I have been wondering you know, about
how the erstwhile 'normal' has become 'diabolical exceptions'. Let me elaborate
a bit here.
Enjoying a good meal was the norm once
upon a time. I remember the pleasure on the faces of aunts and sisters when
their culinary skills were appreciated by guests and dishes were polished off
with relish. Cut to the present and a meal is all about calories, oats, protein
shakes, keto and GM diets, and the need to "burn off" the guilty
pounds supposedly gained after a decent meal. A day when one can eat to the
heart's (and the tummy's content) is termed a 'cheat day! So one is basically
being 'dishonest' with oneself when she/he eats well! There is no joy anymore
in eating upto the heart's content. Food is more of a vile than a pleasure. The
line between an optimum meal and a strict diet even in conditions without
any medical or health-related indication has become concretized and infallible.
Remember the afternoons when kids of the
neighborhood gathered after school to play? Actually play? No, there
were no play stations or mobiles. There were no transformers or Barbie dolls.
Yes, a few precious Hotwheels sporadically popped-up , courtesy either
as freebies with Maggie packets or as a generous gifts from benevolent
relatives. Cricket, football, gharial-paani, chor-police, hide and seek,
kabaddi - these were real entities, not just visuals on the idiot box or
phrases in nostalgic blogs.
We now kvetch about being bored and
stuck to the mundane. Everything seems to repeat itself without any adventure
or surprise. So what we end up doing? Yes, you are right! We seek distractions
in social media and by eating junk food ordered online. More fulfilling
activities like reading a book, cooking for friends and family,
sewing, gardening, painting, etc have all become unachievable fantasies
for us - we are robbed of time and interest.
There is no longer the urge in us to
savour the finer nuances of life. In pursuing goals, our personal needs
and happiness have taken a beating. We can no longer even dream of dropping
over at relatives' place without prior intimation. There is no joy left in
watching the television; the exposure to thousands of channels has been so much
that the pleasure of watching a television programme is long gone. Choices were
handful earlier. Bharat ek khoj , Chitrahaar, Vikram-Betaal, He-man,
Stoneboy, Night-rider - we could count the programmes that we were
allowed to watch in our fingertips. These days kids are encouraged to
stay glued to the mobile or the television so that the adults can continue
chats with virtual friends or can upload narcissistic selfies in various
social platforms.
Yes, things like smelling the first rain
of the monsoons ( we stay cocooned inside our air-conditioned offices),
bargaining over the price of a garment (since we order online now), cooking up
a meal ( why bother when boxes of our favourite dishes are delivered at the
doorstep) , etc are fast becoming mere childhood memories.
I wonder about the fast disappearing
cobblers ( who mend their shoes these days? A new pair is just a click away!).
Like fossilized specimen (like me), the cobblers also now make rare
appearances. No, I do not mean to say that I have remained unaffected and
special. Rather, I feel that I over-react at times. Or is it that real time is
indeed fast getting metamorphosed into virtual time???
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