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                                            Losing the Plot 

 

Shakespeare's Macbeth calls life " a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing".  and Mirza Ghalib says "bazeecha atfal hai dunya meray aagay, hota hai shab o roz tamasha meray aagay"  (The world before me is a child’s playground, where daily the drama of life is enacted)

 

Psychologist Dan McAdams, says we perceive our lives as a story. The human brain is hardwired to seek the story that connects events of the past, the present, as well as an imagined future,.to bring meaning and purpose to our lives. All religions and folklore persuade through relating stories that convey underlying moral principles.

 

The early English novel can be seen as an alternative to the Church sermon, as society became more liberalized. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, or Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice were laced with moral dilemmas. The Urdu novel, starting with Mirza Hadi Ruswa's Umrao Jan Ada, has been more of a critique of society's judgemental  prejudices. 

 

Fictional characters in novels, drama or film, have had a strong influence on social attitudes and aspirations.  We can organize our experiences, like a novel, into characters, plot and setting. However,  real life , unlike fiction,  cannot be neatly managed - too often we find ourselves in a manjdhar, the midstream of a journey we set off on, unable to go back and confused about how to proceed. We lose the plot. 

 

Losing the plot is a term taken from fiction writing where the author loses track of the narrative. It also applies to losing sight of an important principle, commitment or direction, in the world of business and politics.. 

 

At a personal level, the joyous birth of a child may become a twisted tale of conflict and abuse. A marriage that started with romance may turn into boredom and despair. The job we longed for may become the cause of stress and burnout. 

 

Narratives are formulated as inspiring stories to create national cohesion, and as a declaration of nationhood to the world. The lofty declarations, whether the revered US Bill of Rights, the declaration of Israel to guarantee equal rights to all its inhabitants and safeguard the Holy Places of all religions,  the Marxist withering away of the state, or those of any number of smaller nations, seem a far cry from the ground realities.  

 

Muhammad Ali Jinnah's  speech on 11 August, 1947, urged the new country to "solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and  the poor" and severely punish "bribery and corruption, black-marketing, nepotism and jobbery". Perhaps the leaders read it in reverse. 

 

Colonialism was justified as a civilizing intervention; Industrialization would make products universally available and affordable; the IMF would help poorer nations become prosperous. The original intentions may have been noble, but they lost the plot as economic and political interests intervened.  

 

The idea of a universal rule of law was accepted by both large and small countries. In reality many laws across the world are a result of British colonialism rather than through a universal consensus.  The Indian Penal code, written by T. B. Macaulay was applied across British colonies and remains the existing code for many. 

 

Religious beliefs have also succumbed. The Ten Commandments are simply ignored,  the Khalifa, appointed by consensus, was very quickly replaced by dynastic rule, the Buddhist ahimsa which prohibits violence, is frequently set aside.

 

Educational systems were meant to enlighten humans, not just create a workforce. Inventions set out to improve lives, not litter the earth with plastics and styrofoam. . 

 

Today people want a different world from the one those in power have imposed on them. The internet, for all its flaws, has connected them in unprecedented ways. The time for short term fixes has passed .As Einstein said  “ We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”  

 

Durriya Kazi 

March 12, 2023 

Karachi 

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com 

 

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