A reputed burger company puts up a promising slogan in its restaurant-''Be served
in a minute or have your order free!'' And the kept their promise. Time is money here; time is profits. We have yet another example of this super-efficiency by a pizza firm which promises to deliver your order at your doorstep in half an hour or your order is free. Haven't known them to fail on that promise yet. The poor delivery boy will brave rain and storm, traffic lights and traffic jams and reach the consumer, hurried and harried, putting his personal safety at stake because the Company's golden rule must not be broken -Performance, Progress and Profits. These are just a couple of examples of the new face of the industrial, metropolitan society that inhabits our big cities. The fast pace affects all ages-infants, youngsters and the aged. Life is on the 'fast trax' and it seems to have come to stay this way.
There are a number of reasons for these new trends in the urban life-style of the people, such as a growing dirth or lack of loyal servants and competent domestic help, high prices of raw materials, the women of the house are now working and career-oriented, the homemaker wishes to avoid the drudgery of work, increased incomes , higher standard of living, media with its attractive salesmanship , and of course the convenience factor . Besides fast foods which are a phone call away today we are slaves to ''instant'' and frozen foods and foodstuff too. When we are not ordering food from outside there is always the option of 'heat n eat' packets lying in the cupboard, coffee that you just spoon out of the bottle into the cup or have a dip-dip chai which is prepared in a minute- infact you name it today and you can have it: beverages, snacks, baby foods, health foods, main meals, desserts etc. The variants are mind-boggling. We have forgotten to labour lovingly and then enjoy then lovingly enjoy the fruits of our labor! Philip K Harward has rightly said that inspiration can be nurtured even while preparing a ‘ leisurely dinner’!
Ins’t it time to stop and question ourselves about the validity of such a life –style?
Aren’t we just aping the west and making their millionaires into billionares? Isn’t there a growing impatince in the new youth that is emerging in our cosmopolitan cities? Today in the age of e-mails and jet rides we have lost the joy of witing longingly for a beloved’s letter or the endurance that comes from the hardship of strenuously long journeies of yore. Besides that today we have desk-top social net-working where one doesn’t even have to be physiclly present for a chit-chat; on-line chatting goes on along side work! Are we not forgetting how to wait – is this the salutation that we give our civilisation? The so-called city–walla is now not the cultured, soft-spoken sophisticate; he’s the one who is pushy, loud and quite intorerant of others with a menacing aggressiveness. Stress levels at work , home and in relationships also ad to this impatience which oozes out of the city people. In Stephan Covey’s book titled ‘Everyday Greatness’ William Gottlieb defines ‘’stress’ as something which makes one ‘hurried and harried’. Today, unfortunately we have books being wrttien on ‘’child stress’’-sad but true . We elders have done this to the following generation. And ourselves we have turned into adult spoilt brats – we want it when we want it , instantaneously and immediately. So we have the markets catering to our whims and fancies, and these are the impressions that we are passing on to our progeny. Apart from this, we have abused the body by pumping in preservatives and chemicals which have far-reaching destructive effects on health. One hears of cases where the patient has been put strictly on ‘’organically ‘’grown foods;any other type of food plays havoc with her system . Isnt this Nature’s vengence ? What if this were to happen to a majority of us-would we learn to labor then and eat at leisure and slow down our pace a bit and learn patience and perhaps be more tolerant of each other...Wouldn’t we be able to change our psyche or mental attitudes towards more positivity and perhaps grow spiritually? Wouldn’t a change in the individual’s life -style lead to a change in his inner beliefs and from the individual this change within the self could grow outwards and encompass his society as well ?
Let’s think again about our indulgence in ‘fast’ foods ( which are actually junk foods and which seem to have junked us in other ways too- body and mind) and ‘’instant’’life-styles before someone comes up secretly with a packaged formula for ‘’instant ‘’ Nirvana.....!! Some legacy to leave for the forthcoming generations! No short-cuts there, please!
Neelam Sethi
27-9-2011
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