How sane are we?

-          Anuradha Chaudhary, Bangladesh (1947- )

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This essay is written by Anuradha Chaudhary, Bangladesh (1947- ). She is an experienced professor of environmental biology. In this essay, she has discussed about the growing harm to the environment due to the irresponsible human activities.

            The situation of the ecology is degrading day by day. The hazardous condition of the biosphere is the result of humankind’s fundamental irresponsibility towards nature. But the citizens, even the university students, are not able to understand that the degraded ecological condition is directly linked with the present day bad politics and wrong ways of thinking. It’s because mostly we wrongly think that our collective decision-making process is rational, but the world is not a wholly rational place. The humanity is, as a result, on the verge of sinking and drowning by its greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity.

In 1974, the scientists found that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the long-lived manmade chemicals, destroy ozone that protects the life on Earth from the harmful effects of the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. Invented in 1930, the combination of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon, which are nontoxic, odorless, and inert, are being used as coolants in the refrigerators and air conditioners, as foam-blowing agents, as propellants in spray cans, and cleaning agents for computer chips. They deplete ozone resulting into the rise in the cases of skin cancer, cataracts, suppression of human immune system, threats to the Antarctic food chain, damage to ecosystems and agriculture, and extinction of some wild species.

During the 22-year lag from indictment (1974) to partial lockup (1996) and about the 11-year interval from discovery of the Antarctic hole to the partial ban, the use of the CFCs has not become less despite the fact that they are not indispensable to the world’s economy or to average quality of life. Therefore, we can guess that humanity is on the verge of sinking and drowning by its greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity. They have concluded that the world is not a wholly rational place.

            In the present world, not only CFCs but also other harmful products are present, but our collective inactions have ruled over the world. As a result, the idea of the existence of the collective rationality has been proved wrong and we seem bent on digging our own, or our descendants’ graves. If we fail to take decisive action, if we fail to bring about fundamental changes in our ways of thinking and doing politics, we just might sink and drown.

II. Interpretation

            Despite knowing everything about the harmful effects of CFCs on the world environment and ozone, we are still unable to work decisively on quitting its use because of bad politics. Because of the humankind’s fundamental irresponsibility towards nature, our collective decision-making process is not rational. CFCs are not indispensable to the world’s economy or to average quality of life, but it took 22 years for making the decision of partial ban on CFCs since they were found guilty of destroying ozone for the first time in 1974. It also took 11 years from discovery of the Antarctic hole to the partial ban. Because of this collective inaction, and because of our greed, shortsightedness, and colossal stupidity, we are bent on digging our own or our descendants’ graves. If we fail to take decisive action, if we fail to bring about fundamental changes in our ways of thinking and doing politics, we just might sink and drown.

III. Critical Thinking

            I agree with the writer that the increasing environmental hazards are the results of the political inactions and human greed. We have already started experiencing some serious bad consequences of the ozone layer depletion due to CFCs, such as the increasing cases of skin cancer and eye cataracts, suppression of the immune system, the global warming, etc. But the overall situation is not as bleak and hopeless as the writer has suggested. In fact, we can be hopeful for the better future as many countries in the world have already cut off the production of CFCs, and by the year 2030 the CFCs emission will have been totally stopped. Even the ozone levels are expected to fully recover by 2065.

IV. Assimilation

            This essay has made me aware of the harmful effects of CFCs on the ozone layer that is found in the stratosphere and is indispensable for the human survival. In this age of consumerism, we often neglect the long-lasting effects of our luxurious lifestyle, and knowingly or unknowingly we are inflicting upon the environment. Our collective irrationality and bad politics are responsible for the increasing environmental hazards.

The Lunatic

-          Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959)

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This poem is written by Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909-1959), popularly acclaimed as mahakavi (great poet) in Nepali literature, a versatile writer who has experimented with all literary genres and has produced more than forty books such as Muna Madan (1935), Shakuntala (1945), and Laxmi Nibandha Sangraha (1945). The Lunatic (1956) is the poet’s own translation into English of his autobiographical poem ‘Pagal’. The speaker accepts that he is insane, but can do what his friend, a worldly man, cannot. He can see the sound, hear the visuals, and taste the fragrance. He can see and touch the object which his friend cannot. He can see a flower in the stone. He can talk to the moonbirds using the language which is unintelligible for other people.

