I have been thinking a lot in the
past few days about a question. The question is a bit philosophical and is
related to the purpose of life. Whether we live to eat, or eat to live? What is
it that we must live for? Whether money, success, friends family are enough for
a happy life? Or is just a happy life enough? What exactly does it mean to be
happy after all? The reader may think that it is not ‘a question’. But all of
the above are actually intertwined, for me, into a single question – Whether to
live life for one’s own sake enough and don’t we owe as much to others?
The questions resurfaced today, when
I was watching the movie Ship of Theseus. I would like to take some time here
to compliment the brilliant director Anand Gandhi for making such an
extraordinary film that would make any one, who watches cinema for something
more than mere entertainment, feel extremely proud at the way our Indian cinema
is evolving. But I was specifically touched by the third story of the movie. A
businessman who feels content about his life that revolves around his business,
fetching him sufficient money, and a circle of faithful friends suddenly finds
himself facing a complex ethical dilemma that changes him completely. He, who
used to think that it was good enough for him to make his own life better
without messing with others’ realizes that perhaps his apparently harmless
actions and inactions may also somehow be impacting lives of others. The transplanted
kidney that has given him a new lease of life could in fact be a stolen one from a poor
laborer who was operated for appendicitis.
It’s a materialistic world, where
money matters. Money is something which must matter, for it is indeed important
for living a good life. But how much of it is really needed and is it the only
thing that should matter is what I would like to debate on. It is remarkably
beautiful how Anand Gandhi managed to actually manifest the idea of ‘social
responsibility’. I have heard people say, ‘it is perhaps fate of some people to
live the life they live’. I feel it is preposterous for people, who are even
unaware of the way many people are disadvantaged just because we are living our
lives too comfortable, to make such ignorant comments. Just try to imagine, we,
the richer people are consuming thousands of liters of water daily per household
and government says that they don’t have enough water to supply to all. Who
eventually suffer? The poor and disadvantaged. And even the water that we use
comes from the rivers redirected by huge dams that submerge hundreds of
villages and hamlets. Or else we easily drill a hole into the ground to extract
all the water we need. After all it’s our money that we are using to install
the submersible pumps or to pay for the electricity running them. But it’s not
that simple is it. The underground water level that goes down is hardly of any
concern for us, for we can always bore a hole deeper by spending few more
currency notes. But the deleterious effects that this unsustainable usage of
water has on the communities whose livelihood depends on the underground water
never even catches our imagination. The farmers who have to bear the brunt in
form of failed crops are forced to go to bed empty stomach, the very crops that
yield the grains that go into the making of Pizzas and sandwiches that we don’t
even flinch to pay for. This is only a single case out of thousands more that
depict how our extravagant lifestyles affect the lives of poor.
I know it may not be easy in near
future to completely change the system in which some people are systematically
exploited for benefit of few others. But at least we can raise our voice in
solidarity and make little efforts that can perhaps make a difference to the
lives of the poor. Or simply take some time out to think before our every
action that what effect it could possibly have on others. May be this would
also make us regain our lost morality. The disabilities that these people
suffer are not just a chance of luck or destiny, but have been inflicted on
them over the ages. Today we see so much suffering around us. Casteism, racism,
illiteracy, violence, communalism, poor health, unemployment, poverty, hunger,
trafficking, bondage are few of the endless list of indicators of injustice
that directly or indirectly are borne out of this unequal society. These crisscrossing
lines of inequality make a complex enough web, that while today we may be the ‘luckier
ones’, tomorrow we may be on the receiving ends and so in order to have a safer
and better future for us all, it is only in our interest to erase these lines.
And more than the altruistic or egoistic angle, I would like to highlight the
healing effect this would have on our souls, giving us eternal happiness which I
believe is the real purpose of life.
