Case for keeping ‘Smartphone’ in Saraswathi Puja!

Growing up in a Tambrahm family in Kerala, an annual excitement for all of us was the last two days of Navaratri, commonly referred to as Saraswathi Puja.  On the ninth day of Navaratri,  books and all musical instruments are ceremoniously kept in front of the Goddess Saraswathi early at dawn (Pujaveppu) and worshipped with special prayers. No studies or any performance of arts is carried out, as it is considered that the Goddess herself is blessing the books and the instruments. The festival concludes on the tenth day of Navaratri or Vijayadashimi, and the Goddess is worshipped again before the books and the musical instruments are removed (Pujayeduppu). It is kind of statutory freedom to be lazy through the day and do nothing other than while away time.  While it’s still not clear as to why we used to be overjoyed as even on other days we hardly studied other than during exam time (applies to me and most of my friends from childhood), looking back, it was just the thought of not feeling guilty that we celebrated.  We refrained from reading newspapers and for some reason when we saw movies also; we refrained from reading the end credits or titles as we will be reading something, and by doing that, indirectly offending the goddess!  

The practice, which is also known as Ayudha Puja, is followed in other parts of the country in various forms. Even though the advent of technology was not contemplated during those times (incidentally a leading politician recently claimed that Internet existed during the Mahabharata era, claim yet to be verified and confirmed), people nowadays have added Laptops and Calculators, to name a few, to the list of items, which are kept in Puja.  

Cut to current times, what is the key weapon or information provider or tool we have. The immediate answer should be a ‘smartphone’, which has more or less become one of the extended organs of the current generation.  I use the term organ to denote the importance people give to the tool.  People may delay seeing a doctor for a toothache with hope of the pain waning off but the moment your phone slows down or behaves erratic, you rush to see a mechanic or even replace the phone (this experience is not borrowed).

Arguably, with the inflection of social media by way of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and the works, our information source or learning source in the real world now is the smartphone.  Most of our time is spent looking at that piece with whole abandon to the real world. Most professions use this, Students use this to learn/study, teachers use it to teach  (the trend in music and arts is to learn and teach through Skype).

Even if we are not learning or using it for any productive purpose, as per recent studies, the key for this smartphone abuse lies in a fashionable term known as as FOMO, which is fear of missing out. As per Wikipedia - FOMO, is "a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent"^. This social anxiety is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing"^. FOMO is also defined as a fear of regret that may lead to a compulsive concern of missing an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a profitable investment, or other satisfying event. In other words, FOMO perpetuates the fear of having made the wrong decision on how to spend time since "you can imagine how things could be different". 

While I don’t want to dwell into the merits and demerits of FOMO, which is slowly becoming or has already become a psychiatric condition, while leaving the specifics to experts, from whatever I have read or come across, it is succinct to say that this is an undesirable trend.  I bring in the topic of FOMO here as most recommendations for people who are impacted by the FOMO syndrome include taking breaks from social media and focusing more on the environment and people around them in the present moment and this piece is directed to touch upon that aspect.

Coming back to our topic of Saraswathi Puja, while pondering over the practice,  it made me wonder why people still practice the ritual of keeping books, musical instruments etc. in Puja while leaving the obvious learning tool out.  For me, the Saraswathi Puja ritual will be incomplete without the smartphone being made part of the Puja. I am sure; it is quite difficult (even I am not sure whether I will be able to achieve this), but does this not make sense?  Most of your learning, work is credited to this tool and keeping them off Puja is not the right thing to do. 

Will it not give you an opportunity for one round of digital detox and be human without external pressures? Am sure we can’t avoid the #metoo’sand #rafaele’sand #savesabarimala’sof the world, but you will definitely be better off by not reading and reacting to them on an individual level.  As they say, when it comes to social media, I completely agree with the saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’. If we don’t react and respond, that too will pass.

