We forget far too soon

This is an opinionated article about my fellow Indians and the mentality that has been developed in recent past, mostly driven by addiction to online media.

“Am I affected personally? No? Ok, never mind, it is not my problem!” — This has become our non-official mantra, especially when it comes to recent incidents of 2020–21.

Disclaimer: The article might not directly correlate to what “data” on the ground (if any) represents.

Backstory

I will start with 3 thought experiments, many of you can relate to (hopefully)

#1

Think about talking to someone in-person v/s on a video call. Try recalling, 3 good and bad memories from both of these incidents.

#2

Think about travelling to a particular place v/s watching an amazing documentary by your favourite “wanderlust YouTubeR”. Try recalling 3 “things” that you’ll want to visit and 3 places you’d absolutely avoid going to.

#3

Think about 5 family/distant-family members you’d never talk to. Put them in one of the following categories:

1. You don’t like them because your parents don’t like them.
2. You “tolerate” them because your parents have comfortable relationship with them.

Now, take a break and think about these situations and write your responses on a paper before reading further.

If in #1 you were able to recall bad memories from a video call much more elaborately than similar interactions that you had in-person, then skip to #2. If not, let me tell you — you’re not alone in this. If not anyone else, I share this mindset. I tend to forget online interactions (good/bad) very soon.

If in #2 you’re able to recall the places which your favourite traveller talked about, skip to #3. If not, you’re partly affected by the internet and it’s reliable availability of information. Partly, as we evolved, we had little time to adapt to online media.

If in #3 you have lesser people in category 2, skip to the conclusion part of this section. If not, hi-5 ✋

Now, what I am trying to achieve from this??

I wanted to try these thought experiments to make you understand that some/most (based on the answers above) of us have the following tendencies:

1. Forgetting online interactions/experiences.
2. We look up to someone for identifying our “long-term” friend/foe, be it because of their experience OR our attachment with them OR we simply considering them as our idol.

Recent Events

Here is a brief about some of the recent events, we Indians encountered and mostly forgot about it:

1. Delhi riots 2020.
2. Infamous India-China Skirmish 2020–21.
3. Impact of WB elections and politic (2021).
4. Deadly 2nd wave of Covid-19 (2021).

and many more…

If you feel that we Indians DIDN’T forget about these, just look for:

• What was the issue?
• What was decided/declared/promised during/after these incidents?
• What is the ground reality as of today? What actions has been taken?
• What are general public opinion about these incidents now?

So what?

I just wanted to start this conversation and try to make you understand that please don’t give control to online content to shape your opinion, only to fall prey to the rampant, unregulated information warfare.

Please remember, if you want to change something, do not just raise slogans — work on it (at least) at personal level.

Our beloved Mahatma Gandhi once told:

We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.

Popularly known as “Be the change you want to see in the world”.