I am sort of fuzzy about what exactly I am looking or appealing for, or what I found, (missing) that this story emerged. Am I asking for media and public communication to look for truths / actualities? Am I asking consumers to open their eyes and really look at media what news and how it is fed to them? Is it a politics of inclusion that I want as a native? A little human kindness maybe (from whom however)? Do I want to prescribe everyone a dose (or more) of pantheism? Or could it be that I want a giant sci-fi lever / button that mutes or extinguishes altogether, all partisan agendas [except mine of course! ;)]?
The Scene
There is a crisis brewing in Tiruvannamalai around the issue of razing down stretches of forest trees to make way for a wider
Girivalam road. When this matter first raised its head around a month back, it became known that authorities were simply planning on wiping away a tract of land - trees, insects, worms, birds, snakes, mongooses, civets and all, without any citizens' forums participation, any consultation etc. Concerned people got together and the information was passed around overnight. A group of us came together to form a human chain and protest this arbitrary action (although I am certain that each of us had our own agendas of protest - against the arbitrariness or against the actual action or for protecting the ecological and / or spiritual-cultural heritage or plain against the pro-Development attitude of authorities...).
Plot Development
I had been kicked to see that quite some people gathered on that day to form the human chain. There may have been 80 people or so. Perhaps. A minuscule fragment of the population of Tiruvannamalai, yes, however, that this crowd was possible overnight was heartening for me. Many in the crowd, including me, were taking part in a protest of this sort for the first time. During the informal eve of the human chain formation, the trees smiled down gently at comradely introductions (but of course, pun intended), information and assumption bullets and bombs, warrior announcements of intent, hesitant appeals, and the like, and some miscellaneous gossip. Nevertheless, spirits were steady. The early morning ambience of this town, and the trees, and oh! the mountain, facilitate a steady heartbeat. Or so I like to imagine!
I perceived the usual shrinking violets, the c----e (aspirants?), rebels, the wise ones, dreamers, the organisers, the public speakers, private speakers, and the parents and their children. Many different types and stereo-types had turned up. The monkeys and the sadhus were missing. A sudden bubble call-out from my head with a human chain, complete with Rhesus macaques and the lion-tailed macaques and peacocks along with the humans, gave me a secret thrill.
A couple of the representative voices (leadership qualities and all) gathered the group together in order for individuals to make statements of protest (say their piece basically). At around this time the media people came in, complete with their weaponry and artillery. And just like that, the mood of the crowd changed. Introductions became emphatic identities, announcements of intent became swords of ultimatums, and appeals became demands. Heartbeats quickened. High spirits abound in a matter of minutes.
Then we formed the human chain (complete with the macaques in my bubble). And someone suggested silence. The mountain and the trees and the temple town persist. Or so I like to imagine! Blessed, blissful silence. For a few minutes.
As we broke apart, still in the stillness, there was a commotion down the road, and many things started happening at once. Some of the organisers were running towards the commotion and some others away from it, and a lone bulldozer was coming down the road and grinding to a halt by the side of the road beside the precious trees, the media people started running to the scene of action / crime. Of course, high spirits had to take over, town and trees and mountain be damned.
Climax?
What followed can be called ignominy or a mini revolution or achievement / success or disaster averted (for the time being), or a comedy show, or cheap thrills or all of this, depending on how one is looking at it.
Seeing a large crowd advancing towards it, the driver of the bulldozer, the solitary enemy, quickly got down from the large machine and scooted away to some spot where he could be far away from the high spirits and yet close to his responsibility.
High spirits then proceeded to take over the machine, conquered it by sitting on its hood and gathering around it and making fierce and brave statements, and shouting slogans to the camera. Reassured that he will come to no harm (I dont know how), the driver came back to his machine, and started it. Spirits got down and stood in front of it, facing the front, and the camera captured a sensational sequence wherein we were saying, "we will not let them take over the trees, our land, our rights" (or some such) and in the background the bulldozer can be seen backing up all the way to the curve in the road at a safe distance.
Spirits descended slowly. We were all told that we have been able to buy some time. Some background work had been happening in the meanwhile and a meeting had been fixed further in the day with the Officials to discuss this and appeal for proper proceedings. A show of hands went up to join this meeting and we started dispersing.
The Real Story according to me
As the morning faded away, I had a conversation in the sidelines with one of the people behind the scenes. Paraphrasing what this person told a couple of us: You know, the driver was so sweet. I was talking to him after he ran away there (pointing), and he was telling me, "what can I do, tell me! I was one of the people who planted some of these trees in the periphery and I have seen these trees and this forest all my life. I don't want to do this. But this is my job and my responsibility and the sole income for my family. So I have to do this also. But it is not my fault, is it?"
Plot Resolution re-titled The Dream | Cynic's Title: Utopia | Working Title: Siddhanta
The yoga practitioner and teacher in me was quietly insisting that all it needed was for us to pause. In between breaths. P A U S E. And when we start cultivating Pause, we would stop to consider, listen to the other, widen space for conscious choices, perceive the inter-relatedness and connections between people and people, people and nature, between one tree and the other, between the worms and the plants, between children and mud, between human and divine, between you and me, and see one as the other. Then we would take into account everything that there is to take into account, be alive and awake to the dharmasankatas created therein. Like the dharmasankata of the driver. He had to do what he had to do through the internal conflict that he was going through. What would I have done had I been in his place? What would he have done had he been in my place? Could we have highlighted his story as a way of opening dialogue around this issue (and others)? Can politics expand to include all kinds of developments? Can we pause to look at and listen to those trees that we claim to protect? Can we inhale their energy and learn from them? Is that possible? What are they whispering? Could we include monkeys and sadhus and the local women and their children in the conversation? How can we remain alive to everyone's truths at the same time?
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PS - We have a stay order on the cutting of the trees. They are hanging in the air at present. I also dont mean to offend any individual in my story. Much of it is in humour with a dollop of sarcasm to spice it up, while asking some questions.
