I wake up to the sound of the radio, broadcast over the internet from Athens, Georgia, the National Public Radio station known as WUGA. The fact is, though, I’m in Kolkata, India, not Athens, and listening to the late night (Athens time) transmissions of jazz or classical music which play all night with brief interludes of the news or a BBC program here and there. I rationalise making a late start to my day by telling myself that I’m enjoying fine art in the form of music, or that I’m staying in the loop by becoming informed of pressing topics being covered in the Western media. When it’s finally time for me to start my day, I say “Alexa: Pause”, to off the sound of the smart clock and open my innings of the new day in my experiment of settling in Kolkata.
Though I’ve been coming to Kolkata (previously Calcutta) since I was a child, and have spent as an accumulation of time about a fifth of my life here, I’ve always been here on vacation, staying with family and meeting family and friends as a matter of leisure, apart from the 6 months I spent here in class 5 studying in the Indian education system. Now, I’m looking to build a sustainable life for myself here, and have been in the process of applying to jobs, going to interviews, and so-far, being if not outright rejected, left in the limbo of being temporarily if not permanently ghosted. Not knowing the local language, Bengali, could be a factor, and so I’m committed to learning the language (though it won’t happen overnight). At the same time, I’ve been making new friends, reconnecting with extended family and meeting family friends.
Having a foot in two worlds, being born and brought up in the US and feeling just about as comfortable in the Indian landscape, it’s easy to forget how different the two countries are. The soul-crushing poverty of India afflicting crores of Indians, which in my privileged life here remains mostly out of sight, is incomparable to the logically absurd and humiliating poverty experienced by millions of citizens in the United States, the richest nation in the history of Earth. The population density of a major Indian city, where everywhere you go there is life spilling out into the streets, huddled around shopkeepers and engaged in genial conversation, is a far cry from the small college town atmosphere of Athens, in which the average person is unlikely to talk with their neighbor.
Though, in my experience living on the Eastside of Athens the last few years, my next-door neighbor had the same sincerity as I’ve witnessed in many of my contacts in Kolkata, which was one of the selling points for me shifting to India (and specifically, Kolkata) full-time. And, the gathering of people that one can easily witness at every paan and cigarette shop in Kolkata is replicated in an alternate form in Athens, where I saw people gathering at gas station convenient stores, in the day and deep into the night. These types of analogies exist, though the sensory experience is completely different, the cleanliness of Athens and the litter-strewn streets of Kolkata being like night and day.
As I straddle both worlds, more similarities emerge- the ancient tradition of discrimination on the basis of caste faced by crores of Hindus and the longstanding racial discrimination faced by minorities in the US, not least that of the descendants of African enslaved peoples; the marginalisation of indigenous communities; anti-immigrant sentiment being stirred for political gain; the rampant Islamaphobia in the midst of a Christian majority US and Hindu majority India; and the influence of moneyed special interests on the political system, making both proudly “democratic” nations lacking in being gold-standard exemplars of self-determining governance for the people, by the people. As India and the US are both stretching at the seams of these issues, it remains to be seen how long the social fabric can remain intact before tearing calamitously.
Into this boiling soup, we can sprinkle in the chaotic spices and herbs of everyday geopolitics in a world of sovereign nations who take their patriotic nationalism to the extremes of identifying their national identity by what other nations are friends and which are enemies. Thus, we have in India the accusation against a person speaking out against the central government that they are anti-national, and by extension pro-Pakistan. And likewise in the US, if one is against Israel’s destruction of Gaza, one is branded as a terrorist-sympathiser.
When I find myself in this turmoil, whether in Athens, Georgia, USA or Kolkata, India, how do I make sense and meaning out of grim events going on seemingly in my periphery, but actually at the forefront of everyone’s existence, myself included? How do I move forward with the optimism necessary for the goal-oriented action that can prevent me from capitulating further into the morass of world news headlines that seem so deeply full of despair? Throwing myself into creative acts, such as writing poetry, writing this essay, learning and practicing music, working on my expressions of visual art, is one way to find meaning, to make meaning in a world in crisis. But ultimately, the artist must move outside of their private existence and fling themselves into the world, to make an attempt at persuasion that is at the essence of politics.
Speaking of which, at this moment we in Kolkata live in the liminal realm of the time in-between the recently held (23rd and 29th April) state-wide elections that are to determine who West Bengal’s chief minister will be going forward, and the release of the vote count (May 4th) that will announce who was victorious. In this uneasy state, people I’ve spoken to lately are fearing there could be violence on May 4th, with the Bengali word “gondogol”, meaning “chaos, trouble, disorder, confusion, mess”, entering my vocabulary. While staying home on the 4th is the advised precaution, one can also stand firm in persuading fellow citizens, as is our duty in a democracy, to honour a peaceful transition of power if it comes to that, or a graceful acceptance of the continuation of the term of the incumbent candidate.
Living in a hyper speed whirlwind world of vast quantities of micro bits of social media content traveling with the news, information, misinformation, and disinformation all mixed together, the public has never been more vulnerable to mass manipulation. As it is necessary in democratic living for the citizen to be informed about political issues, not to mention the political process itself, education is a most important key for the success of the electoral process. As we see the very same politicians who are dismantling the public programs that promoted the ongoing survival and access to opportunity for the world’s most disadvantaged citizens being supported by the very same people who benefited from such programs, it is clear the masses have been manipulated to vote against their own interests. In a world of increasing post-truth rhetoric, the world’s richest and most powerful seem to live in this world of real and profound human suffering as if it were simply a game of who can accumulate the most wealth and power.
Invoking Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, who claimed that greed, hatred, and delusion were the root of all evils and all suffering, we can also chart a way forward, an end to suffering bypassing the runaway worst-case scenarios that it may seem easy and convenient to accept as our fate. For one, each individual can take it upon themselves to educate themselves regarding political issues and world affairs and take back their power as citizens participating in systems of self-governance. As approximately 90% of the voting public turned out to vote in the West Bengal elections this week, I can’t say I know why each person voted for the party that they chose. However, the greater ease, safety, security, and confidence with which we can discuss who we voted for and why without fear of violence or ostracisation, the further along we are to realising a democratic United States, a democratic India, and a democratic world.