That’s some thought for the true believers to ponder and consider. While I can’t or don’t want to start a #dussherafordigitaldetox movement, I will give a crack at this next year (if not this year).  At least, I will try to switch off the data in the phone as voice, I presume is still ok with the goddess as during Sarawathi Puja, only thing we used to do is talk, talk and talk. 

While we nowadays accept request, browse, connect, chat, check-in, checkout, comment, follow, forward, hangout, like, login, pin, ping, post, refresh, reply, request, respond, revert, send, share, stalk, surf, tag, troll, tweet, retweet, unfriend, update, upload etc. what we don’t’ do or lack is the joy of talking.   Lets do that once in a year at least on the pretext of Saraswathi Puja! 

A Middle Class Indian’s ‘Ache Din’ conundrum

Log on to social media today (intentionally quoted first as it causes the most heartbreak for people nowadays) or switch on television or open print media, and the first thing you see is heated debates on Ache Din.  Whether arrived, if not, when will it arrive, what is the progress towards the target of Ache Dinetc.? Some of them are quite hilarious, especially when you hear it from learned spokesperson of main political parties and some of them silly, and some of them don’t make sense.  

Although I try to keep away from heated debates on television news channels, as much as you try, you get sucked into this at some point.  In a social gathering, general discussions, social media, you may or my not be an active participant or you may be a silent observer, but your thoughts get directed to these debates at some point of time.

Probably that’s what got me thinking and I decided to introspect on the status of the so-called Ache Dinin the life of a middle class or upper middle class) tax-paying citizen, living in a city. For the record, I am not poor, neither a farmer nor an industrialist or a politician and do not have any political affiliation, and records of whatever I do with my life is available with the Government through the massive linking people were forced to do over last few years (reasons still unknown).   Then came the question of how to go about it.  

One-way is to try and understand things, which you never will (at least I won’t) understand as it needs intellect and knowledge in varied fields (I have come across people arguing and defending on these topics without any clue of what it is).  To cite a few, – GDP growth, Moody’s rating, Exchange fluctuations, Global crude price movements, Manufacturing index, FDI numbers, Forex reserve, Ease of doing business index, PSU NPAs, absconding businessmen, widening tax base  etc.  I have seen lot of messages showing comparison on these numbers when UPA was in power and now and for me; it doesn’t make any difference as long as it does not make a positive impact in my life. I know it is a very selfish way of thinking but I chose to be so in this occasion only to make sense of the whole Ache Din situation in my life.

Second option is to look at it politically – which is to analyse various issues hogging limelight like lynching, right wing activism, Kanhaiya, Vemula, Mewani issues, beef ban, flood and flood relief related issues, special category status issues, Article 365 /377 issues, intolerance, Sabarimala issue, Rafael deal, Doklam issues, conversion, movie ban, book ban, plastic ban and what not.  I stop here as this list is never ending and I have figured these are matters that are best left for TV channels and its anchors to dissect (end of the day they have to make a living) and do not affect me, at least in the immediate future and not directly connected to Ache Din.

I concluded to take a different way or the third way of looking at it – that is to look at the situation on the impact of this in my life over the last 4-years. The reason being, it is quite easy to do that and I need not depend on external data, interpretations and tall claims.

To analyse items, not in any specific order, I broadly classify them as under:

Things that matter (its not just roti, kapada our makan)

• Groceries, Vegetables, Petrol, Diesel, LPG (subsidy systematically taken out for many) have all shot up. Utility bills across the board, whether it is electricity (with regular cuts) and water bills (irregular supply) have shot up.  It goes up every year for no particular reason.
• Occasional expenses - personal air travel / train travel (incidentally they also have surge pricing in some trains to make things worse) are on higher side. 
• Eating out occasionally – became prohibitively expensive.
• Health related – Insurance premium have shot up and we all know how private hospitals loot us and there is no solution to it.  Yes – there is a grand healthcare proposal in the anvil and we have to wait and see how it plays out.
• Education – obnoxious level of school / college fees continues with hockey stick increase every year.

