There was a time when humans used to live for 400 years. That was the Satya Yuga, then it reduced to an average lifetime of 300 years, this was the Treta Yuga. Further, reduce it by a hundred years with an average lifespan of 200 years, Dwapara Yuga averaged out human life. Yet this was still a long number of years to live. So Kali-yuga made life simpler, live for just 100 years, die with a lot of misery. The statements made above on other yugas maybe far-fetched, neither you nor I have any memory if we lived nor do we have any solid scripture stating such life. So we will stick to our own yuga of farming with bullocks and plough through to walking on streets never minding the surroundings with our noses stuck to mobiles and onto poles and people.
Our Kali-Yuga ancestors never did face any of the diseases or problems known to uppity, higher civilized us. They lead simple lives, farmed their lands ate what they grew and lived up to the expectation of the yuga living a hundred years and died peacefully. They never knew diabetes or BP, nor did they knew vaccination or english medicine. All they knew were in plants and herbs that grew in nature. They understood and ate what fruits born by trees in the seasons. They knew what to eat and what not to when sick. Never had they the slightest imagination of pizzas and burgers to fries and wedges. They drank "kashayam" to get rid of fever and cold, they ate millets, greens and jaggery to sweeten their lives. They might not have had much of money, but had a lot of what money cant buy. Happiness, liveliness and a heartfelt laughter with the whole of the village sharing their jokes and coming together in times of sorrow. They danced away their time, sung away to tunes that rhymed.
Times change and so do people and with it "civilization". Being an 80's kid I grew up listening to my father tell his stories as a child with no TV but playing in the hot sun and drinking water of roadside taps. I envied the lifestyle they had. I wondered if I will ever be able to see the greenery he enjoyed. I was totally awed when my grandfather said in my granny's home village, "Naan unga paatiya inga ponnu paaka varumbodhu, current kooda kedaiyadhu. Ippo paaru ennalaam indha graamathula" (When I came to see your grandmother for an alliance, there was not ever current here. Now look what all you get in this village). Being 88 and walking briskly with a stooped shoulder just due to age, I looked exactly my grandfather with just 60 years behind having the same stooped arched back due to the mobile in my hand. It struck me hard of how much has changed. He may live to be a hundred. On the other hand, I might be lucky to cross 65 to the max, prolonging my dying frail body with medicines by my bedside. Money was primarily ruling the lives of people starting with the advent of westernization. With over 6 feet my grandfather was built like an ox. I would have never dared to mess with him in his youth fearing a broken jaw and a twisted arm. I heard how he saw rice only on Pongal and Diwali for eating. Harvest brought them joy and an occasion of celebration. It got people together under one roof with sweets and huge cooking pots of delicious items doing round after round in a plantain leaf.
With more of westernization coming in and India opening its doors to FDI, came MNC's. All rich men things became poor man things. Rice which my grandfather hardly ate is what I hog all days. Jaggery was replaced with sugar and "Elaneer" with Coke. Greens with Lays and plantain leaf with ever-silver plates. I don't have the time to look to say a "Good Morning" to my neighbor, neither the patience to a breakfast seated with nothing on my mind. I wish my friends on birthdays and joyous occasions with a whatsapp pic, and laugh to myself over a useless GIF. I turn around to share it with people and all I see are self-laughing immersed idiots like me looking for showing their mobiles for a second. Joint families became nuclear and nuclear to a word yet to be invented. I am immersed in my laptop day and night, never saying the outside glorious sun nor the beautiful moon. This is what we are doing.
Like all my laptop looking, mobile hugging, professionals, an epiphany of life dawned. I decided to jog and keep fit, rise early and see the morning sun. Have a nice run and enjoy the family fun. Eat less rice and more greens, cut the sugar and bring jaggery in. Throw our the boxed foods and corn flakes and pizzas and ring in millets and "healthier" alternatives. Speak to people and spend and share joy and laughter on occasions. Get to know my neighbor better, even if they think I am being nosy on their "Privacy".
I sit back as I am was thinking of typing away all this, that I am back at where my ancestor started. Shows, life, after all, is a circle. Going back to what once was is where we all have head to. Re-think your life and start living. I have decided to live again, have you?
Our Kali-Yuga ancestors never did face any of the diseases or problems known to uppity, higher civilized us. They lead simple lives, farmed their lands ate what they grew and lived up to the expectation of the yuga living a hundred years and died peacefully. They never knew diabetes or BP, nor did they knew vaccination or english medicine. All they knew were in plants and herbs that grew in nature. They understood and ate what fruits born by trees in the seasons. They knew what to eat and what not to when sick. Never had they the slightest imagination of pizzas and burgers to fries and wedges. They drank "kashayam" to get rid of fever and cold, they ate millets, greens and jaggery to sweeten their lives. They might not have had much of money, but had a lot of what money cant buy. Happiness, liveliness and a heartfelt laughter with the whole of the village sharing their jokes and coming together in times of sorrow. They danced away their time, sung away to tunes that rhymed.
Times change and so do people and with it "civilization". Being an 80's kid I grew up listening to my father tell his stories as a child with no TV but playing in the hot sun and drinking water of roadside taps. I envied the lifestyle they had. I wondered if I will ever be able to see the greenery he enjoyed. I was totally awed when my grandfather said in my granny's home village, "Naan unga paatiya inga ponnu paaka varumbodhu, current kooda kedaiyadhu. Ippo paaru ennalaam indha graamathula" (When I came to see your grandmother for an alliance, there was not ever current here. Now look what all you get in this village). Being 88 and walking briskly with a stooped shoulder just due to age, I looked exactly my grandfather with just 60 years behind having the same stooped arched back due to the mobile in my hand. It struck me hard of how much has changed. He may live to be a hundred. On the other hand, I might be lucky to cross 65 to the max, prolonging my dying frail body with medicines by my bedside. Money was primarily ruling the lives of people starting with the advent of westernization. With over 6 feet my grandfather was built like an ox. I would have never dared to mess with him in his youth fearing a broken jaw and a twisted arm. I heard how he saw rice only on Pongal and Diwali for eating. Harvest brought them joy and an occasion of celebration. It got people together under one roof with sweets and huge cooking pots of delicious items doing round after round in a plantain leaf.
With more of westernization coming in and India opening its doors to FDI, came MNC's. All rich men things became poor man things. Rice which my grandfather hardly ate is what I hog all days. Jaggery was replaced with sugar and "Elaneer" with Coke. Greens with Lays and plantain leaf with ever-silver plates. I don't have the time to look to say a "Good Morning" to my neighbor, neither the patience to a breakfast seated with nothing on my mind. I wish my friends on birthdays and joyous occasions with a whatsapp pic, and laugh to myself over a useless GIF. I turn around to share it with people and all I see are self-laughing immersed idiots like me looking for showing their mobiles for a second. Joint families became nuclear and nuclear to a word yet to be invented. I am immersed in my laptop day and night, never saying the outside glorious sun nor the beautiful moon. This is what we are doing.
Like all my laptop looking, mobile hugging, professionals, an epiphany of life dawned. I decided to jog and keep fit, rise early and see the morning sun. Have a nice run and enjoy the family fun. Eat less rice and more greens, cut the sugar and bring jaggery in. Throw our the boxed foods and corn flakes and pizzas and ring in millets and "healthier" alternatives. Speak to people and spend and share joy and laughter on occasions. Get to know my neighbor better, even if they think I am being nosy on their "Privacy".
I sit back as I am was thinking of typing away all this, that I am back at where my ancestor started. Shows, life, after all, is a circle. Going back to what once was is where we all have head to. Re-think your life and start living. I have decided to live again, have you?
