A Still from the film, The Gods Must Be Crazy |
They
must be the most contented people in the world. They have no crime, no
punishment, no violence, no laws, no police, judges, rulers or bosses. They
believe that the gods put only good and useful things on the earth for them to
use.
In
this world of theirs, nothing is bad or evil. Even a poisonous snake is not
bad. You just have to keep away from the sharp end. Actually, a snake is very
good. In fact, it's delicious. And the skin makes a fine pouch.
In
the deep Kalahari, there are Bushmen who have not seen or heard of civilized
man. Sometimes they hear a thundering sound when there are no clouds in the
sky. And they assume the gods have eaten too much and their tummies are
rumbling up there.
They're
very gentle people. They'll never punish a child or even speak harshly to it.
So, of course the kids are extremely well-behaved.
Only
600 miles to the south, there's a vast city. And here you find civilized man.
Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment. Instead he adapted
his environment to suit him.
So
he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery. And he put up power lines to run
his labour-saving devices. But he some how didn't know when to stop.
The
more he improved his surroundings to make life easier the more complicated he
made it. So now his children are sentenced to 10 to 15 years of school, just to
learn how to survive in this complex and hazardous habitat they were born into.
And
civilized man, who refused to adapt to his surroundings now finds he has to
adapt and re-adapt every hour of the day to his self-created environment. For
instance, if the day is called Monday and the number 7:30 comes up, you have to
dis-adapt from your domestic surroundings and re-adapt yourself to an entirely
different environment.
8:00
(8-double-zero) means everybody has to look busy. 10:30 (ten-three-zero) says
means you can stop looking busy for 15 minutes.
And
then, you have to look busy again. Your day is chopped into pieces. In each
segment of time you adapt to new circumstances.
But
in the Kalahari, it's always Tuesday, or Thursday if you like. Or Sunday. No
clocks or calendars tell you to do this or that.
- the Narrator in The Gods Must be Crazy!
Well, in tune again with our literary theme for
today, on the 'dry or parched or desert landscape in literature,' I guess we are
so spontaneously reminded, quite again and again of this amazing film titled, The Gods Must Be Crazy, that musta been
our childhood staple for days without number! Ain’t it?
The film is all about a ‘Coca-cola’ bottle! And
yes! the word ‘Coca-cola’ says it all!
When a Coca-Cola bottle falls accidentally falls
off an airplane flying over the Kalahari desert, it is spotted by Xi and his
San tribe of bushmen, who have been thus far living a very happy and harmonious
existence in their desert landscape!
Since the ‘San’ people have no contact with
anyone outside of their homeland, they do not know what this bottle is all
about!
So they eventually discuss on the Coca-cola
bottle at length, and finally arrive at a decision that one of the youngsters
of their clan should take this piece of ‘curiosity’ (as they firmly believed
that this piece of ‘curiosity’ belonged to the gods themselves), and journey to
the far end of the world to throw it back to the gods!
Finally, after a long and arduous trek, Xi
arrives at the top of a cliff, which has a huge mass of clouds that obscure the
landscape below. Xi is now convinced for sure that he has at last arrived at
the tip of the world, and so he throws down the bottle off the cliff, and
returns to his desert landscape and to his tribe, a happy and contented man!
Although on a symbolic vein, the film discusses
the impact and the consequences of civilization on the natives, this discussion
would be so apt for a poco discussion sometime later!
For now, let’s try to take in the words of the
narrator, when he contrasts the world of the bushmen with the world of the
‘civilised’! What an ideal landscape the bush people inhabit, or rather, dwell
in!
The line, “Civilized man refused to adapt
himself to his environment. Instead he adapted his environment to suit him,”
beautifully sums up to a tee, the divide there exists between the world within
the desert landscape in contrast to the civilized cityscape!
Exactly what Jidduji says in his lovely book
titled, On Nature and the Environment.
In this impactful read, JK beautifully says – And
I quote -
What
is your relationship with nature (nature being the rivers, the trees, the
swift-flying birds, the fish in the water, the minerals under the earth, the
waterfalls and shallow pools)?
Most
of us are not aware of that relationship. We never look at a tree, or if we do,
it is with a view to using that tree, either to sit in its shade, or to cut it
down for lumber.
In
other words, we look at trees with utilitarian purpose; we never look at a tree
without projecting ourselves and utilizing it for our own convenience.
We
treat the earth and its products in the same way. There is no love of earth,
there is only usage of earth. If one really loved the earth, there would be
frugality in using the things of the earth.
That
is, if we were to understand our relationship with the earth, we should be very
careful in the use we made of the things of the earth.
Because
we do not love the earth and the things of the earth but merely utilize them…
we have lost touch with life… We have lost the sense of tenderness, that
sensitivity, that response to things of beauty; and it is only in the renewal
of that sensitivity that we can have understanding of what is true
relationship!
How beautifully the bush people of the desert
landscape practice this ideal of living an interconnected life, as exemplified
by Jidduji.
Yesss! The bushmen who dwell in the desert
landscape, are the most contented people in the world because they live a
harmonious interconnected living with the flora and fauna! Hence the narrator
says, they have no crime, no punishment, no violence, no laws, no police,
judges, rulers or bosses.
Let’s start out rightaway on learning to love
Nature and thereby learn to lead a contended and an interconnected life!
images: egypttodaydotcom, themoviedbdotorg, imdbdotcom, squallichbdotcf
images: egypttodaydotcom, themoviedbdotorg, imdbdotcom, squallichbdotcf
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