Talking shop: Life was once simple

“I felt very still and empty,

(just) the way the eye of a

tornado must feel, moving

dully along in the middle of

the surrounding hullabaloo.”

― Silvia Path

There was a time when our lives were simple, filled with little pleasures and joys, such as gorging on 'gulab jaamuns' and dosas, watching myriad movies on Sundays on the telly with the whole family, and, yes, learning about the birds and the bees. Sure, we also had our minor losses and defeats, such as India losing a cricket or hockey match, having to go to school and doing the assigned homework, or missing the all-important episode of Hum Log or Khandaan. There were next to no landline phones or cars, and certainly no mobile phones or computers. If it was Ramayan that enthralled us for months, it was Mahabharat that saw us demanding cardboard swords and bows from our bemused parents. Life was a simple, breath-taking joyride.

Till one was suddenly all grown up, now even greying, and reality hit home. Paradoxically, it is this reality that makes us remember the bygone era with fondness and mental affection. What dominates our senses, society and surroundings are frequent and bloody skirmishes globally, rifts and divides that threaten to rip our very cultural and religious fabric, mountains slipping away from under us and rising prices, Hindenburg allegations and runaway taxes that demand our attention. The world has changed in an unimaginable way, and things are not getting better.

Let’s focus on the many fronts where we are heading into a morass. But there’s a caveat, that this is not a call for despair, just an awakening of the circumstances that confront us. Perhaps by confronting the problems head-on, we may come up with our own individual solutions, which may somehow be translated into collective change and betterment.

Shall we ever learn?

The sordid truth about Joshimath and surrounding areas in Uttaranchal hit us hard around a month back, as gory pictures of slithering mountainsides and crumbling homes flooded our TV and mobile phone screens. Over the years, there have been increasing incidents of land-sliding, subsidence, land sinking, land burst and cracks in these areas. And the last few months have seen the problem intensify. Over 600 houses have developed cracks, roads have opened up or caved in and people are leaving in their thousands. Environmentalists and activists insist that as far as 20 years back, they had written to the authorities, warning them that incessant development, building of hydroelectric projects and tunnelling would weaken the sub-structure and threaten towns. Now, they are being proven right.

Now, we are learning that it is not just Uttaranchal, but other parts of the mighty Himalayas that are just sliding away. Shimla, the Capital of Himachal Pradesh, is showing similar alarming trends of subsidence, with people reporting cracks in homes and roads. Why is this happening, you ask? Well, bluntly, because of greed, which has translated into ultra-development, excessive population, exploitation of resources, reckless construction activities, given our blinkered vision.

Just 250 kilometers from Shimla, near a tiny hamlet called Tidong, hydel projects are being put up with no concern for the eventual impact on the local ecology. From Nurung to Jhakri (near Tidong), a distance of barely 120 kilometers, as many as six Hydroelectric Projects are being put up, despite protests from locals and environmentalists. India’s mighty mountains are a disaster waiting to happen.

My lost 'ghee'

Basic nourishment and culinary bliss have now gotten beyond hand. Everything that we try to buy has a hefty price tag that is near-life-threatening. For instance, 'desi ghee' is our new gold. Welcome to our rich India, where prices have gone up by 100 per cent over the last couple of years. Last evening, I was stunned when I saw a particular brand selling ghee for Rs 4,565 per kilogram. Hello. With Dalda and Palm Oil all but gone, we should perhaps now cook in petrol; it is cheaper and burns faster. We should not even delve into other cooking oils and pulses, for we are all personally feeling the p(u)inch.

What makes the situation all the more alarming is that not only have efforts by the authorities to rein in runaway inflation come to nought, things are going to get worse, especially with the US Federal Reserve raising repo rates eight times in a row, catalysing many central banks to raise interest rates as part of their struggle to curb inflation. This may prove counter-intuitive as inflationary fires will be stoked and prices of commodities will only go one way—up. Our very own Reserve Bank will also be forced to follow suit and hike rates. That shall only see everything from peas, potatoes, onions, automobile fuels, EMIs, soaps and creams getting dearer; and this at a time when unemployment rates in India are at their highest and many have lost jobs and are dipping into their Provident Fund and investments to keep home and hearth running.

Another new stutter

We also have a new debacle to contend with and resolve, our very own Hindenburg Files. Hindenburg was Adolf Hitler's creation, as full of rhetoric and passion as the man himself—a helium-filled balloon that would rise like the Phoenix and take on the world’s skies. It perished, plummeting from the skies, much like its master-creator, the wannabe world-conqueror who plunged us into World War II. India’s Hindenberg is a controversy of allegedly epic proportions, with a US-based short-seller research firm claiming that there have been wrongdoings at India’s till-recently largest Corporate entity.

Do remember that Hindenburg Research does this for a living, getting Corporate share prices to crash in markets and then picking up stakes in those same companies at reduced rates, making a financial killing. We also need to take cognizance of the fact that Hindenberg Research, through its history, has oft been wrong and its ‘target’ firms have been proven to be clean as the proverbial whistle. Either way, the matter needs to be put to rest fast, both for the sake of the said Corporate Group and our country, which needs to protect its image and track-record as a fast-growing economy and investment destination.

Some good news

All is not gloomy, though, for there is a bright spark—the India Under-19 Women’s Cricket Team has won the inaugural World Cup. Our young girls did it in flashing style, beating England and scuttling them out for a paltry 68, then chasing the total down in quick time. England’s batting faltered in the crunch game and India’s bowlers chipped in to howl out the English batters cheaply—kudos to our team and more power to them.

As always, let’s visit a quote. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes once said: “Life is nothing without a little chaos to make it interesting.” I could agree somewhat, but let’s not have too much of it, please, for there’s only so much that my country and I can withstand. All of India, especially after battling three deadly years of the COVID-19 pandemic and all its attendant manifestations, could use a breather and a few smiles. For once, let’s guffaw.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal