LOCKDOWN MUSING

(1st May 2020, 12 minutes read, by Shashikant Murkute)

I had a pang today when I thought this lockdown would end soon, it was such a refreshing change from all the noise, pollution, long office commute, traffic, an endless, self-defeating, pointless pursuit to earn more money which we -Mumbaikars call a “routine". If this started to sound like another nihilistic post, please, don’t get the wrong idea. This piece is not an argument for nihilism, if it is anything it’s against it- Creating better values & meaning. But to successfully argue against something, you must start with that thing. One must ask uncomfortable questions about life, what meaning, purpose, or intrinsic values our fragile life has? and from there one must start building a better value, not for just individual or community specific values but values that can bring all of us together rather than tear us apart. Values which are powerful yet grounded. Values that can carry us to the end of our days with a sense of gratitude and satisfaction. Well, seeking answer to such difficult question and creating values is not easy task to do (for obvious reasons), and with excessive social media, Instagram-fake-filtered life style, it’s arguably more difficult than ever. Fortunately, we have all the learning of great philosophers at our finger tips, even though most of the teachings act more like compass, than maps. They don’t talk about how to get to the answers (directly), but they do tell us where to look for. Which path to choose, when and how to take that journey is up to individual. I know we all are navigating through very difficult, unprecedented time- a covid-19 storm. Many of us not even sure whether we will have our jobs anymore. There will be pay cuts, layoffs, financial strain on individuals and government. Despite the lingering uncertainty, COVID-19 silently offers us an opportunity to reflect on our values and their impact on society.

Do you really need “Enlightened One” to tell you? What’s wrong, and right? We all know we should not put any harmful chemicals in our body, does that stop us from smoking or drinking? We all know it is ethically wrong to take credit for someone else job, when you haven’t done anything worth a dime, does that stop us from doing office politics? We all know there is no point in earning more money just for sake of more money, does that stop our greed? We all know we should not talk bad about friends and family behind their back, does that stop us from talking? We all know, if you want great body you should stop eating junk food and sugar, does that stop us from eating? I been doing gym on and off for months now, I read numerous blogs about diet, and still I am having my evening tea while typing this piece, why? Because its feels good. Why don’t we do things we know we should be doing? Simple answer is

Because we don’t feel like it.

It’s not because we don’t know what’s better, it is because we don’t feel better while doing better, does that make sense? Give it a minute, let that sink in, read it one more time, it’s not because we don’t know what’s better, it is because we don’t feel better while doing better. Any idea why we don’t feel better? Its because of our social values, we live in society, where having skill, talent, money is not enough, you must be better compared to others. Which lead to “Social validation feedback loop” We all are vulnerable, we all need that dopamine hit occasionally. That's why, we spend more money on expensive cloths and photographer than donating that money to NGO, because of “likes”. To make ourselves look good we start bitching about our friends behind their back. When we see picture of friend with his new hatchback, we get sudden urge of buying sedan. When we hear someone switch a job for better package, we start to feel bad for ourselves. When we see person with similar experience is earning more than us, we start to feel like looser. All these emotions inspire actions, sometimes those actions are not morally right but they do make us feel good, and action inspires emotions. And this emotion – action cycles give birth to values, and those values subconsciously shapes person, take bunch of those people put them together and you get society. And unfortunately, we live in society were the only measure of success is money. That’s why I want this lockdown to extend for couple of more weeks, they say it takes roughly 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic. (It goes without saying that, I don’t want people to die or lose their jobs). This lockdown has shown us a different life, a life that we were too busy to give a shot, it has shown us that it doesn't matter even if you have 50+ billions in your piggy bag or living in a house worth billion you just can't buy your way out. It has shown us, all we really need is roof on our head and enough food for family and not that next limited-edition iPhone model, worth our two-months’ savings. Isn’t it funny that economy is bleeding to death, when we are buying only what we “need” and not what we “want”. WTI crude news stupefied me, imagine county like US paying you to buy their crude, bizarre right? That’s how depended and fragile our world economy is. This lockdown is teaching us not only minimalist lifestyle is possible but third world country like India its need of hour.

