Kajal Chatterjee
Just click on the mobile and find yourself immersed in the deluge of Facebook pics, WhatsApp videos/Status/Display picture of acquaintances playing with the snow in Gulmarg, riding camels in Egypt, surfing the sea in Goa, negotiating the steps of Tirupati or seated upon elephant back in Kaziranga!
By spending own money, it is obvious that anybody holds full right to visit anywhere and whenever they wish. But barring rarest of rare exceptions, rest of the folks are simply an apology in the name of “tourists”!
Far from trying to get enlightened about the indigenous people, culture, history of the visited region or the architecture of the monument concerned the main goal of the “tourism connoisseurs" remain gulping delicious foods, drinking, shopping and most importantly clicking selfies with the monastery/ hill in the background and posting the pics on social media so as to count the number of “Likes” and of course to brag “I too can roam the world”!
The historic Charminar to Mecca Masjid simply find itself comprehensively defeated thanks to the “intoxicants” named Hyderabad Pearls and Hyderabadi Biryani!
Far from getting enlightened of the Valley named Tenga, which is required to be negotiated while reaching Tawang from Bhalukpong and also during return journey, hardly any Arunachal Pradesh-returned tourist can tell that the river accompanying them almost throughout the path is named “Kameng”!
Also this mass tourism blatantly exposes the much-repeated dialogues of “today people are so busy” “so much paucity of time”!
Actually for whatever reasons, it seems people have unending spare time at their disposal, with no official or domestic duty to perform or simply they shirk work!
And that brings us to the Dana cyclone, which was scheduled to hit the Bengal-Odisha coast on the intervening night of 24-25 October - both the dates being full-fledged working days. Yet thousands were set to rush for Digha sea beach to witness the incoming cyclone and rising of waves! Yes, when lakhs of people in the coastal areas of two States were trembling in apprehension how to survive the fury of the nature, save their lives huts land crops and cattle; the tourists were set to invade the town to click the spectacle from the safety of their hotels and post it in social media to “prove” their “bravado”!
That the administration had prevented the enthusiasts from entering Digha is another issue. But the point to ponder is, how could they have planned to hit the shore in such a short notice, that too on working days? What about their office work, academics, business or domestic obligations? Are they so bereft of constructive work or simply do not perform their duties?
On the morning of October 25, when Kolkata was immersed due to continuous heavy rainfall since midnight, I responded to the door bell to notice in astonishment that the waste collector of our residential complex was calmly waiting for our garbage as usual, by somehow wrapping himself under a raincoat and yet turning half-wet, thanks to the continued deluge! Also the daily newspaper was found outside our door early at dawn as usual throughout the year!
When “educated” privileged fun-lovers were ready to rush to Digha by shirking their duties and work places for sheer pleasure and showmanship, the unsung people lying at the lowest rungs of social hierarchy continued with their duties by braving all natural adversities and ignoring all artificial “amusements”!
Without stepping inside the temples of Varanasi or Kamakhya, Dwarka or Kedarnath I succeeded in meeting my messenger of God right at my doorstep, wrapped under a raincoat with waters dripping from his head to feet, worshipping the Almighty through his sincere dedicated work!
At least I don’t need to venture far and wide when there lies so much to explore right within true human beings roaming around us each and every day by retaining sense of duty and dignity at its highest order!