Whenever I see the flying birds, I wish to complaint to my Creator - why I have not been created as a bird. I could fly freely and enjoy the whole universe.
I always get one reply. I created you as super species, bestowed you with the ultimate freedom, and revealed my knowledge upon you. But it is, you who created hurdles in your free life and caged yourself, through technologies and securities.
Indeed, His reply has got a weight I could not further argue. I could understand that I was born free in his universe, and was provided land, oxygen, water, light, food and what not. There existed no barriers, no borders, and no identities.
And I required no cards and no registration certificates. For centuries together I moved freely in search of pastured lands, crossed rivers and climbed the high mountain peaks and lived as per my choice in the dugout caves.
This was the period of my ultimate freedom, during which I enjoyed ultimate freedom of my life and moved from one land to another on my own. This period of my history I classified as Paleolithic and Neolithic period.
Then I made my own choice and settled at one place, made communities and cultivated lands, tamed animals and built houses. It was the period that started to lay the foundation of my cages which gradually developed and reached a phase where I found myself caged in the four walls of my home. Still I could move freely and travelled the distant lands without the documents and identity proofs.
In fact things have changed fas, human beings have lost that freedom which they once enjoyed when there were no Ration cards, water supply cards, gas cards, identity cards, Aadhar Cards, Golden cards, bank cards, Passports etc.
Most of the people would not see me eye to eye, but tell you that if the modern advancement in education, science, trade, and technology, has transported our economic and social life into a comfortable zone, but at the same time it has deprived us from our basic freedoms of life, and we cannot move without scrutiny, and without the cards. We are in a comfortable zone but are caged like in a luxurious prison.
These modern technologies deprived human beings from the olden golden days when people enjoyed freedom, and lived comfortably without these cards. Their privacy was safe and secure.
In fact I feel we have lost several magnificent traditions and values to this technological advancement, the present-day society has almost turned self centered. In traditional societies there was the concept of joint system; people lived jointly with love and affection. They used to celebrate happiness jointly and shared their grief together.
The traditional communities and dynasties have broken up and now families are breaking up very fast. There were the times when there existed no demarcations and no such high walls around our homes. People moved freely without any tension.
The neighbors would leave their homes unlocked, but now are the times when the neighbors and even the dynasties are isolated and caged in their luxurious houses. The families stand separated by high walls and iron gates.
At several places the real brothers have demarcated their respective houses with high walls and over these walls iron grills have been superimposed so that nobody could trespass the standing wall. You will not believe, but in several families even parents stand divided and are caged in separate rooms.
In deed there may be several other factors responsible for this type of imprisonment. There may be security reasons as well but losing freedom means we have lost everything.
The spirit of love, faith and brotherhood in the modern societies has considerably diminished; several of the people have lost their trust and faith. The once free, loving, caring and simple society looks to have almost disappeared.
Nowadays we have enough facilities but are not free; we all are caged like caged birds and engaged in making of our different cards till we die.
Is this a life for which we have been struggling for? No, this is a life where entire survival goes waste in preparing and then taking care of different number of cards. In fact, where one can not travel without a card cannot be called freedom. This is not only true for any particular region but of course it has nowadays become the phenomenon of the whole globe.
I do not like this caged life. I think most of you will also not like this type of life. So I have been complaining to my creator, it was better for me to have been created as a bird rather than the caged man. I need not to be called any super species. How a caged human being can be a super species.
(The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR. Views are personal) (Syndicate: The Billion Press)
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.
