasy

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

Today, I was made to feel bad about the fact that I wasn’t adult enough, by a dear, old friend, who is a mentor to me, as well. On the whole, it began with his trip to New Zealand and how he visited all those places that I would love to have seen: Hobbiton, Matamata, the Old Mill, Bag End, SamWise Gamgee’s hobbit home, with the yellow door, Weta Works, etc. Of course, he visited all those places and I didn’t, even though I would have enjoyed them far more than he ever could, for the simple reason that he isn’t a Tolkien book or movie fan, whereas I am all things nerdy, when it comes to Middle-earth.

He gifted me the vinyl figures of Gandalf and Saruman and I loved them so much that I thought of getting the Fellowship. My aunt who was sitting beside me offered to get them for me as gifts and so I went ahead and ordered them online. My partner mentioned this to my friend who wrote to me, later on, during the evening, and chastised me for not saving money and splurging it on unnecessary things.

I understand where he is coming from, of course. I am 44 years old and I save only as much as is required with no great thought about the future and the terrors it could bring. Unbeknownst to him though, I have tackled worst case scenarios in my lifetime and I don’t believe they hardened me enough to let go of the child in me. I have faced the impact of great diseases, taken care of loved ones who have survived them, have also cared for and lost to death those who couldn’t. Childhood was kind and I was loved but my teen years impacted me with the abuse of a father and the torment of being ridiculed for my sexuality. Irrespective, I did well for myself academically and I fixated on happy endings in the books I read and in the movies I watched.

I became a people person, when I grew seemingly confident about myself. I was betrayed in love, I was cast away, I was lost. I lose myself often, when reality strikes with a bludgeoning. But I always find myself, though I was chipped and have lost faith in the existence of gods. I take heart in what they stand for as I battled to see the good in life. Irrespective of the fact that I saw very little of it, I tried to be the good I wanted to see in others. I retained the honest streak I grew up with and still clung to happy endings. As the real got difficult, I clung to the fantastical and saw this as a means to deal with existential truths.

When I see Frodo losing his sanity at the edge of Mount Doom, I revel in the tenacity of SamWise as he rallies forth. I cry when I share Harry’s despair as he realizes he must be sacrificed to shatter a Horcrux – I walked the walk to the Forbidden Forest right alongside him. When Superman flies, I do not see just his indomitable strength of muscle, I take heart in the idea of all that he stands for. At the age of five, Clark Kent taught me to love, to be kind to animals, to take heart in the fact that negativity cannot survive in the end. And apart from the fantastical, a shipwrecked boy finds hope and solace in an Arabian Stallion, he calls Black … it could sustain me a lifetime of memory and faith. Anne of Green Gables assures me that tomorrow has no mistakes in it – yet.

So, I cling to this notion – and if one chooses to call it a fantasy, so be it. I am not sad for being called a child, or of that I am assured of the probability that the future is a bleak prospect. I am crestfallen because growing up is equated with becoming wiser, and that turning a certain age implies that all of childhood is negated. All the lessons I learned from childhood weren’t centered around life being grim and bleak… most of the lessons came from a place where Sith lords ruled the world and then through sheer dent of will and determination, the Jedis cast them down. I go back to the thought of another real life super hero when he enunciates, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.”

So, I order the vinyl figures of Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli, to remind me that matters of personal strife, prejudice, envy, greed, error can be overcome with hope, love, faith and determination. As I see them, I will think of the fact that there are people who care about me, who lift me up in my sorrow and guide me towards a future that no one can truly comprehend. Like Gandalf, one can fall and rise; like Gimli and Legolas, one can overcome prejudice; like Sam, one can be steadfast and honourable; like Merry and Pippin, one can relish the child and still be an adult; like Boromir, one can overcome insecurity and fear; and, like Frodo, deal with immeasurable burdens of the heart and soul and eventually be uplifted.

Be beautiful.

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

Beauty is so important. We all say, to be politically correct, how beauty is only skin deep. but that is so not true at two levels. People prefer beautiful pets, food, wives, husbands, children. And beauty isn’t skin deep. people have beautiful hearts too. Most times, the outer shell doesn’t mean the inside flesh. It is uncommon to find beauty inside and out. Most times, one has either or. And one is either loved or rejected.

I see people adopt pretty puppies. I see them abandon them on various pretexts when the pretty puppies become adults. I see cruelty in so many forms. I see pets abandoned. Cows tortured. Elephants chained to march for a religion. Tigers bred for their penises. Rhinos brought down for their horns.

And I get so disillusioned. Because I have seen for what battles are fought over. I have heard of women being gang raped and killed. I have seen children being abused. I have felt abuse. I have been persecuted for being different. And I know that if humans cut down humans with no sense of remorse, there is no real hope for what humans consider any inferior species.

I have seen people where I stay disregard love for animals. I have felt religion encroach upon my love for animals. I understand that everyone cannot love animals in the same fashion that I do. I do not love children the way most people do. I do not go goggly eyed on cutest children. But I have no say in the matter when children are paraded in movie theatres and scream their guts out when we try to watch a movie. No real say in the matter when a kid screams and throws things in a food court in a mall. I am supposed to be okay when children are used as excuses for parents to cut short meetings, but it is not okay if I say my furkids are waiting for me at home.

I resent it. And I am disillusioned by it. I am generally very disillusioned by the human race in general. But I will say this: if you take responsibility for a life, be it human or animal, you need to see it through. Even your death shouldn’t be an excuse for not having made some provision made for them. Be worthy of your humanity. Be beautiful.