Its been 3 years since I spent consecutive 5 days in my Home / Home town. I was not disconnected from people but definitely disconnected from their thought process. After staying in village / forest type European settlement for this long, it was obvious that it will make some impact on the way I talk, I see things, I react and most importantly, The way I think!
Now, spending about a week dedicatedly in Pune observing lifestyle of my loved ones, I came across few thoughts from the 3rd person's perspective. I also studied my city from a perspective of me being settled for long time and looked for its consequences. Don't worry, most of my inferences are positive. Though I found many things drastically changed in these 3 years, I found many things surprisingly unchanged !
For eg., Our favourite Lakshmi road, Nal stop signal, S.B.Road, Sadashiv Peth, Deccan, Kothrud etc. and all areas where we spend 80% of our time. There might be few shops shut, few opened newly, but as a whole, I found no drastic change at all. May be because I expected lot of changes or may be because there is no room for change in these tightly packed and 'seasoned' areas. I am happy for that ! May be all changes, development is happening with full speed on outskirt of Pune, in satellite towns which I did not notice and top of it, I did not care.
I also had expected dramatic increase in traffic, kiosk, noise and pollution which i felt is not too bad. May be because I am traveling all big and more clumsy cities like Chennai, Delhi and compared to those, Pune is still far better (or behind) of being that bad. In spite of coming from a town of 2000 people with 8 four-wheeleres and 1500 bikes with 50 million trees in just 20 sq.Km. and all mud roads.... I did not find Pune being too 'Jammed' even if all my friends suggested that.
I found people watching more and more TV, more and more money earners, more and more money spenders, more and more luxury consumers, and so on....... but, thats OK I think. It is a gift of this era and I did not think anything bad about it. Everyone goes in this phase and one fine day, finds a way out of his choice sooner or later.
But.............. The most important thing which struck me hard and which is far at a distance from what life I am living is the phenomenon which is kind of widely accepted by the society of neither being Optimistic, nor being pacimistic...But being highly 'Opinionistic' !!!
I felt that everyone 'Has' an opinion on everything happening around. And there is a great urge to express it to often entering into a unnecessary debate. I know, it is very much 'The Pune thing' ! But, it is contagious & growing. When 10 people around you express their opinion 24 x 7, there is hardly any chance that you don't start doing same !
In one way, there is no harm in that and 'it is the proud Pune thing' ...! But, in may other ways, it is a damage to society. It is a damage to yourself if nothing else. The most important loss with increase in ability to speak, we loose dangerously the ability to listen. Secondly, We skip the part of studying deep. Habit of expressing an opinion kills habit of keeping quiet naturally.
It trains our brain to think of a topic which our brain might not want to think of. We stop its important processes continuously going on with our sub conscious mind. It gets connected to 1000 (one liner) things and disconnects from a single novel like important thought about ourself. Again, This is not my opinion...it is an information I saw in a documentary called "Moebious bend".
I found no reason to have an opinion on election, I am not a politics expert. I found no reason to have an opinion on petrol price hike, I am not an economy expert, I found no reason to have opinion on which school my cousin's daughter's friend is going, what my neighbours son is wearing, How nicely Virat Kohli should have played 15th over, and so on......and on...!!! I really did not find a single reason to comment or place an opinion which I hardly know.
But everyone else seemed to find the reason ! They have a great competition to prove how great their knowledge about politics is, How aware they are about the 'situation', How versatile and matured they are when it comes to daily life and decision making, How perfect they are when it comes to everything other than work. Indeed.....They are !
I am not ready having knowledge in all fields, preparing with an opinion and expressing it with loud and clear voice. Forget about all fields, I am not ready to answer all questions in even my field. I know nothing about architecture, about acoustics, about sound. I don't even have an opinion about Narendra Modi ! And I do not regret that.
Whenever I got even one hour free, I preferred to found out why a Jamun tree is called C.G.M.Kumini, What is a difference between a Kilimanjaro elephant and Amboseli elephant, How many kilometres a Monarch butterfly travels in 4 months, How a term 'Cattamaran' was introduced for a Tamil fisherman 400 years ago, What is a difference between a Patash, Kalimardhu, and Palimardhu wood, What was the policy Nehru and Dr. bhabha decided about atomic power plants in India, and something of these weird kind.
After finding these answers, I will not be equipped with any opinion, I do not care. But..... I will be equipped with 'information'. Correct, unbiased, linear information. And that is what I care for. I will be equipped with random facts which give birth to more 10 million questions and I will be busy finding answers of those for life time. Sorry...I will have no time asking you about neighbours for whom you will be ready with some strong opinion. Too bad ! It is not at all a serious concern. It was just my observation which I found very different from my current surrounding.
May be, that is a sign of civilised, developed, aware, on the top society. But....May be it is not ! Who knows.... I do not have an opinion on that !!!
Thanks,
Harshad Prabhakar Mehendale
Architect
