The Frugal God's temple.

[sajith]

Manicauvu Shiva temple in Wayanad is not very far from our erstwhile home. Legend is that the Lord wishes the temple construction has to be completed in a single day if it ever happens, for reasons I can't recall. The devotees being simple folks of limited means, has to be content with a simple contsruct like this. (The temple was said to be surrounded by a hectors of thick forest, before I could remember - now all there is the remnants of the forest surrounded by mostly bare hillocks. Deforested, because of the monkey threat to crops. The remaining small population of monkeys looks pitiable.)



The picture was taken in February and I didn't see any particular reason to post it - till an article in The Hindu by P. Sainath mentioned Wayanad once again (Six on ten sounds right for this Government):

A Kisan Sabha survey of just 26 households in Wayanad that had seen suicides shows a total debt of over Rs.2 million. Or about Rs.82,000 per household. The average size of these farms is less than 1.4 acres. And a good chunk of that debt is owed to private lenders. Nothing has happened in the UPA's year in office that will alter this course of events.

Now, this is my second year of living in this city - I'm one of those software engineer village boys that is new to all cities, big and small. But I suspect the roots are being forgotten, all too fast.

This city of expensive malls, shops, coffee houses and movie halls. Of endless bumper to bumper traffic of expensive cars and BPO and software company vehicles. Of glass and steel buildings that houses the said companies. Flyovers that spring up oh-so-fast. Fast and furious construction work. Large influx of people like me.

And you see how corporate media desensitizes the middle class (and the fringes that aspire to belong to that class) to the real issues about governance, and the general notions of fairness and justice. And how effectively the said population is conditioned for the markets, to be good adorable citizens of the shining new world. Another quotable quote hits hard right on the media:

The Prime Minister, though, can take heart from the fact that his report card reads better than that of the media. Take writers in a leading business daily on the lowest third of society. "The bottom 400 million," says one, with a heavy heart, "is a disappointment and a social responsibility, and while it harbours value (maybe not a fortune), it is a difficult market to tap." (ET, March 26, 2005). Shame on you guys down there in the 400 million. That's enough distress and despair. Time to pull up your socks and be better buyers. (And whaddya mean, what socks?) What are the malls for, anyway?

Malls. Yeah. Speaking of which, what it'd be like, to drop Abhi straight in The Forum mall?

That is Abhilash, my classmate of school, who became a farmer. I had this sudden urge for scoring marks in the tenth standard, and that latter decided the direction life moved in general. Else I'd have been doing pretty much the same thing. But don't ask me who is having a better life...



Ok, I read The Times of India and gape at its semi nudes and page three crap every morning. I do go those malls and shops and coffee houses. Those shining new cars on display impress me. I want to own stuff, I want to do things. Consumerist things. And I won't do a thing that is outside this self indulgence. I won't move a finger about the agrarian and ecological crisis in Wayanad or just about anywhere in the world. I'd never raise my puny voice against sheer greed and injustice.

Yet, something inside is disturbed a bit. A little bit. Maybe the yuppie transformation is still incomplete.

The frugal God's water lily, close to the temple, is all alone in that little pond.



PS. My English teacher of school called today morning from Wayanad - she's sick, homebound and suddenly remembered me.

Dear teacher, someday, I'll be able to express all this in a better way...

Comments

Have patience Sajith

[mat-attack.livejournal.com]

And one day the yuppy in you will bloom.

Nice piece, makes you think.

Re: Have patience Sajith

[sajith.livejournal.com]

:)

Well, thanks.
I like the Sidharth grinning in this userpic.

[cognoscenti85.livejournal.com]

Oh great post man.
I am also thinking in the same lines sometimes..I havnt heard about the existance of English medium schools till 7th and ICSE/CBSE schools till going for +2 admissions after tenth...and now!!
but i cant speak english as any other public school/NRI kid;-)cuz I studied English reading,and not by speaking!!

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Thanks Arun.

I havnt heard about the existance of English medium schools...

