We are 'Bangalored' - Was Maveli?   » Onam Thoughts (Part 1)

Bangalore's rise to the high-tech city status and its being nicknamed the Silicon Valley of India made America coin a new word - "Bangalored" - to describe the widespread layoff in the IT industry and the fate of tens of thousands of IT employees who lost their jobs because their work was moved to cities in developing countries, especially Bangalore.

The term is an expression of strong feelings of those who lost their jobs, and a result of modern man's craving for practical, easy, and fast solutions. When one more Onam comes calling with nostalgic folk songs, awesome flower carpets, and the delicious Onasadya with payasam, to welcome the great emperor Maveli, we are faced with a question: Why did Maveli bow before Vamana and let him place his third step on Maveli's head so he could keep the promise he made? Was he not 'bangalored' (practical)? There were thousands of his subjects around and Maveli being the king had every authority to order that Vamana place his third step on one of his subjects' head to measure the third piece of land that Vamana wanted. However, being a just and generous king, Maveli did not do so, which may bewilder us who are living in this bangalored world that always holds on to the practical or pragmatic viewpoint.

The pragmatic philosophy says that "What is useful is what is good and what is good is what is useful." It can be said that pragmatism is like a corridor in a hotel to which a number of rooms are linked. In one of its rooms, we may find a person writing an atheistic volume and in another a man praying for faith. However, the corridor is common to all rooms. Every visitor must pass through the common corridor if they want a practical way of getting into or out of their destinations. This corridor symbolizes the route of practical, simpler, easy, and fast solutions. The modern man uses this corridor, and when he gets stuck, he always remains there and fails to be in the room to think for himself.

A closer look at the current world scenario will reveal that the use of this practical corridor is extensive – Hi-tech gadgets and automated devices resulting from technological innovations, advanced communication facilities, smart work and easy money, and even the trend of children being programmed right from their childhood to achieve particular targets. The changing world-order, which moves along the practical corridor in a flash, causes the virtual world to gain importance over the real world, results in more and more ‘toll free’ help lines, and makes us always search for the 'user friendly' type.

Having got used to living in a world that embraces practical or pragmatic solutions, we have every right to look down upon Maveli for his seemingly impractical and absurd decision to bow his head before Vamana. However, If Maveli had decided to go through the corridor of ease and pragmatism by offering the head of any of his subjects, the episode of the great King Maveli would have ended just the same way that most of the bedtime stories do: “… and they lived happily ever after.” (Maveli ruled his people for hundreds of years more.) In such a case, we would have missed the charming floral carpets, nostalgic onam costumes, delicious Onam food, and the joy, happiness, and enthusiasm of Onam festivities.

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