– Arthur C. Clarke
Around the time of Diwali (written as Deepavali in Southern India), we usually end up receiving a message or an essay, nostalgically recalling how we used to celebrate it in the years past. What is being described as the bygone era will be about 40 to 50 years back. One forwarded message I received last year went along these lines:
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Please don't think I am going to talk about some 1000 year old history. This post is about celebrations just about 40 years back. In those days even small families used to have four kids. With extended family members that include grandpa, grandma, uncles, and aunties thrown in, typical joint families hadabout a dozen members. Dad was the only one working in a government position. Mom, who grew up in Chennai, had relocated to a small town (Dharapuram) after her marriage to Dad and had gotten used to that living bringing us up in the same small town mode.
We used to
have a 20 liter boiler made of copper, which was the sole hot water making
equipment in the house. It used to be fueled by coal, fire wood and coconut
shells. As the eldest son, it used to be my duty to get the boiler going to
generate enough hot water for the dozen family members to take baths on the day
of Diwali as early as 4 or 5 am in the morning. In parallel, it used to be my
elder sister's responsibility to get the dough ready for idlis, get chutney
prepared to go with it. My sisters used to have long hair that will flow down
to their knees. Since taking oil bath (i.e. applying oil to hair and body and
then washing it off with herbs and hot water) is a major part of this festival,
getting the Seekakkaai powder mixed in with fragrant herbs ready (to wash off
the oil, as if it is powder version of shampoo) is also her responsibility. By
the time my sisters get to the bathroom and go through this oil bath process,
our younger brothers/cousins would have gone far ahead, finishing up their bath
in a jiffy, eating a small portion of a weird tasting herbal medicine and
running away to fire firecrackers in the street, wearing brand new clothes.
Young boys always had a lot of advantages, with many elders hanging around to
spoil them. Next event with be the big brunch around 10am, that will have mom
serving rice, sambar, two vegetables, badam kheer, vada, papad, sweets and what
not. With kids continuing to fire away small crackers for hours on end,
throughout the day, things will start to slow down a bit around 3pm. Taking
breaks in the late afternoon, we will gather around to enjoy snacks like
mixture, sweets and coffee. By the time 90% of the fire crackers are done, it
will be late evening, after which there will be a temple visit, many relatives
visiting us and so on. In those middle class Diwali celebrations, there weren't
a lot of expenses or showing off involved. But happiness and satisfaction
remained plenty. People were affectionate. Neighbors hung out together without keeping
up with the Jones comparisons or pressure. Will we ever return to those
golden days?
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Let's presume by some miracle we have invented a time machine. Using that time machine we travel back to 1750 to study the way life was in the 18th century. Looking at their primitive lifestyle, we take pity on the 18th century citizens and decide to bring just one scientist from that time to 2020. This scientist Sam is even sporting a French beard as all the scientists in Indian movies do. So there is no doubt that he was the biggest scientist around in the 18th century.
We can debate whether our intention for bringing him to 2020 is to educate him about our technological advancements and send him back to his time so that he can help them live better or for us to just show off and make him jealous is debatable.Since Sam lived in an era where even electricity was not in use and horses provided all the transportation possible, people traveling around in metal boxes called cars and flying in metal tubes call airplanes, everyone walking around with a small box like thing called Smartphone using which they are able to reach and talk to anyone anywhere on the planet, people being able to watch a cricket match taking place 1000 km away instantly, and even kids using a magic wand called remote control changing the television channels, fans able to listen to the great singer SPB's songs recorded decades back whenever they want despite the fact that he passed away couple of months back, everyone able to take and share pictures instantaneously, will all be stunning developments to him. These changes will look like shocking witchcraft and magic that is hard to believe. He might start wondering what is going on around him and whether his mind is playing tricks on him or were these some sort of God's gift to these people. If you then show him MRI machine, internet, international space station and so on, he might actually get a heart attack and die.
What
is even more interesting is actually something else. After we show our world
and the scientific developments to Sam, let's say we put him back in the time
machine, bid him goodbye and send him back to his own time. Sam, when he lands
back in 1750, wonders why should only the 21st century people enjoy this
ability to show off and why can't he have the same type of fun. After thinking
about it a while, using the same time machine he travels back another 250 years
to A.D. 1500. He picks up the biggest scientist John from that time and brings
him back to 1750 to give him a similar shock.
But it turns out to be quite disappointing to Sam. John, who traveled from 1500 to 1750, will certainly encounter several new developments that will surprise him. The world map would have changed a lot, Europe would be ruling most of the globe using a lot of force that might terrify and surprise him at the same time. But beyond that, the daily life he encounters in 1750 would be pretty much similar to what he was used to in 1500. John will not encounter anything that will give him a heart attack. Sam will slowly realize that if he wants to bring a John from the past to 1750 to impress him enough resulting in a heart attack, he has to actually travel back about 14,000 years and bring a John from 12,000 BC. Someone coming to 1750 AD from 12,000 BC would have belonged to an age where language communication through verbal and written skills would have been unknown and people would have been mostly practicing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Only for a John of that era, life in 1750, with large buildings, ocean going ships and well developed languages will all be a set of development to shock and stun. As long as the time machine can potentially travel through 14,000 years and return back, well and good. Sam may have a chance to impress someone. If it can span only 300 years, Sam could never find someone who would be surprised to see the living style of 1750.
Now imagine a person who came from 12,000 BC, takes the same time machine goes back to their time and then tries to go back another 14,000 years to 26,000 BC. Their idea was to bring someone to 12,000 BC to do a similar show off. Again, it won't work because the lifestyle would not have changed that much in those 14,000 years. To show a heart attack inducing amount of development you then have to go about hundred thousand years and bring someone from that era.
