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| Before the air con |
M Shanmughalingam's simple poem,
Heir Conditioning perturbs me much.
It has only two stanzas.
The first stanza is that of an inquiring grandchild posing technology-based questions to his grandparents.
Let us look at the questions asked.
Grandad was asked this:
"Grand dad did you breathe before air cons were invented?
Was it hard staying alive without modern inventions?"
Then a question was also directed at Grandma:
"Grandma weren't you flustered as you fluttered with paper fans?"
Both of them were then asked how they could communicate without modern gadgets:
"Could you communicate before faxes and long distance calls became basic amenities?"
Let us digest this a little bit.
Grandad certainly could breathe without air conditioners. There was always the electric fan and before that rich men have servants who operated large fan-like contraptions at the side or suspended from above to cool the air around their masters. Then, there is always louvered-architecture for efficient aeration of homes.As for the air outside the home, it was always a delight to walk in the cool unpolluted air.On modern inventions, it could possibly include what the child was aware then ranging from cars, radios, tape-recorders, televisions, fridges to water heaters.
As for Grandma, the same argument would apply for the fan. Sometimes, ladies like to fan themselves as a matter of style. It makes them dainty in a way. Then there are the other fashioned-oriented ladies who want to add a fan as a touch of class for sheer vanity!
True, they would likely communicate with snail mail and also the telex, not forgetting morse-code.
Now, let us look at the second stanza.
The grandparents replies.
They have this to say in retort.
"Grandchild we lived before your age.Because of our ignorance we did not know pollution,stress,traffic jams,destruction of forests,streams and hills. We feared God and nature. Now nature fears you and money is your new God".
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| Old 'Car' |
Reflect!
The grandparents are not answering the child's questions. They are telling that innocent child about the price that humanity has to pay for modernisation. They are telling about the ill-effects of technology. They are talking about poor traffic management. They are telling about wanton governments who robbed their respective nations of natural forest cover because of greed and corruption.They are telling about poor pollution control over industry and factories.
Humanity has always feared God, no doubt about it. Nature as well. Look at the tsunami that led to the Fukushima meltdown. I agree fully that in the earliest days of man, they do fear and pay homage to the elements such as lightnings, thunders;even huge wild animals.
With the in-depth understanding of modern science, they do not hold them as Gods anymore. However, the world community still try their best to protect Mother Earth and try to delimit the undoings of rogue governments.
Is money the new God? No, it has always been God down the generations. People are God-fearing. We fear the unknown!
Perhaps people have gotten more greedy or more desperate as they sought for money to maintain their standard of living or they work hard for the money to put food on the table as inflation rears its ugly head. They do it out of necessity.
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| Solitary poet? |
I think in this poem, the grandparents have failed to answer the child.
That disturbs me.
I think there is a lapse somewhere in this poem, Mr Poet!
