Alternate Dimensions of Life

Covid Lockdown 5.0: The day in and day out within the same four walls of the house creates a vacuum of mundane stimuli to the brain. It’s that time of the night when sleep still eludes. There is a silent circulation of numbness in my veins.  In fact, I call this as the Airplane mode of our human minds. The number of stimuli processed by our mind in our normalcy days can be compared to the number of grains of sand on the beach. On a typical weekday, the conscious mind would be doing overtime. Our mental transmission lines constantly working on selection of clothes for office, cursing the undisciplined auto driver, finding a suitable parking spot, chalking out a mental plan to enter the local train in one piece, swimming the ocean of million corporate animals, firefighting at work, navigating the evening traffic and finally arriving home. The quantum of experiences analyzed and given meaning by our mind would be ginormous. The mind is like Sachin Tendulkar on his walk to the Cricket pitch for batting listening to at least 1.2 billion chants of “Sachin! Sachin!” coming to him from the stadium and our hearts.

Mind during Normal times

Its Lockdown 5.0: My mind is like Sachin walking into bat in an empty stadium and no televised broadcasting. This new normal has commenced with the body clock having a jet lag from the old life. The mental flight takes off in the clear skies of consciousness over the various important events of my life. This mental flight views the journey of my life through various ages and crucial moments of life. It hovers over the time I was in Hyderabad from 2014-2018.

Mind during Lockdown

I spend a good 4 years in Hyderabad post my MBA. One of the most memorable time of my life in the 20s which gave a perspective of reality and freedom. In this current time travel to this juncture of my life in Hyderabad, I wonder how different my life would have been if I had stayed in Mumbai post my MBA. 

An alternate dimension of life: Mumbai instead of Hyderabad

I would have stayed in Mumbai at my home and probably lost out on the memories of the scandalous bachelor life in foreign land. Easy Access to homemade food as opposed to the black and white imaged ‘mess food’. I might have interned in a Mumbai based company and finally settled into a job in Mumbai. Probably would have lost out on the Carefree Bachelorhood-2.0 in Hyderabad. The struggle to find a house, communicate in a foreign land with universal communication media: ‘The Sign language’, find resources for food and slowly melt into life of this city. Instead of the humble Dosa in Hyderabad, the majestic Wada Pav in Mumbai would have continued to remain my comfort food. In Mumbai, I would be chasing taxis or local trains for making it home, In Hyderabad, basking on the IT revolution, I chased Makemytrip.com and IRCTC for better deals to reach home. What an Antithesis: Distance from home usually gets you much closer to it!

Mumbai: Mecca of Dreams

Hyderabad: Walmart of my Life

While I would have chased the dream of making it big in Mumbai in the comforts of family and ‘Known’ variables, I gained smaller experiences of sharpening my intuition for dealing with the vagaries of ‘Unknown’ in the land of the Nizams. This caterpillar came out of the cocoon and faced the bare nakedness of this world for what it truly is “Unpredictable”. The job in Mumbai would have brought a different shade of mental toughness. Travelling for 2-3 hours in a day, navigating 20 million dreamers, soaking up the ‘never say die’ energy of this city would have built mental muscles. Mumbai is the Mecca of Big dreams and living costs while Hyderabad was the Walmart of my life: Big savings and different experiences. In Mumbai, we find ways to save, while in Hyderabad we found ways to splurge. The ability to experiment with decisions in Hyderabad made me more humane. 

The mind flight gets easily distracted and steers away to another memory. It floats over my school life and especially towards history lessons from school. The great Indian war of Independence and the freedom fighters who sacrificed lives so that we could breathe the free air today. The struggles of leaders and the common people are etched in that remote part of the mind. Imagination plays a funny game with you. I start wondering that What if this path of history took a detour and had a different outcome.

Another alternate dimension of life: What if India were to continue to be a British state!

United Kingdom of Anglo-India? The Eastern Britishland? Or the fundamental British trait of stratification of society: Brown British India? I like the name: United Kingdom of Anglo India (UKAI). One of mankind’s worse tragedy: The Partition would not have taken place. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka collectively would have become UKAI. That would have made Geography even tougher for all of us. Like not remembering all the states of India was not embarrassing enough, addition of area would just trip the mind into an orbit of constant confusion. East Bengal and West Bengal; East Punjab and West Punjab and to top it all two Hyderabads. Little Tushar is slowly and steadily entering the region of brain freeze.

