Life and Limits

If your childhood wasn’t spent in 80s or 90s, you may skip the next two paragraphs.  

In those two decades, which were a conjunction of changing times, there were only a countable number of TV programs for children that were telecast only weekly (He-Man, Spiderman, Jungle Book, Ek-Do-Teen-Char, Shaktiman to name a few). We had to wait till Sunday to watch a movie in our mother tongue (and many of us would gather in someone’s house to watch the movie on their TV). There were no Breaking News or Shocking News 24/7. Fifteen-minute DD news would cover all day’s happenings without any exaggeration.

There were only 3-4 hours allotted daily for regional channels for telecasting the programs in their language. Telephone calls were costly affairs in the morning times and to distant places. Those pulse rates got better from evenings and best at nights. We would speak on phones keeping a watch on duration. Sweets were meant to be prepared only during festivals or special events. Bread was considered a luxurious medicine to be consumed only when we fell sick. Most of our playthings were made with sticks, wood, mud, paper, stones that were accessible easily in our surroundings. For plastic or rubber toys (like spring winding toy cars, plastic guns, sliding number puzzles, balloons), we had to wait for any religious fairs at or nearby our villages or towns.    

Not long ago, even a few years back, when the network technology was dangling between 2G and 3G, we had limited data on our computers and phones.

Am I talking about poorer or backward living conditions  of olden days? Am I talking about nostalgia? No, I am talking about ‘limits’. We had limited access to electronic media entertainment, communication, information, luxury food, fancy playthings and so on. Remember, this doesn’t translate to poverty. It's not about poor people; everyone just had limited access.

Present times have broken all these limitations.  We have 24/7 cartoon channels for children. They can watch any cartoon shows, movies or animated series on-demand through social media or OTT platforms whenever they want. The case is not different for TV serials, movies, news, phone calls, internet access and so on; they are available 24/7 at our fingertips. Village or town religious fairs are replaced by shopping malls and online shopping platforms – open every day. Sweets are not a matter of special occasions at all – if you do not have time to go to sweet stalls, Zomato and Swiggy can bring them home.

Isn’t that a progressive change? It depends on how we define progress. The question is ‘Is that an ideal change? Or are we just fixing something that is not broken?’

For me, progress is anything that adds to your physical, intellectual and emotional well-being. Any new thing that makes you stronger, healthier, wiser and happier is a progress. Were we engaged in playing outdoor/indoor games with our friends just because we had time? Not really! We did not have access to UNLIMITED screens. Are news channels running all day (24/7) just because there is so much information or news to give? Or are we watching them because we need all the news they telecast? Never! We’ve just become information-obese! It’s just because they have 24 hours of time every day, they are filling up all the gibberish with breaking, shocking, flashing news, most of which do not add to our knowledge or wisdom! Unlimited (everyday) TV serials have built virtual compound walls between houses, which have stopped women’s conversations in the neighbourhood. When data was costly on internet, we would use it frugally,  limiting ourselves to find information that really mattered. Now we have bulk or unlimited data on phones and wifis; we keep swiping up and down that doesn’t add much to any of the well-beings. Just think about food that we buy or order online? Are we eating them because we are hungry? You decide.

More than any of these physical, emotional or intellectual well-being, the greatest blow to our lives because of this UNLIMITED access is ‘killing of excitement’!

We have ended children’s excitement of waking up on Sundays just to watch their favourite TV shows, holding discussions about them with their friends and waiting the whole one week for the next Sunday.  We have killed the excitement of waiting for the unpredictable next song on a radio channel.  We have destroyed the excitement of waiting for the photographs to be washed in studios only after the camera reel is completed. We have lost the excitement of waiting for the fairs to buy our favourite toys. We have lost the excitement cutting the edges of inland letters carefully to know what’s written by the loved ones; we do not have anything new to share even after meeting after a long time.

If you think I am sounding just emotional or nostalgic, you are not completely correct. If you ask, should we stop developments just to keep such excitements alive? Your question is not quite complete. Excitement and curiosity are prerequisites for creativity. They are building blocks of happiness. If we can get ANYTHING at ANYTIME and ANYWHERE, we lose its importance, we lose that excitement and we don’t understand its value.

Is ’unlimited’ life all bad? Is it not a progress? Is it not adding any value to our lives?

Well, change is not a choice. Waiting for hours to withdraw money from a bank counter makes no sense when ATMs can do it in seconds. Sending money to your dear ones in a few taps on your phone through UPI has no comparison with money orders that would take days and weeks to reach the recipient. An immediate treatment suggested by a doctor on YouTube for a minor healthy emergency is a blessing of modern change; it’s foolish to say that we have lost that excitement of meeting the real doctor in hospitals!

Finally, the wisdom lies in judging what to limit from the unlimited!