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Meeting the Tiger Eye to Eye :-
A couple of years ago one of our friends died of cardiac arrest, we felt really helpless because he was young and do not deserve to die at that age. He had a wife and a daughter and he was working in a big Tech company and a sole bread earner. This was his second attack. The first attack came after his daughter’s bharathanatyam arangtrem. Before the big event (as he’d like to call it) he was so excited to get the arangetram done in a style. He had spent nearly 6 months for its preparation. He has saved all his earnings (never even went for a vacation) for 5years to spent on this event. The event was organized in quite a big sabha in Alwarpet. The fact is more than our friend’s daughter the dance master had a ball of time bringing distinguished guests from the privileged circle and debuting his son’s singing performance in style, all at the cost of our dear friend. Add to it the gifts and the dinner for all it would have cost my friend at least 10-15 lacs. During the performance our friend was so emotional in seeing his daughter’s performance that too in big sabha and among a big audience. the first heart attack came just within a month after this event. After the event even though he’d boast about how the event has made his dream come true, we have seen him often being distressed about the amount spent on the event. Post the arangetram our friend’s daughter have shown complete disinterest towards continuing her career in dance. But that’s not the end of the story. Within a year our friend had suffered a second attack and passed away. The company to which he had worked for almost 18years had delayed his final settlement for almost more than a year making his family run from one corner to another. Of all the memories with him we remember vividly whenever we used to talk about how this consumeristic lifestyle in the city is suffocating us, he used to say:
“Puli vaalai pidichachu, eppadi vidurathunu theriyalai” (“I have caught the tiger by its tail, don’t know how to let it go”)
we have adopted a lifestyle never questioning its impact on our mental and physical health, our children, environment and the quality of life. We work for a company, the company gives salary, with the salary we raise a family, we send our children to a school, we provide them with food, shelter and cloths. In between we have forgotten why we continue doing this work though not to our liking. As long as the money keeps coming in, we buy a house with emi, we buy an expensive car, we send our children to a school where we pay beyond our means. we spend on clothes, recreation, tuition, excursions etc, etc... as the children grows the needs of theirs also grows. You want your children to excel in everything they do. You make them focus on one and only thing which is academic excellence. This focussing over a period of time takes its toll on them. Your chella-kutty whom you thought will always be a dear one shows a seething rage (as they reach their teens) when you go near them, they become a different species, they show complete disdain towards anything. They want to be left alone with their mobile phone, they are ready to write any exam but they literally say “don’t come near me” with your advice and inspiring stories which according to them is too cunning told only to motivate them to write a stupid exam.
The company which made profits in millions now says our profit is not growing anymore and wants to throw thousands of employees out to keep its share-holders happy. If you happen to be that unlucky one in thousand who is going to be axed all your aspiration comes to a free fall. Your emis are waiting to hang you. Your heart which has gone through millions of emotions with bravo all these 40 odd years feels little heavy nowadays. You keep saying to yourself and others-
“ puli vaalai pidichachu, eppadi ippo vida mudiyum” (“I have caught the tiger by its tail, how can I let it go now”)
There are also people who have stopped catching the tail of the tiger and have come to meet the eyes of the tiger which is the life itself. They have learnt to survive despite a steep learning curve that they have to face in the beginning because the survival skill includes dealing with the ground realities of this place, people and navigating through a complex social space which has not been taught by any school. The means and the end do not come from working for a multinational company where all your passion for working towards some ground breaking technology has been drained out of you by the company. The mnc keeps you as a modern clerk just like the britishers wanted us to be. All the schools and colleges work towards manufacturing mass slaves who should not have any critical thinking, who should not work towards the betterment of the local economy and local needs of our own people. That’s is why in a country of million software engineers we won’t see a functionally efficient govt websites where we could access govt services at ease.
This is where people like Perumal is making a difference to their own life and others surrounding him. he is a gadget service person who had his own shop in Chennai and he was doing very well but his mind was in moving out of the city and creating his own business away from this overwhelming consumeristic lifestyle. he has chosen Panai (Palm) as his homecoming. He says “four years before he knows nothing about Panai”. Now he makes honey, chocolates, sugar, karupatti, tooth paste, band-aid etc all out of panai. When we reached his farm, he along with his mother welcomed us with plenty of pathaneer and as people were craving for more he climbed the palm trees himself with a machine he has built and got us the fresh pathaneer. Every one of us drank to our heart feeling more than content. He showed us the difference between pathaneer and kallu. He made us feel guilty when he told how our govt is failing to see the potential of panai which could help built local livelihood, economy and be a rich source of food instead our govt is busy leasing lands and giving subsidies to mnc’s for setting up their factories where the exploitation of water, land and humans resources are endless. and at the end of it after draining out all our natural wealth when they realize they have made most of the profits they move to a new country where they can profit more. But this is what our govt feels will make our country a developed one. But the question we fail to ask is how can the country which lose its natural wealth, destroy its environment and fails its people of livelihood where young people have to solely depend on the mnc’s to provide employment or move abroad can become a developed country. The corona pandemic and the subsequent lockdown had shown clearly the failure of centralized power and economy across the world. You would have often heard the word “supply chain breakdown” which means the countries which has outsourced its manufacturing of crucial products (like antibiotics) couldn’t get them when they needed the most during the lockdown because of total shutdown of vehicle movement. It has taken the countries particularly in west to rethink their manufacturing strategies. Now they want crucial products to be manufactured within their countries. Isn’t time for our govt also to look inwards and help entrepreneurs like Perumal who has come up with inventive and sustainable products without harming our land, water and air. isn’t the need of the hour to encourage local innovation, employment which serves the local communities instead of mnc’s whose sole aim is to maximise their companies profit at the cost of anything. When will we as a country give importance to a sustainable economy and livelihood which would protect its environment and people where the young people will really work towards building a society which care for them rather than just exploiting them for individual profits. - Com Balamurali
இதுபோன்ற பயணங்களில் மற்றும் தாம்பரம் பகுதியில் நடக்கும் நிகழ்வுகளில் பங்கெடுக்க ஆர்வம் உள்ளவர்கள் கீழே கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ள வாட்ஸ் அப் இணைப்பில் இணையவும்.
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