When anything is free : Your freedom is the price

Sunil Seth
Desmond Tutu once said, “When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land”. They said, “Let us pray”. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land. Likewise, when social networking came they had the Whatsapp and Facebook, and we had the Freedom. They said its free. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Whatsapp and Facebook, and they had our Freedom. Here comes the fact that it is, “connecting people by disconnecting Internet”. Basically, the movement questions the sense of “hurry” and “craziness” generated by Globalization, fuelled by the desire of “having in quantity” (life status) versus “having with quality”, “life quality” or the “quality of being”. This is worth a read for everyone who feels their lives are one big rush. Globalized persons have caused in us a general sense of searching for immediate results. Moreover, we have become prisoners of our Cell Phones i.e. why it is called a Cell-Phone. Artificial Intelligence, too is adding fuel to the fire as it is leading to automation, pushing human race towards a sedentary lifestyle.
Recently NITI AAYOG, CEO, Amitabh Kant too has said that India needs to improve in Human Development Index (IHDI) to achieve a growth of about 10% wherein it has already slipped to 131 among 188 in 2016 HDI. Recently, the statement as quoted by, a politician, an octogenarian; a seasoned politician with a political career span of about six decades with the entry dated back to 1969 in the reign of Mrs. Indira Gandhi to say that India was “way behind” in overall happiness ranking as it occupies the 133rd place in the list recording to 2018 Global survey. Furthering his statement that India has impressing GDP numbers and high average life expectancy; the poor happiness ranking itself indicates a “lacking, holistic approach towards development”. The statement by a person of such a high stature, after putting in the major part of the life with the various Govts in power and retiring from the highest seat, shows that India was moving forward under wrong planning since India became Independent. His statement has made a person like me to ponder again, that, is the “democracy” as being followed by we Indians for being a Developed Country at every step a real solution for India? Now a days, there is a movement in Europe named “SLOW” it. French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than American or British. Germans with working hours of 28 hours too, have established productivity driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has come to the notice of USA, the pupils of the fast and “do it now” brigade. This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity perfection, with attention, detail and less stress extended the concept of “Slow it” to “Slow Food”. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to take their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing.
“Slow Food” is against its counterpart “Fast Food”. “Slow Food” is the basis for a bigger movement called “Slow Europe”. Concept of “Slow it” is also reinforced by the Swedish way of working i.e. debate, debate, debate, hold, number of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results. It’s a rule, even if the idea is simple and brilliant, every project duration is 2 years. Volvo, Escaria, Ericsson and Electrolux are all Swedish companies. It means re-establishing family values, friends, free leisure time. Taking the “Now” present and concrete, versus the “Global”, undefined and anonymous.
More happening and more productive work place where you enjoy doing what you know best to do. In the movie “Scent of a Woman”, there is a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, “I can’t, my boyfriend will be here any minute now”. To which Al Pacino responds, “A life is lived in an Instant”. Then they dance the Tango. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each movement. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Rescheduling of a day having 24 hours for all in the world; designating less time at work place which will not lower the productivity as expressed above will give more time to relive the life; connect souls and be a part of this Cosmic World than being Alien among ourselves. Now again, our pursuit for indiscriminate digitalization, whereas the world has started thinking to slow down, may not be again another step forward towards a failure to be realized in future. Here comes the truth in the statement which say, “Connecting people by disconnecting Internet”.
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