All is not well with the world, definitely not with the denizens of India’s Silicon Valley. A recent report in Times of India (TOI) brings to the fore the shocking news that Bangalore has the second highest suicide rate in the country, after Chennai. On an average, seven people commit suicide every day in Bangalore.
Ironically, death is a great leveller. Or so it seems from the statistics recorded by TOI. It says that suicides are not restricted to any particular class or caste, but cuts across all social spheres. The same day witnessed a daily wage labourer as well as an IT geek ending their lives.
The report makes us sit up and think. How did things go so horribly wrong with this beautiful city? Why are people, riding high on dreams and wishing to see them come true, suddenly opting to head to a point of no return? TOI spoke with a few psychiatrists in the city and the obvious answer was that all this is stress-induced. Very well, now that we know the demon can we also scheme up ways of quelling it?
My one-year-old experience in the city says it’ll really need a thorough clean-up of the hard-drive (read: mindset). Several times, I’ve tried striking up a conversation with well-heeled professionals in the city. Honestly, I’ve never been able to proceed beyond two lines. Each time I begin with renewed enthusiasm I’m instantly snubbed by well-meaning (?) comments like, “So are you planning to change your job? You’ve already been sticking around for a year!!!” Before I can make out where exactly this query is taking me to, pat comes another question, “So when are you planning to buy a flat?”.
Colleagues at the office are no different. Each day I encounter smarties sporting latest brand labels with the panache of a ramp-walker, exchanging notes on when to bag the next buys! Hence, it’s needless to say that a society so lost in the whorls of consumerism will naturally bite the dust, when things do not fall in place.
It’s not that we are not aware of the clever tag line that says, “There are some things money can’t buy”. It’s just that all of us now need to tell ourselves that there are MOST things that money can’t buy. Let’s not try to gauge life based on the wallet size or asset value of a person.
Auto-suggestion is the need of the hour.
6 comments:
The tentacles of consumerism is definitely devouring the urban India like never before other wise nobody in their right minds would purchase a two bed room flat in an average DDA colony for 1.4 crores! The gullibility and total thoughtlessness is a wonder to see. The middle class who were till couple of decades ago were glad that they could finally purchase a piece of home for a princely amount on Rs 3 to 5 Lacs are now dreaming of becoming super rich by converting their assets and become a "crorepati" overnight! Easy money has always been the dream of western outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and Sundance, but no more the Indian middle class is here too, lined up to make hay while the sun shines.
Comes with it maladies of mind and soul and heart. And the urban living style of "going-with-the-flow" does not help anyone. What we do not realize is the fact that we ourselves get drawn in this quagmire of greed,hatred, self loathing and finally destruction. And sadly if you ask the regular passer by you will find that he is at the brink of destruction every day and will possibly would not even realize when he crosses over to the other side. I have only one solution to offer,which I try to follow myself, moderation, in every action, thought. But sadly i do not find very many patronizing this school any more.
i know illusions... thankfully there are still a few who think the way we do, but alarming that they are now a dying race...
noticed the office-boy at our office the other day quite morose. new year was approaching and he had to buy expensive gifts for his family... will this ever end?
glad that the post touched you somewhere but i'll be the happiest person the day i'd never have to write such things...
This post took me back to a discussion I had with my brother a while back. We both agreed that if you tell someone today to stop and smell the roses, he will drive to the nearest flower shop, park his car in a no parking zone with the engine idling and dash inside to smell the roses :-). Somehow, I can't tolarate the mindless existance of a city life where breaks mean the nearest pub or mall. I just have to have my walk on the beach, fresh air on the hill and so on. To quote a quirky friend "I hope I die sleeping on a hammock under a leafy palm tree somewhere on a beach without tourists!"
how true meaoowww ... most of us are so smug in our bubbles that we hardly realise there's more to life than excel sheets and corpo junkets.
Bol India bol, said Mr. Ambani as he opened up the Indian skies to the telecom revolution, cell phones dancing to his caller tunes and catching up in India faster than anywhere else in the chequered history of technology. Having become a mode of communication that is now the common mans ‘reliance’ I have often wondered – what is it that we as a people talk about? Not that there is any dearth of topics for conversation, but with so many conversations floating around in the air, I often wonder what it would be like to be able to tune into a few of these, and hear snippets of sentences as they drift past, speeding on their way from one phone to another.
Not that this is a calculated response/ comment to your post – but your thought on the lines of consumerism just got me thinking about how modern day life completely revolves around material wealth and objects. All actions seem directed towards one singular goal.
Wealth and comforts were a support system man designed in his quest to make life easier and simpler. But have we not let them overwhelm us to such an extent today that our lives continually revolve around them? The line between a requirement, a necessity and indulgence has long faded, and rather than make life simpler, most of it just brings in an additional (do I have to mention unnecessary) layer of complication to an already screwed up life.
Classic case of machine over man? ;)
rightly said floatsam ... i think it's very important to draw that elusive line between line between "a requirement, a necessity and indulgence".
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