When this pandemic first reached India, people were (too) confident that this "dumb" virus won't survive in our harsh condition and even if it survive our mighty government is all prepared to fight with it. Turns out this dumb protein particle is smarter than us, if it were the general of an invading army with sole purpose of killing entire humanity, it has all bases covered. This dumb guy is always couple of steps ahead of modern homo sapiens. Now those of you think, we have caught off guarded, otherwise we could have handled this pandemic differently. I want to tell you something, we always knew state of our government health system is bad, we always knew the city is over populated, highly dense, public transportation is in bad shape, we lack basic infrastructures. It is just this “dumb” protein is peeling one layer at a time from our “Mumbai spirit” and showing us how vulnerable our life is. Every year ~2000 people die because of rain, and 330 million peoples get affected because of drought. Does government care? NO! But this time it’s different, this time even rich, fortunate, got affected, because of lockdown they are losing their business, their money, their authority on government and poor. Hence, everyone is lighting diyas and banging utensils, to show they care, to show they are standing united with everyone. But in reality, they want people to remain poor, because without poor there are no rich, they need poor to define rich. If you still think we are doing enough compared to other nations to support underprivileged strata of society, either you are lying to yourself or living in denial. Ironically, I am writing this piece on Labor Day evening, a day about advocating workers right and put an end to discrimination, and yet millions of workers are stranded across nation,without roof on their heads, without food on their plates, left all alone to die, while I am typing this from comfort of my bedroom, my AC is on, I am eating rusk with tea, which some poor worker (risked his life ) delivered this morning, while John Lennon – Imagine is playing in background ( obviously in loop, you can’t get enough of Lennie). Did you feel that inequality, gap? Looking at current situation, I think hunger will kill workers before corona. This virus showing us mirror, as individual, as group, as nation, exposing each one of us, it's forcing us reanalyze everything around and within us, this dumb protein stripping us naked with nowhere to hide. Unmasking our leaders, giving them difficult task of playing God. Though this virus forced us to put on mask, but it has unmasked arrogance, stupidity and greed of human. It has taught acceptance and impermanence, imagine all nation must digest the fact that,

people will simply have to die, or the economy will!!! 

Anyone who has planned even 6 months ahead, leave alone 2 years can only see as far as week ...what's more important than living in the moment? Alan Watts put it nicely

Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of presents, since it is in the present and only present that you live. There is no other reality than present reality, so that even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.

By now you must have understood that there is fundamentally something wrong with our social values, and the way we spend our limited time. Now, it’s our collective responsibility to create new social values, new metric to define success. We need more open society, where each strata of society have equal opportunity.

To all my fellow Mumbaikars, who are currently caged in their homes, who are feeling down because of all this, we always knew life in Mumbai is tough, but even for us this is new level of tough, but don’t worry we will get out it safely, just keep that “Mumbai Spirit” flame burning, I want to dedicate few lines to you all,

You know that life isn’t fair,

Nobody owes you tomorrow,

you’re in city -pit of Despair,

Bur for now put box of your sorrow,

No matter what, we must face,

Mumbaikars spirit will rise again,

Although the scare will leave a trace,

But the sun will shine again.

You must have observed I haven’t shared what values to follow, which are good values, and which are bad, and how to differentiate between them, because its individual specific, if needed we can argue about them in another post. But try to align your values for greater good of society, remember we do, what we do, because we feel good about it. So next time rather than spending money on unnecessary expensive stuff, donate that money to NGO, next time rather than spending your Sunday in hangover, go to near by slum area and ask them how you can help. Next time instead of Goa trip, go work with NGO on field. This may not give you more likes on Instagram, sometimes you will not even feel good while doing it, at a time you will question why you should be doing all this when you already giving 30% of your salary as Tax. Always remember you are doing it for greater good! As I said, we all know what’s better, lets start doing our part for better future. 

#StayHomeStaySafe