'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.'

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