village life

Country living is an experiential genre of its own. It requires a unique mindset and perhaps attitude. I have my own perspective, as an Indian business owner, living and working in a conservative part of UK.

I was born in Bangalore, a southern Indian metropolis, currently booming in every way, in a household that eschewed liberalism, with values that struggled between belonging to a society with a strong Hindu ethic ( both my parents were aethists !! imagine the conflicts!!) and constant questioning scientific debates. As a teenager, I browsed through Ivan Illich, Isaac Asimov, Karl Marx and Ambedkar. Richard Dawkins was a hero when I was in my teens.

When I left Bangalore in 1989, the population was around 4 million and growing. My transition, as far as urban movements go, was a natural progression to a larger urban space - London. The stimulation of senses (apart from the auditory), constant compulsion from extraneous message blasters to attend to their enveloping demands, the need for movement, the drive to compete and excel were all similar. Cultural differences were shocking and initially very distressing and worrying. But, the momentum and the pulse that is the city fired and inspired me.

The countryside I thought would shock me culturally but I guessed that I would be compensated by the natural beauty and the space. And I was. Everytime, in low moments, walking along the seafront and experiencing the visual perspective of life. The never ending motion of the sea somehow, shifted my focus, changed perpective and altered how I perceived life.The vastness of the sea washed my thoughts from my personal sphere and sat them on a global platform. Very therapeutic.

However, what I have found absent, is something far more fundamental. Warmth and humaneness. I envisaged a community that was close, maybe initially hostile but eventually welcoming, down to earth and hospitable. What I have found is a parochial snobbery, an inability to accept difference, a fundamental lack of respect for individuals different and an almost callous remoteness fuelled by some unknown sense of self importance. I found a community built around religious institution, where its membership seemed paramount to inclusion. As my beliefs are agnostic, such an affinity does not sit very well in my world.

On the other end, are the street level bureaucrats, so similar to those in India- cab companies, builders, plumbers, electricians - so needy of power - so willing to alienate the different.

There is no anonymity here. "Chinese whispers" are rampant. The more threatening one is to the immediate state of the society (just by being who you are), the more vicious are the whispers. This experience is shared by quite a few radical thinkers here, witchhunted because 'you dare to tell us what to do", "because you challenge status quo and dare to be honest".

Amidst natural beauty is a bubbling angst filled society. There are some wonderful people - the reason we are still here. The property market is exploding and there is a proliferation of new apartments everywhere. Will the island remain an old fashioned fabric of soicety or will the influx of modern thinker push it forward to a global platform. My guess is that it will take a good couple of decades by which time the whole world will have moved on. But it makes for interesting social dynamics to observe.