Uprooted

i have trouble sleeping in the nights and maybe it's my thyroid.Though i am on medication it has not helped me sleep any better.Maybe i am anxious about a lot many things which is beyond my control.i went to the kitchen at midnight to have a glass of water and maybe to make myself a cup of tea.
uff... looking at the kitchen gave me another set of anxiety.
i have to move shortly into another town where my husband has just joined on a new post on promotion transfer and the thought of all that packing gives me the jitters.Yeah there are movers and packers to do the jobs for you but come to think of how deeply i am rooted to this place i felt like crying out aloud and wanting some miracle to happen.
Something like another order coming from the higher authorities giving him an option in this city itself.

And wrapping the kitchen is going to be very difficult i guess.What should i do with all the oil in the oil can...all those porcelain jars with pickles... and all that non perishable food items...if they have to be packed...or just given away.
i move like a ghost into the dark rooms, all the four rooms and take in every single item that has got to be packed and i think maybe i should give everything away.
The problem is that i have no experience whatsoever of any shifting of any sort.My husband came to Chennai which was his first posting and we have stayed put ever since just as some would say with a stroke of good luck.Of course his is a transferable post where one is required to move every 3-5 years but we were just plain lucky.All the movements that took place was within the city in the various departments.Now i feel i am rooted here.This is going to be my very first shifting and a real tough one i guess not only for my lack of experience but also for my sense of belonging here in this city.
Lucky! my foot!

Don't know why or what is the connection here that it's something past midnight and i am reminded of that poem by Gieve Patel, 'On Killing A Tree'

It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of knife
Will do it.
It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon it's crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air,water,
And out of it's leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone won't do it
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
No,
The root is to be pulled out
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strenghth of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.

Or maybe the poem was so fresh because quite recently i had revised the poem with my niece who had this poem in her ICSE syllabus and together we dug out various connotations of this poem.But i alone know that that is not it.i am thinking about the tree because...

i just feel like a tree rooted to this place. Have sprouted, absorbed and was well fed rather nourished for years.My family found all that is best here and they in turn got rooted here.i feel like an old tree with it's family all growing side by side and now this transfer feels like a hack of knife.People around me congratulate me for the much delayed promotion but i feel depressed. i feel guilty for feeling depressed cause as a wife i should be jubiliant and very happy for his promotion the aftermath of which should be this change. Change which has come after 21 years.
Was i lucky or rather unlucky for not knowing what change is like.What all goes into moving from one place into another.People tell me that change is for the good.You grow in many more ways.New surroundings, new people, their cultures and traditions not only amaze and entertain but also educate in so many ways.
So i am told but still i am unmoved.Rather i don't feel like knowing anymore.
 i feel like a tree which is being shaken rudely from it's comfortable ground.The transfer feels like a rope tied which is snapping my roots one by one.

Still sitting in the balcony in the dark and watching the dark silhouettes of the huge trees in front and i get another recall... that story i saw long ago on TV.The programme on TV ' Ek Kahani ' was anchored by Manju Singh (of Bharat Ek Khoj fame and who also acted as a sister to Amol Palekar in the original Golmaal) and it featured great stories by great Indian writers but stories which were never read before or heard before.Every week there used to be this new story and this one was a translated version of a Dogri tale perhaps, i forget exactly but it was a tale of the hills.
There was a young beautiful girl who was loved and cared for by her family and when she came of age the family got her happily married to a young man who was into business but in another town.The new bride was welcomed into her new home and as was the custom she was given a gold nose ring to wear by her mother-in -law.The daughter in law should wear the nose ring given by the husband's family.This was something akin to the Mangalsutra that married women in many parts of India wear as per custom and tradition.Now the family was a happy family as the new bride soon took over her responsibilities and everything went smoothly.Within a year the bride also delivered a bonny son and since it was customary her nose ring was replaced by a slightly heavier one.She was an auspicious bride and her husband flourished in his business.As he progressed into his wealthy pursuits the poor bride had to bear the discomfort of wearing a still heavier nose ring.When it started to get painful she started fearing her husband's progress.She withered as the husband  grew wealthy as he was successful in all his pursuits. He diversified his business and got success in his new venture too.But when he came home with news of his new accomplishment the poor wife with one baby tucked under her arm and another pulling at her saree started weeping silently.A face covered with a saree pallu with tears falling down mercilessly and she finding it difficult to even wipe her runny nose because by now the nose ring was a large one and just too painful for her to bear.
The story ended with Manju Singh giving her commentary on rudimentary and painful customs and the discomforts of a girl which went unheeded even by her husband from whom she has borne two beautiful boys.

My guilt at not being happy about my husband's promotion feels something similar.It feels painful.At least for now.

Lying on my bed and still thinking about how difficult and painful it would be for a tree i ask myself if i am blessed to be a human and that i am not a tree.
For one thing transfer is more like a transplantation of sorts.Maybe if i were a tree the transplantation might have stunted me if not killed me because it is the matter of soil and climatic conditions.Now in that new place  i might sprout new leaves and grow miniature boughs which perhaps will expand if left unchecked so i guess i am better placed. i guess then i should stop feeling apprehensive about this change and stop fearing what new adjustments have to be made because i am not a tree but the most resilient of all beings.
And i must count my blessings that unlike the poor girl of the hills i do not have to wear a painful and uncomfortable ornament that should proclaim my husband's fortune and success.
Before i close my eyes for a sound sleep to sneak it's way maybe i should say a prayer.
Not for myself but for the trees that are being uprooted to make way for human settlements.