UKAI: United Kingdom of Anglo India

The 10 Downing street of India (Rashtrapati Bhavan) would be a Gothic style building with majestic vibe oozing from every stone in the construction. Instead of the Gandhi, we would have Winston Churchill on the walls of the building to give us inspiration. The Queen would have residence in the Red Fort in Delhi which obviously would have undergone change with British architecture. Imagine the Indian politicians with the white wig like vanilla ice cream on a cone sitting in the parliament and arguing in the Upper and Lower house meetings about various motions to pass. The North County (Uttar Pradesh), Bombay Presidency, Bengal Presidency and the Madras presidency would continue to dominate the UKAI territorial governance. The crown of India (Jammu Kashmir) would still be an undisputed part of UKAI unlike the Kohinoor diamond. Peace in the valley would prevail. No killing of innocent people in the name of petty politics of human greed. Politics would be all white (pun intended!) and not smeared with minorities, saffron or leftist ideologies. The British ideology of Ruling would dissolve into water of co-existence and the remote possibility of racial superiority would die a natural death. 

Winston Churchill paintings on walls 

One thing that every UK and UKAI converge on is the love for sports. Imagine the difficulty of selecting a Cricket team from UK and UKAI that would give sleepless nights to other nations. Ian Botham and Kapil Dev in the same side giving nightmares to the opposition. The UKAI players including the current Pakistan and Indian bowlers would have mastered the art of swing in English conditions. The knighthood would have been bestowed upon Sir Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Rahul Dravid. The current England team would not have to wait for 44 years to win the Cricketing world cup. Drought of a Brit winning the Wimbeldon for 77 years since 1936 might have not happened. For all the football lovers in India, Bom. Utd and CFC (Calcutta Football club) would be the new favorites with the EPL played in UKAI stadiums as well. ‘All study and no play would make Jack a dull boy’ would have never existed in UKAI.

Imagine Kapil Dev and Ian Botham in the same team

Studies continue to be an integral part of our psyche. Mentality of Scarcity instilled an in-born talent of doing well in Academics. My schooling days in St. Mary’s, Mazagaon always got me a feeling of awe. This school was established in 1864 during the British regime. The majestic Gothic structures, the wide playgrounds and the convent school essence made my childhood learning experience memorable. I can imagine such schools to be in every nook and corner of UKAI. The struggle to get into IITs (Imperial Institute of Technology- UKAI version of IITs) would increase owing to the British children added to the competition. Oxford and Cambridge universities would have become easier to get into. We would be using the British English as compared to the American English and possibly our national language would be English.

St. Mary's School, Mazagaon: Gothic style buidlings

The yin of positives would have bought the yan of negatives as well. The regional language and folklores would lose their local importance. The current strength of diverse cultures and experiences of people would become extinct. Imagine the dosa and poha getting replaced by the English breakfast spread. The Wada Pav replaced by mashed potatoes. The spicy palate of Kolhapur and Andhra would submerge in the drain of bland taste buds. Bombay: the confluence of the tributary of people flowing from various states would just be a binary product of white and brown. The increased level of development through British values might have exterminated the very basis of this great country where multi-ethnic people co-existed. Racial transgressions or losing your own identity as people might tilt this alternate dimension towards a defunct society. What fresh crop of problems would grow no one knows?

Pandemics change history

As I enter the plains of something the mind cannot fathom, my mental flight takes off from the airport of UKAI and returns to this calm peaceful night. The mind still wanders the forest of imagination. Would we have been in a better place is a question which can never been answered. Possibilities are a simple function of probabilities. It’s between 0 and 1. 0 will take us to a different realm of life and 1 might be to the diametrically opposite one. Life is like a flowchart with various decision points. The trajectory of it can simply change the course of humankind. Let’s be responsible with our decisions. We owe it to our ancestors and future generations.

You never know Corona Virus could be the next ruler of India for the next 100 years if we don’t decide to act responsibly now. Stay safe and Stay Healthy!!