General

You’d always thought that global war, or history, was over: a case of not just an allegory agreed upon, but old hash. History, or war, isn’t over as yet. Not because we haven’t still arrived in the magical land -- the promised terrain of happiness as prophesied by “futuristic” technologists, or “instant” spiritualists.

To cull a few examples. The collapse of communism hasn't yet led people to nirvana -- a safe democratic haven. Add to that the continuing spectre of civil strife, and discord, which has showed no signs of ending, or even dying a slow progressive death, and you have the primitive slaughter bench re-enacted in Iraq, the Middle East, Bosnia, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Rwanda, and so on.

But, hold your breath, even if TV clippings make you feel sick. Because -- for those who profess scientific interdependence, a virtual paradise is not yet beyond the realms of technological advance. Their theme song is simple. Also, complex. Take it, or leave it. Because, everything is, or soon will be, different. But, don't you ask the why, and how of it. You'll look like a geek, not an intellectual. Because, there are takers, or proponents of the line, in practically every segment of both advanced and developing societies.

We are caught in a vice-like grip, today -- the deadly, venomous "hold" of ethnic, emotional, or fanatical cauldron. A case of human perfidy; a changing evolution of the worst of times. From the high-tech to low-tech progression. And, as the monstrous threat of natural calamities seem to get juxtaposed by war clouds, wherever you look, or see, a sudden encounter with grievous injury, or even death, can also occur in a moment of celebration, merriment, or excitement. The roof crash, a gun-wielding maniac, or terrorist, excited fans at a football match, or just about anything -- from a trivial verbal skirmish to enmity -- can bring misery. However, it is nothing short of a miracle that human beings often display tremendous resilience, courage, and understanding for those who may sometimes be the "offenders" themselves.

Curiously, our own myopia has clearly robbed us from evaluating things as they are. For one simple reason: the monster that rules our psyche. Call it war, violence, or what you may. In other words, the haunting legacy of disaster -- and, the paramount quality of intrusiveness it brings to a witness exposed to a creepy episode. Besides, the reaction per se is usually documented by the person's unstoppable repetition of the traumatic event.

What needs to be highlighted, in the context, is, again, the inherent camaraderie that is brought to the forefront in the face of war, calamity, loss, or bereavement. The reason? Human beings are social by nature, and as psychologists would point out, togetherness and shared experiences have always helped people to cope with such events. And, just as adversity and stress can bring out the best qualities in some people, social contact/s, unless they are not overplayed, can also be a great source of succour, comfort and salvation. Not only that. The clicking of the hour hand is the best healer, to use a platitude -- a time-honoured dictum, because any single historical event is always subject to transcend time and place and, thus, become a symbol of human response to it and also its emergent catastrophe.

Yes, resilience is also a prospect that links itself to a primal human element: hope. Hope, in other words, is a quality of character that carries us through the worst moments of crises. It wells up from some deep pool, especially in a cruel and unbearable world, and extends itself beyond overcoming suffering. Hope is also an active principle; it sustains belief. It also offers us dreams and visions -- to guide us through the present and also project alternative realities. Besides, it permits us to insist that the world can be changed.

"Hope," as the distinguished Czech writer and statesman, Vaclav Havel, puts it "is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons." Hope is not, of course, the conviction that something will turn out well, but rather, the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. The more adverse the circumstances in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper our hope. It gives us the desire to live with reality.

To cull William Shakespeare: "O! Who can hold a fire in his hand/By thinking on the frosty Caucuses?/Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite/By bare imagination of a feast?/Or wallow naked in December snow/By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?/O no! the apprehension of the good/Gives but the greater feeling to the worse."

Hope represents the triumph of the constructive imagination over existential anxieties. It isn't an escape, or a simple emotion confined to the individual self. However this maybe, hope becomes meaningful only when it expresses a long-range goal -- one that allows us to explore the relationship between the envisioned and the possible; or, what allows us to project ourselves creatively.

Reason? All possible goals are more or less attainable, when inspired by love for the miracle of life as has been enshrined in such traditional epics as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These meditations are, in essence, celebrations of strength and hope that embrace the world with its beauty and its terror. Because, with the tribulations that the protagonists of the epics undergo -- be it Sita, Rama, the Pandavas, or Odysseus -- they also strive to maintain their integrity, goodness, or sense of purpose, aside from a dignified resolve to confront experience, and overcome obstacles placed in their path.

Which also explains why a host of events related to war and conflict have been buried, from time to time; many of them with their own peculiar constellation of psychical, ethnical, political, and religious, interpolations have also had the better of logic, not emotion alone. They have been dug up just as well from the deep pit, and made into raging issues for whatever gain. Not just because the history of war is a stream of appraisal, which only the victor has been allowed to engrave, but also because of life's own inequities.

As Shakespeare, again, etched in Macbeth: "Is this the dagger I see before me?" Result: the hyperbolic rigmarole of mental nightmares, or flashbacks, to scenes of war and crime -- and, that distinctive tendency to faint at the eerie prospect of some weird noise -- have all been reported in soldiers who return from the zone of conflict, and destruction.

People affected by war, or ethnic tragedy, are most likely to show feelings of alienation, sleep difficulties, and lapse of concentration. It's a typical aphorism of our difficult times, where we live in fear and hope, hope and despair. Yes, such images, gory and painful, emanate with cascading effect. Think of September 11, 2001 and July 7, 2005, or "hate" frames that bled an ancient heritage to infamy and abject disgrace -- the communal riots in Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, apostle nonpareil of peace and harmony.

Similarly, we've all been witness to another parody. That while one has often heard of the need for rapprochement, there's not been a definitive movement on both sides of the "divide" towards achieving the goal of tranquillity, simply because most of us have forgotten to live in concord, not only with oneself but also one's environs…

Blame it all on flared emotions, fanaticism, or whatever, which aren't part of what maybe called as the Modern Age -- the epoch of science and technology. Also, perish the thought of using borrowed phrases such as culture, compassion, harmony, and unity, because none of our forebears ever wanted nations that would spew malice on the basis of "belief," colour, or creed.

We have not only failed them, but botched ourselves too.