Knock Knock Knocking at Technology's Door

It was in one of the books dealing with animals and their characteristics that i read something which has stayed with me ever since.It said something like this-The phrase, ''Don't behave like animals'' should not be used to denote the evil deeds that humans do.Because animals never go beyond what is in their nature and system.They are law abiding and stick to the rules that nature has bestowed upon them.Some classification done by humans makes them distinct no doubt but if left to them there would be no catastrophes related to imbalances in nature.Because it is not in their nature to plunder and kill or destroy anything indiscriminately.They are actually the way they should be but unfortunately we cannot call them law abiding humanitarian citizens.

So the thought has been going for quite some time within me when i see all the technological advances happening around.Mostly all cater to making humans as comfortable as can be thus creating newer problems be it relating to health or environment, in a way that things seem out of control.

None of these advancements seem to make the desired changes that is a pre-requisite for a healthy society. i see that even education has become mindless in the sense that one is getting the necessary qualifications to just get a good job which eventually should be able to provide them with a good life.As the rat race gets tougher all the values that should support a good society seems to be getting eroded.Wise people saw this coming and send out the warning signals.i remember Oliver Goldsmith who said ,''Ill fares the land,hastening ills a prey,

  Where wealth accumulates,and men decay..."

i have visualised something which could be a panacea to all this.Only that it seems too fantastic and even wierd.But all inventions when concieved  were once thought to be thus.Right from the first thing invented at the start of the Industrial Revolution till date.

i have also had an imagination of a something but if i say it is a GUN you would shoot me instead.

Funny but every time my Mother-In -Law acted smart with me i thought about this GUN.

My nearest family knows about the kind of GUN i am talking about and just like how people would've done eons ago to all brilliant ideas conceived, it was not surprising that their reaction was exactly the same. 

They just laughed.Brushed off the idea with more laughter and dismissals fully confident that such an idea can never see the light of day.

Because not only is the idea vague but also IMPOSSIBLE.

Who would have ever thought of all these happening... cloning...satellite systems to track enemies...cosmetic surgery...body sculpting and quite recently some device in your cell phones which tell your friends and family just where you are positioned at any particular time.Moreover people are buying plots on the moon now because soon even moon will be having human settlements.

Just like my imagination of this GUN all these would have first germinated as ideas and who knows with all this technology which is going nano now, my imagination sees it becoming a reality in the near future.

This GUN should be the kind that preservers of nature and wildlife use on animals.Something like a tranquilizing gun.

This GUN would not kill neither will it leave any injury. But one shot and man should come to his senses.i mean it could be a woman too like my MIL who wanted me to fund her to buy gold bangles for her of the type that would have left my husband and me bankrupt.

''Chalis Bhar ka chudee" she said and since i don't understand much of this bhar system i asked her to tell me in rupee terms. Considering that 1 gram of gold equals to 12 bhars she  then started calculating and i swooned at the rounded off figure that she gave.

It was then i desired i had this GUN.

Not that i am prejudiced but everytime i act smart with her she could use it on me too.

Afterwards we would stay happy as bum chums.No ill-will, no remorse,no regrets and no ANGER.

From that day on every time some meanness, smallness, selfishness...envy...malice... surfaces in me i keep yearning for this humanity saving invention. Of course people use guns to shoot themselves.Don't they?
Maybe the guns need not be bought by all. Just a few owners can go a long way in making the desired changes.
How to choose these people can be decided by another brilliant idea which is bound to happen soon.

Picture this -Your neighbour's dog has just pissed in the lift and you happen to be there in the lift.One shot from the GUN and you not only see your neighbour sanitizing the lift but the neighbour later taking the stairs with the dog every time the dog has to be taken out.

                                                                               or

You acting like one tight-assed Hari Saadu and terrorising your employees and Dhin...Choo ... you are the most inspiring boss ever to have walked on this planet.

The Gun can be named anything but as for now let us be simple and call it a REALISATION GUN.

Can technology do this please?

It is so wonderful to imagine a world where people become simple and clean hearted.Because the ills happening around us is not because technology is at fault.It is the way people handle the technology.That which is supposd to make life better.

And most ills in the society are germinating from the sick minds of the people...technology or no technology.

With the best technology in hand, are we getting any better or are we plunging into an abyss?

REALISATION GUN should be able to trigger off the nerve cells which should enable a positive response to a stimuli.Meaning thereby instead of having people reacting to situations there would be positive action.

DHIN...SHOO and you are in this EDEN with all around you living in harmony and peace.

i know it is wishful thinking nothing more but this is what i would want from technology. At least with all the resources spent on destruction weapons i think it would be a justified investment where instead of trying to create matter something is invented to preserve the matter that was created ever since the first life form appeared.

With so many species and values already gone and many on it's way to extinction i guess the REALISATION GUN should be able to put a sudden halt to what we know as destruction.

Destruction of values, morals and hence of mankind.

Hope i am able to reach out to someone...someone with such technological skills who can work on this idea of mine and make it a reality.

i shall now return to Oliver Goldsmith.

Care to join in?

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