Bit exaggerating, eh? ;-)

Ok, I went to Malayalam medium schools, did Pre-Degree with Malayalam as the optional language and so on. Even now this is the only language I'm able to comfortably converse. So kind of understand what you mean.

I'm sure you'd have read the article and would have understood what I'd been talking about too. It is worrisome that the government policies are dictated by stock market and corporate media interests and little thought is spared for the rural folks.

[cognoscenti85.livejournal.com]

>>>Bit exaggerating, eh? ;-)
not really.i didnt had any opportunity to know about the existance of such schools before i moved from my village to trichur,where i joined an english medium school.

ya i had read the article the day it was published and was moved then itself.sainath is such a great journalist.the only journalist that travels so much around india and does some "real" work.

the way you connected the article to your village was deeply touching.i didnt get any ideas or words (!) to write as a comment to the serious things you have written,but i wanted to comment something since i liked the write up very much.so i just wrote the few things i could think of.

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Right, P Sainath is one journalist you'd feel great respect for, especially when compared with the crap you'd have to put up with in the media. Like, the one he quoted and their even more superficial counterparts.

Thanks for dropping by and the kind words.

[taryncuzco.livejournal.com]

Sajith... your post brought tears to my eyes. You know how i feel about this subject. Everyday of my life i feel like such a hypocrite for not living up to my own, more natural standards, as opposed to those being created for me. I don't want to become a yuppie, yet this is what i do . I don' t want coffeehouses to be my temple, or credit card companies as gods/ rulers. I want to use my body and do more than operate a four wheel machine that takes me places, by polluting our house. And suicide, is this how we pay for our bills? My heart aches right now. I look at your classmate and the idea of him committing suicide invades my relative tranquility... My mind comes up with every possible scheme: where do i go, what do i do, how can i survive and not be part of this madness? Thanks, though.

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know how you feel about the subject. In fact, what I really wanted to talk about is this issue of governance - how the policymakers come to care very little about the people in distress. And how that is a something you and I have very little control over, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. But ultimately it turned out to be a romantic fool rant.

My classmate is not the type who'd give up, and he's doing okay, kind of. The farmer suicides are of course extreme cases.

[taryncuzco.livejournal.com]

Trust me, coming from an everlasting dictatorship like Cuba, i know that policymakers don't care a bit. I also know that the romantic ones (like us?) are the ones that withdraw and leave the policy-grinders on their own, free to do as they wish. The whole deal is too much for us to fight. How do you start fighting greed? Egoism is the root of our misery, this congenital sense of entitlement that mutilates the human kind. You can see it manifest itself internationally, in the shape of war and hunger, etc. As i was telling you the other day, studies have shown levels of anger around the world, with the US leading the race with the highest ones. Canada in second place, Europe following, and last, Asia. Some people relate it to meat eating habits. I think there's more to it. Generations have detached themselves from the earth and its natural rhythm, living an artificial dream, nightmare rather. Politicians forgot their main role in history. The masses aren't there to be guided and protected anymore, but rather to be crushed, to be turned into profitable financial units, so that we can continue to enjoy TV and coffee houses, supermalls that remain open 24/7, ripping family members from their beds and dinner time, leaving children without parents on their birthdays and what not. Our existence reminds of that of the victim in a shipwreck, holding on to the last log and waiting, for a miracle. To expect politicians to take responsibility for our lives is like asking an unknown woman to have your child. Thanks again.

This yuppie is here to stay

[catchshyam.livejournal.com]

I think I am thru with this. Call me a hypocrite, but for me the best way to lead an idyllic life (at least as of now) is to feel detached from the world. How do you expect me to react when I find one of my classmates (infact a good friend back in school, my captain in school cricket team) working as a labour in my dad's farm. Thats OK, he does it for his leaving, but he wouldn't call me by name but refers with something that a labour calls his landlord (oh god what an irony). But the feeling has already waned in me, I have come in terms with things around me (call it reality or much hyped thing called "indian culture" where a daily labour can not afford the same self respect as an engineer). Wasn't I right when I called myself a hypocrite?

