Everyday Musings > Living with imposters

I open the papers, chat with friends, talk to colleagues and everyone’s talking the big R - Recession. Those wanting to buy a home are waiting, those wanting to change jobs are holding on, this year’s b-school grads are not confident of making it anywhere, those in newer jobs are finding themselves with three month notices to leave...it’s a strange foreboding feeling that seems to have unsettled everyone, especially Indians because it’s never really been like this since India took off with liberalisation.

But what worries me is that we’ve always been in recession. Ever since Independence at least. We’ve been in a recession of ideology, of identity, of faith, of unity, of political stability, of creativity, of peace. Most of all, we have been in a recession of awareness.

Trees are being cut to make way for broader roads, but our minds and thoughts are growing narrow and less inclusive. Our minds and hearts carry less love and peace and there’s more room to pump diseases and dissatisfaction. Malls, not healthcare, have become the signs of modernisation and development, foreign brands retailing from swank stores on our streets, rather than the wisdom of our heritage, is the sign that we too have arrived.

The world we are creating around us is stifling our being and we are not aware. The few, who sense the downfall move away to the fringes, decide to farm, work remotely, be eco-friendly, escape to meditation centres, and keep themselves far from this maddening monstrous metropolis. But as the three musketeers said, all for one, one for all. What will be the fate of one will be the fate of all, and the fate of all will be the fate of one, even if he is the enlightened Buddha. Thus each person’s progress matters, each person’s greed hinders. A recession that we must face even with a healthy balance sheet. The current economic downturn is a superficial big R to hit us, an external mechanism that calculates the money motors and has little to do with emotional content.

Rudyard Kipling, in his very poem If, said; “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same... Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.”

Can’t think of a time when it makes more sense than now. Triumph and Disaster are both fakes. Both illusions. Neither is permanent and neither can rule over the other. Recession is both; a boon for some who will realise that there are more important things in life than a stock index, and a curse for those who continue to live the mirage of the world and pray for the markets to alleviate their problems.

The fashion week, the Mecca of the splurgers, is walking the ramp for Recession, Tata’s new Nano is heralded as the R car. Everyone’s finding a business opportunity in these times, and marketing is twisting itself into cosy corners to find refuge till the R monster passes. Obama and Singh and the other world leaders are meeting to discuss the world and its issues. Maybe there’ll be more bailouts; maybe there will be some big decisions.

While they ruminate on the created societies and their created issues, it’s perhaps time we sat by ourselves, in silence, and became aware of the natural society we live in – our body, that wonderful mechanism that is happy with simple things like air and water. Perhaps a simple shedding of the two imposters will elevate us out of the economic quicksand.

The big R is within us, and it’s time we bailed our souls out.