Old and New: Together in Transition Time

First published on August 22, 2014.  Here it is again.  What happens to the old, when the new does not respect it? understand it? or wants to borrow from it?

An old, almost abandoned House in Central Delhi, 2014. Very few such homes are left now.  Most of these homes are actually transformed into apartments today.  This one must be standing only for two reasons, one either the owner is rich enough to own another property, or this is a disputed property that is awaiting resolution.  Yet, these house, have what makes any building a home, a yard, a verandah, sometimes a porch, sometimes a lawn and often, trees, that grow even when no one waters them.  

Apologies to my readers that I have been not been able to write.  Most of you know that I have been travelling.  I have thought so much about writing, but not had the peace.  In many ways its good, because our minds need break. In other ways, without silence our souls lie dormant.

Details and stories will come later.

But my first experience of the last six weeks has been that the world is changing too fast for us to recognise what is going on.  We have little time left to muse or reminisce because before we can have memories, the new transient culture that is visible in disposable goods, transforms into something new.

This change is universal but very evident in developing countries, and even more visible in developing countries that are under global scrutiny due to sheer population, namely India and China.  Due to their numbers, markets and companies are gravitating towards them. Its  obvious that anything that becomes a trend, and even better a necessity will have a large market, even if it lasts only for a short time.  

And I realise how 'thinkers and philosophers', who are not 'thinking' only in terms of money or profit, are crucial to any society, for directing the society to reflect back on itself. 

People just borrow and follow ideas, without a long term understanding of the impact of gadgets and technological changes in life.   

One of the major changes all over the country is the formation of 'apartments' or to apply a british term, 'flats'.  Which has contributed to the burgeoning population of the city (from my childhood city of about 6 million to nearly three times or more).  While this obviously adds to the population density, it also reduces homes into one single covered unit, without yards, verandahs, lawns, and obviously trees.  

I will write about this more in detail later, but this year, there was this sinking feeling that the country does not realise what it is loosing in this mindless progress.  I think that, if we wish there are always alternative paths, but for that we need foresight.  

In  a culture that has made 'money, profit, and convenience its God' there is little room for reflection or critical thinking.

All that drives is 'bhed chaal' (sheep's way, or mindless following wherever the herd is going).

As a part of 'bhed chaal', because there is no room for novel thinking, we are neither connected to others, nor to ourselves.