General living condition

• In the city I live, I absolutely can’t find any improvement in cleanliness.  Swach remains on billboards and in advertisements. I used to pay some cess or tax for this, which I believe, is now merged with GST. 
• Infrastructure remains pathetic.  They charge heavy road tax for vehicles and most times we have to search for roads without potholes.  Whenever you find a decent road, toll is collected religiously.  Toll charges also go up in frequent intervals with absolutely no improvement in road condition.  We are a surprised lot if there is no traffic jam.
• Pollution levels continue to be the same or have increased.
• My experience says Corruption is still a problem – not eradicated as it was sought to through demonetisation. I am not referring to the hi-tech corruption of politicians though it is widely reported that Elections are still won due to money power. 
• Safety in public places continues to be a conern
• Politicians continue to play the politics of ban and bandh for reasons best known to them.

Economics (as understood by a common man)

• 15% service tax earlier and now I pay 18% GST 
• Income tax rates have not come down.   Easy tax paying targets are milked regularly while massive loan waivers by all state governments for political reasons. There were also rumours of reduction of income tax levels once they recover all the black money through the great economic adventure called demonetisation – and we still await for that reduction
• Returns from any kind of investment is in all time low (except stock market which is zooming upwards)

The above list is short as the intention is to address major items. The only thing, which is costing less, now is the data rolled out by telecom companies (maybe Jio was not in vogue few years back).

Apart from the above, there is a new front; I would prefer to call it as  ‘harassment front’.  Most Indians were busy linking something or the other with something to prove their bonafide and existence - presumably to identify and grab black money.  Some people even thought it would help bring back the black money from Switzerland.  For most of us, we have absolutely no subsidy or benefit coming from the Government other than the honourable privilege of paying tax whenever asked for. So, we don’t know what is the intent of this linking which was aimed at preventing leakages. But we still do it hoping for good times or Ache Din.  At some point, the Hon’ble Supreme Court stepped in and said  ‘Wait’ this doesn’t make sense per-se.  hold on till we give our blessings’. For now, people are spared of this circus. Needless to say, we will do this like robots once the highest court gives their nod. 

I know I have tried to take the easy way out to look into this great nation’s problem. But you should ask yourself –does it not make sense to have individual comfort and happiness first as long it doesn’t affect any other person.  I am aware of the claims or defense like ‘structural changes being made’, ‘it’s a long haul’, ‘Country was in a mess till 2014’,‘development is a work in progress’, ‘widening tax base (how does it matter to me when I pay more tax and get less returns), numerous yojanas blah blah blah. While I am all for these lines of thought, on ground, nothing has changed for a middle class Indian. On a personal level, I pay more tax and I also spend more for the same services / goods which I used few years ago. While I understand that expenses can’t come down or it can’t be stable, the rise is abnormal with no value added returns. 

To put things in perspective, it is not pointing a finger at the current government and they come into picture only because of the claim of Ache Dinor the impending Ache Din claim.  This was the case in the past also. Historically this is the situation  middle class is  facing and it will continue to be so.  Middle class has to be law-abiding, tax paying to subsidise all other nonsense, which goes around. 

So, I rest my case with the conclusion that for me ‘ Ache Din’or impending ‘Ache Din’is not visible. I firmly believe this is how one should analyse and pass judgment rather than following talk shows in hyper TV noise channels, relying on WhatsApp forwards or talking about things, which we don’t understand.  

Having said that, we (I take the liberty to write on behalf of middle class) may still vote for Mr. Modi for another term (not sure whether it matters in the overall scheme of things) as the alternate looming around has disaster written all over it.  Hopefully, there will be something positive for us in in the near future though we don’t fit into the vote-bank category, which can make a difference. We don’t want to be king of good times, but a passing good time  (Ache din) will do some good to us.

Of course, Ache din is different for different set of people and everyone should make their own conclusion. So, go for it…. But this is how I would do it!