            The speaker’s friend is clever and eloquent. He is realistic, so depends upon his five senses and mind. The speaker is emotional and uses his heart. He works with his sixth sense and one minus one is always one for him. What his friend sees only a rose embodies Helen and Padmini for him. He says his friend is money-minded, so he has money, gold, and diamond in his mind. The speaker follows the abstract dream, so he has no clear idea in his mind. His life is sorrowful.

            The speaker realized the truth of human life when he saw burning corpse at ghat and stayed shocked for seven days. People called him obsessed. When he realized even a beautiful girl can be old and ugly, he wept for three days. People called him deeply affected by the emotion. Again when he danced in frenzy of the happiness at the arrival of the spring, people called him crazy and put him in stocks. He was taken to Ranchi for treatment. When he lay upon his bed stretching his body, one of his friends pinched him and called him mad.

            The speaker thinks that the wine the Nawab drinks is the blood of the poor. A concubine is a corpse. And a king is a pauper. He has deplored the great people, and praised the common people. Since the speaker has an opposite perception than that of his friends, he thinks the learned are fools and the heaven is the hell. The gold is the iron for him, and people’s way of showing respect to God is the sin for him. The speaker’s friend thinks himself as smart, but he finds the friend dim-witted and innocent.

            The speaker thinks that a penancer is a runaway and the deserter of humanity. The liars are the clowns and the defeated ones are the victors. He keeps on asking questions after questions to the world, so he is a crackpot for other common people.

            The speaker deplores the shamelessness of the leadership for depriving the people of their rights. The newspapers are full of the lies that challenge the speaker’s reason and make him furious. The general public gulp the poison of the rumour taking it as ambrosia. His hair rises like the angry serpent-tresses of the Gorgons, and he feels his bones as strong as of Dadhichi when he sees the injustice being done to the innocent people around. He loses his control upon his body and mind.

II. Interpretation

            This poem is an irony toward the worldly affairs. The poet has expressed it through the contrasts used in the poem. The poet has worn the mask or the persona of ‘I’, the lunatic, and has compared himself with the addressee ‘you’, a common man who is money-minded and has interest in the worldly affairs. The poet has been able to establish the idea in the poem that he is a superior human being with high sensitivity and understanding of the world different from other money-minded common people. But he is often misunderstood by the other people.

            The poet has also proved himself as highly conscious by protesting the social injustice being done to the helpless and inferiors by the powerful. He expresses his rage toward it and declares himself as a rebel. Actually, the poem can be taken as a political protest poem that has criticized the then rulers and their henchmen.

III. Critical Thinking

            The poet has rightly worn the mask of a lunatic in the poem to feel comfortable to criticize the injustice and to put forward his differences with the people around him. Otherwise, it would have been much difficult for him in doing so. He has, at least, got the freedom for free expression of his heart. The mask has provided him with the cover to expose the phoniness of the world around him. But does a traditionally insane man behaves and talks like the speaker of the poem? The sounds rather like a philosopher and a sage who protests the conventions of the world.

IV. Assimilation

Sometimes, I feel like the speaker of the poem. I find many people who are not concerned about the humanity. The money-minded and self-centered people cause a lot of trouble to me. On many occasions, they have tried to humiliate or insult me just because I am not so practical as they think they are. Now, I have realized that it’s not my fault. Actually, it’s the fault of their lack of understanding the world humanly. 
ALSO READ THIS POEM IN NEPALI

Life is sweet at Kumansenu

                                                                       - Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leone (1924-1994)

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This story is written by Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leone (1924-1994), whose original name was Davidson Nicol. He was doctorate in medicine and biochemistry from Christ’s College, Cambridge.

