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.
