Short-cuts!

Most of us are tempted to look out for “short-cuts” unless we really enjoy doing something. The age old saying “there is no short-cut to success” does not really seem to deter our pursuit for short-cuts.
Many a times, there is just a wafer-thin line that really separates a ‘short-cut’ from a ‘better way’ of doing things. For instance ambidexterity, multi-tasking etc are too subjective and situation based, to decide the merits of such short-cuts. We are at times confused when a child genuinely asks whether a calculator can do away with the need to learn multiplication tables, a spell-check in ‘word’ processor obviates the need to memorise the illogical spellings etc.
The next level of confusion arises when medical experts attribute most of health problems to change in life styles! What they are hinting at, is literally the short-cuts we adopted when we use machines to replace manual washing, walking, cleaning, gardening, grinding, blending, churning(curds in kitchen), and such other routine chores!
Personally, the next level of short-cuts did not confuse me! When I looked at it, my hitherto bemused look turned into an amazed one! For most people this level continues to be a non-issue. It simply involved discontinuance of certain traditions, customs etc. The reason for this effortless ease in ending these practices is the very fragility of our ‘way of life’! This ‘way of life’ was assigned a name called “Hinduism” when invaders chose to refer to the ancient Indian civilization. A religion name was a mandatory ‘check’ box even in those days! The entire fabric of this Hindu culture was ‘suggestive’ rather than a prescription or dictum etc (like other religions). Right from the choice of God(out of some 33 crores), the food, clothing etc were a matter of choice. Six types of marriages were prominent out of a larger list! How a person chooses out of these was entirely based on level of perception and awareness!
When a consecutive set of generations evolved steadily, these choices got resolved into best ones and obviously like any conscious choice towards a refinement, these too entailed a set of elaborate restrictions(self-imposed) on life-styles! The traditional 9-yards sarees, the 11-course dishes during anniversaries, the 13 day’s obsequies, the elaborate marriage rituals& restrictions ranging from rigid horoscope-matching, sub-sect selections, ‘girl-seeing’ , upto the auspicious date and time selection for the nuptials, all these are really mystic-looking, and seem to go in an opposite direction from short-cuts!
Well, the present day situation has ended up in driving our mutual relation-ships into ‘economy-driven’ bonds rather than emotional bonds! The emotional well-being is not entirely dependent on economic well being. That is why the westerners are baffled at the emotional stability levels of Indians!
But we are fast catching up with every available short-cut. Faking, duplicating, replacing, etc are evolving at an appreciable speed. Corruption is the outcome of illogical shortcuts. Cultural degeneration is the outcome of reckless substitution of short cuts to emotional-value-based-traditions!
When we indulge in pirating data, software, effort of creativity of others, the economic value of such pirated object gets devalued in many ways, ultimately resulting into, an emotional breakdown.!. Home for aged is a short-cut to taking care of elders at our homes. Results need no elaboration!.
Delegating motherly care to baby sitting, bottle –feeding etc., results in magical disappearance of bonds with children!.
‘Out-sourcing ‘of emotional support to periodic consultation/counseling by psychiatrist seems to be the latest of short-cuts! We seem to have lost the ‘in-house’ software for emotional shock absorbers within a home, when we had dumped those mystic traditions!
And then,
An epilogue,( perhaps! )
We were once, an emotionally-driven beings, and thus had evolved into demonstrating the highest human capability, deepening of our perceptions beyond sensory levels. We are now economy-driven beings, fast adopting all sorts of shortcuts, casting away ‘ senseless’, ‘illogical emotional values’. The race is towards “short-cut-driven” life! Obviously, suicidal death is the greatest of all short-cuts! It solves all ‘known’ problems!
PSN(08-10-2008)