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[taryncuzco.livejournal.com]

We might succeed at quieting down our inner voices, our inner screams. Does that mean that we're on the right path, for us? I think i would be crippling myself if i forget what my true intentions are. I fear this debt, more than i fear the credit card company. Honestly, i don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering why is it that i' m not happier. Creating poor substitutes like access to the comfort and grandiosity of a city is barely a band-aid, to me. What can i say, it just doesn't work for me. But it might work for others. There are those who love the city of Los Angeles, to me it's nothing but a polluted and overpopulated hole, with a balloon-like economy, waiting to tank on its inhabitants, who will be paying for bills and insurance on their bills, forever. Peace out!

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[sajith.livejournal.com]

(nods and smiles.)

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Well, the great Indian middle class' escapism is subject for another rant.

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[catchshyam.livejournal.com]

I know the moment I write this, I am going to be the villain. I don't think me being compassionate (not with the co-feeling sense as Kundera describes) with others will put me out of the so called category of "escapists". Even if it does, I prefer not do so, I would rather be happy with what I believe in, happiness.

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Well. Doh!

Happiness is something all of is believe in, I believe. But the definition of the very thing is subjective. Suffering was happiness for Jesus, probably? (Of course I can't speak for Jesus, and bringing in a religious figure to this is not intentional. Just wanted a quick example.)

Beyond that, what about the basic responsibilites to the rest of the society? I belive that progress is a collective process. Here blame is not on any individual happiness-seeker, but the whole attitude of the Indian middle class towards the suffering sorrounding them. Wanted to quote Gunter Grass here, but I don't remember the words :D

My attempt basically is not to paint a black and white picture with villains and heroes. That is the last thing I'd want to do. I'm trying to ask a few questions to myself.

Any serious far-reaching change would not be caused by any of us, the self-contented new age proletarians. That is for unreasonable people (the compassionate ones, like, the bearded and the long haired, and sometimes bald as the Budha..., when they are cruel, Adolf Hitler) - like G B Shaw has so rightly put.

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[catchshyam.livejournal.com]

OK Sajith, you have said happiness is subjective. I agere and give in. Don't blame me if I still take exception for your second para. Afterall, I used be an Ayn Rand fan long ago....

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[sajith.livejournal.com]

This is like that ages old classic-romantic schism again :)

FYI, I didn't like Ayn Rand the first time I tried to read. Probably that would explain it a bit. Will try again, I need to understand what that is all about.

Re: This yuppie is here to stay

[catchshyam.livejournal.com]

Well, goodluck. But I find some of the her points too fantastic these days.

Re: This yuppie is here to s(t)ay

[taryncuzco.livejournal.com]

But i' m not self-contented! If only i had their grandiloquence, if only i had the desire to conquer... if only i were that unreasonable! :(

Re: This yuppie is here to s(t)ay

[taryncuzco.livejournal.com]

If we're going to speak subjectively, one could say that escapism is relative, too. You could be trying to escape the so called "bigger questions " ( not that i think they are) in order to protect your sanity and well being, and i could be escaping a regular daily grind in order to save my soul...? And i agree with Sajith in that happiness is subjective, it's also extremely relative. No villains in this story, we're all striving toward something better, whatever that is. Peace!

[yo-id.livejournal.com]

I Love the way you write .2 GOOD

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Thanks dude :)

[maxaud.livejournal.com]

howd i miss this post??

I won't move a finger about the agrarian and ecological crisis in Wayanad or just about anywhere in the world. I'd never raise my puny voice against sheer greed and injustice.

what happened to the revolution?dude..i dunno.. u just went and spoiled an already spoilt night for me. the conditions were fertile for moodiness to set in...

[sajith.livejournal.com]

The revoloution is being televised, how come you miss that?

[indumol.livejournal.com]

Very nice post.

[sajith.livejournal.com]

Thanks Indu.

[indumol.livejournal.com]

This post didn't show up in my friend's list, wonder why?

[sajith.livejournal.com]

LJ bug?