Thus, societal developments accelerating over time has been noticed by many. Futurist Ray Kurzweil calls it the Law of Accelerating Returns. Since this acceleration continues even in our lifetime, how will life really be in another 40 years? It won't be surprising if a blog post similar to the one below circulates around Diwali in the year 2060.
Diwali from a bygone era - A post from 2060 AD
Please don't think I'm going to talk about how Diwali was celebrated in the 20th century. This is only about life as we knew it just 40 years back around the year 2020 and how we celebrated Diwali then.
In those days each home used to have one or two children. We used to think that is the right size for a family. Child free families, as we know them now, used to be called childless in those days as if they had a flaw and people used to look down upon them. There was a general understanding that Diwali is mainly a celebration for kids.
Ever since nuclear fusion and quantum computing became a reality in the 2040s, these two things together had changed the world upside down. Since anyone is able to get any amount of power whenever they want now and since through quantum computing we are able to get anything we want created instantaneously, nowadays every home has a universal oven that generate whatever food we want in a minute for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We didn't have such facilities in those days. Mostly women at home used to plan for days and prepare food soaking rice and lentil in water, kneading dough in machines, baking stuff for days to make all the food items and snacks that we used to eat. There was no notion of entering the rejuvenation chamber just for few seconds to get all of our cells renewed at that time. Those are all biological sciences related technologies that have come up only in that last 10, 15 years. Instead of that, in those days, we used to have an electrical appliance called Geyser, using which we used to generate hot water, use the hot water to take a shower which was a big part of the Diwali festivities. Based on the historical notion of taking a bath in the river Ganges, we used to greet each other asking, “Did you have your Ganges bath yet?”
Since every home has a communication deck these days, we are able to see anyone, anytime we want around the world using VR technology. Since everyone has 3D transporters now, traveling to different locations in the planet has become easy and uninteresting. Forty years back, the best we could do was use a smartphone app called WhatsApp. Using that app we used to exchange Diwali greetings with our friends and relatives around the world. Using the three or four inch rectangular screens in our smartphones, we were able to see each other through video calls on WhatsApp. That made us feel that we have come so far in our lives, since simple phones were a rarity in the 20th century.
Nowadays using NeuroSync we are able to learn any new information or a language in few seconds, directly uploading it into our brain. Since we didn't have such technology in 2020, each human being used to know only one or two languages. Since learning new languages used to take years, anyone who could speak three or four languages or those who had traveled to multiple countries where all looked up as highly intelligent, well exposed, worldly individuals. Since we did not understand the language, places or religions of other people in those days, there were a lot of wars that went on between different parts of the world, with each side claiming their language, religion or country is better than others. But because of that level of misunderstanding and lack of communication, every part of the planet had its own festivals and celebrations. How they were celebrated, what food we made and ate all used to differ dramatically from place to place. We were not able to presume that we can get those experiences by going to the simulation deck whenever we want. At the most kids used to say, I will learn how to do something when I need using YouTube. That was the level of sophistication when it came to simulations. For each festival are a celebration, we had to put in a lot of effort and physically conduct the event in the real world that gave so much of personal satisfaction. The work that we had to do yielded a sense of pride.
Using NeuroSync these days we are able to download our memories and back them up. There were no such capabilities in those days. So, as they got older, people used to forget a lot of things, losing their memory. Though it was very inconvenient in most of the situations, at times like Diwali, it helped bring families together, with elders forgetting old tiffs and enmities. This helped a lot in renewing your relationships and kept them longlasting. Since we are able to get back our memories perfectly now, without losing even a tiny teeny detail, we are also carrying a lot of bad memories that would be better discarded. Even though one could delete bad memories from the backup, nobody seems to be using that technology much. Instead we all carry old enmities and tiffs forever, brooding over them endlessly, which is indeed a sad situation. Even in the 20th century a Tamil poet wrote, “I asked God for two minds. To remember and feel sad I need a mind while I need another to forget and forgive and live.”Even in 2060, those lines remaining suitable and resonating to human life, is strange.
Carrying thousands of songs in pocket size smartphones had become commonplace even in 2020. But if you go another 20 to 30 years back towards the end of the 20th century, to listen to your favorite songs, you had to wait for the Chennai radio stations broadcast that came up Sunday evening at 4:00 p.m. for one hour. Fans used to diligently wait for that hour each week. The radio station used to broadcast special programs for Diwali type festivals. Now you can listen to,or rather feel, any song anytime using NeuroSync. But that advancement itself has reduced the value of the experience, decreasing the amount of time people listen to music or the enjoyment they derived from it. There is a type of fun in waiting and there is a kind of pleasure in making one wait were all song lyrics in those days. How do you explain such notions in this day and age? Perhaps you can say one can go to the simulation deck and experience the 2019 practice of doing a pilgrimage to see AththiVaradhar, standing in a line for so many hours. As you may know, that statue gets pulled out once every 40 years for a special month long festivities. It did come out last year in 2059. You may also know how the festivities and pilgrimages took place this time around!
When I explain these things, talk about 2020 Diwali fondly to my grandchildren they are all scratching their head giving me blank stares. Though poverty has been eliminated from the world, allowing everyone to live a comfortable life, since we grew up during the first decades of this century, the Diwali celebration we had 40 years back in the year 2020 is still so pleasant to recall and reminisce. Life in those simpler days indeed makes you feel nostalgic.
Sundar Vedantham
November 14, 2060.
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