Status: Effectively clueless
I woke up today at 6 wearing clothes i won’t be able to make even if my life depended on it. I slipped into my slippers prepared from rubber i’ve only seen on NGC dripping into buckets from V-crossed trees. I’ll have to walk around barefoot if i were to create a footwear for myself. I got in to the bathroom and switched on the light. It’s sheer magic how the room illuminates with the touch of a button. Again, i have no idea how electricity is produced although i was once barely three semesters away from earning my B.E. I picked up my green-bristled toothbrush and didn’t even realize that left to my devices, i would be forced to clean my teeth with rolled-up mango leaves. For the record, some guy in a prison came up with the idea of toothbrush. I don’t know how to assemble a toothbrush and i’d be mighty surprised if you do. I cleaned my tongue with the tongue-scraper; a slick piece of steel with more artistic integrity than a lot of will ever possess. Once again, no idea how to extract iron or to temper steel, let alone how to carve out a scraper. Later, i sat on my game of throne and did my business. Being a good boy, i flushed but i haven’t got a clue how a gentle push of a knob helps you get rid of all your scatological evidence. Within seconds, i found myself in the shower and it doesn’t even trouble my weary mind how water percolated over several cycles—far away from my apartment — reaches my skin so damn easily.
The series of blissful ignorance doesn’t end here. It only gets started.
I got ready for office. Applied coconut oil to my hair and customary talcum to my armpits. Neither do i know how oil is extracted from arguably the most benevolent tree known to us nor have an idea why talcum is considered the finest of all minerals. Anyway, before wearing my shoes — are synthetic leather and leather the same? — i reach for my phone. I book an auto-rickshaw on Jugnoo while overlooking the ridiculous marvel of modern-day technology. I tap on the screen and an enthusiastic autowallah reaches the gate of our community within minutes. I read a book during the commute and the pages smell of innocence while keeping my sunglasses on. It’s close to 7.30 am but you can’t trust the dust in Gurgaon. Sticking to the point, i really don’t have a hint how books are generated from trees or how cool sunglasses are manufactured either. Not that i need to know any of it but it’s a matter of fact that i don’t. And somehow, this vacuousness doesn’t affect me in any way possible.
As soon as i reach office, i open my laptop and get down to work. It’s quite possible to spend the entire day, or even a week, or maybe a month, taking notes of all the elements around that serve us without an iota of interest at our end even as to know of their origin. It simply doesn’t matter. The world spins on regardless of who knows or wants to know what. But isn’t it amazing how dependent we are on strangers to get through to the sunset? Somebody somewhere climbed up the coconut trees to have an end product called hair oil and somebody somewhere mined coltan to have an end product called smartphone. Our world, for better or for worse, is a collaborative project — thanks in huge parts to capitalism. Of course, some parties are getting exploited while others are reaping more than their share. That’s basic human nature and greed has been our good friend even before the current economic system hypnotized us.
Insofar, it’s feckless to say that there is no hope for humankind. We are horrible, no doubt. Unabashedly selfish too. However, it’d be irresponsible to suggest our ignorance can’t be maneuvered. In a paradoxical world where technology is connecting us only to make us realize that there are more and more strangers out there than we needed to know, won’t it be worth wondering what would happen if we bothered to know how people impact our lives? How about pulling our head out of ourselves and looking out at the world and exhibiting a wee more interest in learning something new instead of the same old drabby me-too? This non-self-centric approach might assist us in placing the universe—and our infinitesimal pugmarks on it — in a broader light. Maybe then, we’d be able to understand how much we depend on each other for the smallest of things.
