I remember how i felt the first time i read the phrase "global village". I felt a rush. Of adrenaline, joy and a sense of promise. Of thigs unknown. New places to be explored, new people to meet, new expereinces and new food to taste. And i read it again and again in my engineering. The BPO & IT revolution was taking India by the storm. India would be reformed they said. Everyone would have adequate money. A good quality life, money to buy a car and a big house. Suddenly people were flying off to US, UK and Australia for studies. Girls would settle for nothing less than a guy who is working in the US making US dollars. The future was promising. The world was becoming a small place. Suddenly we have ISD plans on our mobiles so that one can talk to married daughters, excited would-bes and working sons. I was happy and excited. Well they apparently forgot to tell me about my brother.
The world has become a small place. My sis is in the US. My bro is in Ireland. My mom visited US last year. They are planning a trip, probably next year. Even AP has become a small place. I visit my parents once in a month. We are better off than we used to be financially. In more ways than imagined, the dream was fulfilled.
But what a delusion it was. The world was never to become a small place. "A global village". I mean which dumb fucker whould think that the geographical distances would be somehow lessened or hearing your beloved one's voice over the phone who is overseas would somehow bridge the gap and make us happy. If anything, it makes everything worse. It magnifies what is not there. My bro is in ireland and my sis is in the US. Did the world become a small place?? No it is suddenly very very big. The distances too great to cross. The internet phone calls and the gtalk chats a bare shadow of what we had.
There are reasons why you have a brother. There are reasons why he is called a brother why other guy friends are called just friends. You can share only so much with your friends. And the farthest they would go would be to advise you. But who will slap you when you go wrong? Who will guide you with patience and love and determination when you veer off the path. Who will not look at you in disgust when you are so wrong that you want to peel the very skin off your body so that you could be new again. In such ways i miss my brother. I wish he was here to slap me.
Back to globalization and you see that this is just one story of the many multitudes. There are many people whose siblings who have moved to US and try to find the same intimacy and trust in friends. Sadly, while the global village has indeed become a reality and we are better off than we were before, somewhere something got flipped.
The whole point of globalization or industrialization or capitalism or democracy or anything good that comes out of a human mind I believe is to make human life better. To make it easier and more importantly happier. For us and for our children. But we flipped the positions. The goal was better life. The means was more centralized world. Globalization, money, cars and what not were supposed to make life better. Instead we traded a better life for all of it. We may have all the luxury now but we dont have a better life. The bonds with people we have are getting thinner by the day. While globalization has certainly made the world a small place, it has stretched the realtions between people and distanced them. It has distanced me and my brother.