            In a small African village, Kumansenu, with a few houses with thatched and corrugated zinc roofs, Bola, an old widow and her granddaughter, Asi, a seven-year-old girl lived. When she was a young woman, Bola gave birth to six boy children one after another regularly in every two years. However, none of them survived. Musa, the village magician, had advised her and her husband to break the bones of the corpse and to mangle it so that it couldn’t come back to torment them again, but she had refused it. She had secretly marked the corpse with a sharp pointed stick at the left buttock before it was buried. When her seventh son, Meji, was born, she checked the mark and found it at left buttock of the baby.

            Now, Meji was thirty years old and a second-class officer in a government office in the town ninety miles away. When he gave Bola and Asi a surprise visit, he was wearing short-sleeved, open necked white shirt and grey gabardine trousers, a gold wrist watch and brown suede shoes. He looked grayish brown in colour. He was wearing a red handkerchief around his neck, and his voice was hoarse.

            Bola cried with happiness at his visit. She wanted to call the villagers and organize a big party, but Meji didn’t want the villagers know about his arrival. He said he had returned just to share happy moment with his mother and his daughter, and he didn’t want to share it with others.

            Meji slept all afternoon till evening when Bola brought food into his room and took the empty basins away. Then, he again slept until the next morning.

            The next morning, Saturday morning, he took Asi for a long walk through a deserted path and up into the hills. He bought her delicious foods. While returning, Asi asked three questions: Why he hadn’t got shadow, why his watch had stopped at twelve o’clock, and why he was wearing a scarf round his neck. He answered all the questions jokingly so that Asi would be amused.

            In the late evening, Bola, Meji, and Asi went to Meji’s father’s grave to offer visit. She talked to the grave showing their son, a respectable government clerk, and offering wine to the dead soul. She threw four kola nuts into the air and they fell on the grave. Three fell with the flat face upwards and one with its flat face downwards. It meant the dead soul was not listening to her. She repeated the action many times, but all her attempts went in vain. Then, Meji performed the action successfully.

            That night, returning home, Bola discovered that Meji had thrown all the food cooked by her for him out of his room’s window. There was also a smell of decay in the room, but Meji said it might be the smell of a dead rat that he would clear away before going to bed.

            Bola woke up at midnight when she heard knocking. Meji wasn’t in his room. When she opened the door quickly, she found him standing on the veranda. Surprisingly, he was not wet in the heavy rain. He said he had to go away, and thanked Bola for giving him a chance to be born. He said that life was sweet and ran into the heavy rain.

            On Saturday afternoon, Mr Addai came to meet Bola. Some villagers also came to her house. They informed her of Meji’s death in town. Her daughter-in-law, Asi’s mother, said her son had died on Friday noon and had been buried on Saturday evening. Due to the hot season, they couldn’t bring the corpse to the village for performing funeral rites. When he was in the office, he pulled up the window to look out and call the messenger. Meanwhile, the sash broke and the window fell down breaking his neck and killing him at once.

            Asi’s mother gave her her father’s last gift, a small gold locket, bought only the previous week for Christmas. Asi said her father had already taught her how to open the locket. Even the village smith couldn’t open it, but Asi opened the locket with her name in it.

            Musa, the village magician, who had become old and weak now, scolded Bola whispering in her ear for not obeying him to crush the dead baby’s bones thirty-one years back. He blamed her of being naughty and stubborn.

            Bola protested him and said that she was happy to have given her son a chance to be reborn because life is sweet.

II. Interpretation

            This story might be a statement about the power of love. Despite the fact that the village magician advised her to break the bones of the dead body before burying it so that it wouldn’t haunt her as another baby, Bola didn’t do that. Instead, she marked at the left buttock and left it without any further harm. So, the spirit of her seventh son, Meji, was grateful to her for her kindness. After the death, Meji visited her in the spiritual form and thanked her for it. In another word, the story is also an example of the gratitude shown by children towards their parents.

III. Critical Thinking

            Though it is a heartrending story about the love and gratitude between parents and their children, there are many glimpses which present impossible events. How is it possible for a dead man to visit his mother and daughter? How can he talk and act like a living person? In fact, I don’t believe in the existence of the spirits. Therefore, it’s just a story for fun.

IV. Assimilation

            This story has given me an insight upon the power of love. If parents love their children with true heart and fulfill their duties, children remain grateful to them. They show their gratitude even after the death. Thus, I’ve known how much powerful love can be.

Arranging a marriage in India

                                                                                                                   -          Serena Nanda, USA

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This essay was written by Serena Nanda, USA, in 1992. In this essay she has talked about her experience of matchmaking in India.

            On her first trip to India, the writer met many young men and women whose parents were searching suitable marriage partners for them. She was shocked at the fact that they had no freedom to choose a partner by themselves. Their parents decided everything about their marriage, so she found the Indian arranged marriage oppressive.

            The writer interviewed some of them. Sita, a college graduate with a degree in political science, said that she was happy with her parents’ choice for her future husband because her parents would never choose a wrong man.

            The idea of marrying a stranger offended the writer’s ideas of individualism and romanticism. But she was satisfied by Sita’s answer that marrying a stranger would help make married life full of mystery and romance, and that a couple who took their marriage into their own hands was taking a big risk.

            Six years later, when she returned to India, she got a chance to be involved in arranging marriage of her friend’s eldest son. Though she was experienced in matchmaking in America, she found arranging marriage in India very difficult because of its various complications. Her friend rejected the first proposal from a mother of five pretty and well-educated marriageable daughters because she was a possessive mother who would like to always have her daughters around her and she would not be able to spend much money at the wedding ceremony. Another girl was too educated and too independent for her joint family because she was found travelling alone on a bus. The third proposal was from the friend’s husband’s client whose daughter was fat and wore glasses. She was also rejected. The writer’s friend actually expected to find a modest, attractive, and educated girl for her son.

            Two years later, the writer’s son was still unmarried. She decided to try again for finding a match for him. She found a family with marriageable daughter who was pretty and had studied fashion designing in college. She was running a small boutique and had had a traditional sheltered upbringing. She wanted to have a career, but wasn’t allowed to go off by herself to anywhere.

The writer told the girl’s parents about her friend’s son. They were immediately interested in him. She also told her friend about the girl. The writer was not so much hopeful, but a year later she received a letter from her friend that said the girl’s family had visited them and that her daughter had been a good friend with her. The two girls had been visiting each other frequently.

Finally, last week, the writer received her friend’s invitation for her son’s wedding with the same girl.

II. Interpretation

            In the essay, the writer has tried to show that marriage is a very much complicated event in the Indian society because of the parents’ involvement in it. The parents decide everything about their son or daughter’s marriage. Individual freedom of the bride and the groom has no value in the Indian society where arranged marriage is so popular. Actually, marriage is not an individual choice but a family choice. The essay might also be trying to tell us that marriage is not fair in Indian society because of the gender discrimination practiced in it. A bride must have all the possible good qualities, but a groom doesn’t need so much. A girl is always under the surveillance of her parents before marriage and her husband’s and her in-law’s after the marriage. A bride and her parents have to give the traditional gifts to the groom and his family. Indian marriage is also guided by narrow-mindedness because it takes place only between a girl and a boy of the same caste and social class.

III. Critical Thinking

            The writer has exposed the narrow-mindedness and gender inequality seen in the arranged marriage. If so, why are the young generation people attracted so much to it till date? There is also a growing trend among the youth that they choose a boy or a girl, and the parents arrange marriage for them. Also, many parents are seen to arrange marriage of their son or daughter with boy or girl of different castes. But the writer has observed and described about only the traditional kind of arranged marriage. It’s because perhaps she had many limitations as an outsider to the Indian society and culture.

IV. Assimilation

            Now I know marriage in India is taken rather seriously. Despite its defects, arranged marriage is preferred because it provides chance to the parents to exercise the authority. I found the Indian society that the writer has discussed in the essay very much similar to the Nepalese society in the matter of arranged marriages.