Samsara - a personal journey around the world...

I have always acknowledged the power of visual imagery.
And despite my preparedness for it, I am overwhelmed and pretty much reduced to melancholy as I watch these hauntingly beautiful snapshots - shot over a period of 4 years - from 25 countries around the world.

That is Samsara for you!
Art through visual snapshots that transports you to some of the most spectacular places on earth within a span of ninety minutes. And yet, it is not a travelogue or documentary or even a story. It makes you find the words for the story even as it compels you to make the story. 

Samsara is only what you make out of it - left to your own means. Some could just appreciate the cinematography and camera angles while some others could be struck down by a sense of despair, gloom and hopelessness - as one stands witness to humanity gnawing through its very own foundations. As much as I hate to use the word, Samsara to me, IS a spiritual journey. It is a personal journey even though it traces the past, present and perhaps the future of the rest of humanity. 

As I sat in a darkened room, watching these images streaming by, accompanied by nothing but hauntingly appropriate music in the background, my only thought was - "Imagine if some aliens from another galaxy or if our future generations, after an apocalypse like event, were to watch this to try and understand the world as it exists today:
What would they think? That we drove ourself to extinction and that we were a weird and extremely social herd of men and women who couldn't/wouldn't/didn't think!!!"

That is what Samsara is. A brutally honest and yet spell-bindingly beautiful portrait of us, as a people, a race and a community. It is us, as we exist, today, in at least 25 countries around the world. 

Samsara is art - not because of the stunning images shot on 75 mm film - that makes it rather special too; but Samsara is art because it doesn't tell you what to think. It floods you with these diverse images and leaves you to make sense of it. I left disappointed and disillusioned by everything I saw. Maybe you will not.  Maybe you will manage to see the human ability to survive and thrive despite the odds. Or maybe you will be consumed by a sense of despair stronger than mine. Nonetheless, it is a journey I will strongly recommend.

There are images that you see and then there are stories that you build 

Stories of: (Spoiler alert!!!)

Regimented battalions of hundreds of thousands of men, working like machines repeating the same task over and over, and over - until the world's end - only to get their two square meals. 

Imagine an army of perfectly sculpted, identical looking, pretty but unthinking women - trying to fit the stereotypes of the world. 

Imagine ghost cities and towns - abandoned, destroyed by natural disasters with names of their own. Disasters that left behind nothing but a haunting presence of all that was and could have been. 

A world where tiny, multi-storyed, one room shanties are built with corrugated tin pieces glued together and tied by ropes - threatening to collapse at a moments notice - all in the shadow of giant, multi-storey, apartment complexes that are furnished with swimming pools, gardens and other amenities. 

A world where animals are bred only to be consumed by the select few who can afford. Where life is dismembered, packaged and sold faster than it can be grown. Where life is sometimes just food. 

Where history from hundreds of years stands witness to the atrocities of the present. Where nature unleashes its fury every now and then but human will always strives to overcome it. 

When men are united by the name of an unseen god and by a book of prayers than by the plight of a fellow human. Where men and women, live in fear - trained and ready to fight/kill at a moments' notice.  A world where borders are made in stone and sand and yet they are strong enough to separate people of the same kind.

A world where body art continues to make statements - of power, culture, and individuality - in the oldest of tribes to the youngest of civilizations. 

Where creation with meticulous labour and exquisite attention to detail is only the first step towards destruction - a symbolic, cyclical ritual that we, as a race, seem to initiate everywhere. 

A world whose lungs are fast being choked with the overwhelming amounts of garbage generated everyday. A world which looks gloriously beautiful and hideously ugly - both at the same time - through the eyes of the unspeaking, unflinching camera. 

A world where the cities buzz through the day and are glittering by the night; in hues of red, orange and gold - looking quite vulgar and expensive.

Single stories...

Men are bad with multi-tasking. Women are bad with directions. Girls are more responsible. Boys are slow learners. Indians are bad with punctuality. Trees are good for the environment. Meat is good for health. Japanese are hard-working. Americans are... Germans are... Italians are... French are...  The list goes on. And on.

We live with these stereotypes everyday.

Stereotypes - the broad sweeping generalizations that we make and refer to every single day. Generalizations, that minimize the effort involved in making a choice every time we face a familiar situation. Generalizations, that make a quick and easy lesson for us to pass on. Generalizations, that err on the side of caution in their sweeping declarations, encompassing all things remotely similar with a small footnote for the minor exceptions.

We see the world through these tinted glasses. Some of these stereotypes are what we effortlessly imbibe from others' experiences and some others are based on our own little forays into the world.

And as Chimamanda Adichie elegantly says in her talk on the danger of a single story, "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. "

Stereotypes, to me are the perfect example of an anachronistic asset - a key to evolutionary success that is fast becoming a handicap, a liability and a source of conflict. Stereotypes underlie our innate ability to learn, to extrapolate from our lessons, to transmit them to others and in the process flattening the learning curve of a society as a whole. This is a great evolutionary asset. To be able to learn from isolated experiences, to be able to spot patterns and to be able to form generalizations of pleasure or pain is a vital asset - a key to survival. It would have saved lives of our ancestors and aided in the transmission of their gene pool.

But today, this very asset traps us in the world of single stories. Of stereotypes and generalizations. We extrapolate based on the tiniest slivers of information. We search for patterns where there are none. We find out a few things and we assume the rest - all in our quest to arrive at the simple generalization. A stereotype.

Stereotypes are universal - to the extent that we don't even realize when we resorting to them up till the point, when we are at the receiving end.

Listening to a talk (A TED Talk) by Adichie recently brought all these thoughts and more to the fore. Here is a transcript of the talk - on the danger of a single story.

But for a trait as inherent and instinctive as this, there is no avoidance. We need to battle it out, make conscious choices to detect it and avoid it. All we can do is to consciously make a choice to not form that first impression. To then not generalize that first impression. To consciously weed out cursory value assignments even as we form those first impressions. To be aware of how we are thinking and why we are making certain choices. It requires the benefit of second-sight and of hind-sight to overcome the bias of the first. It requires reading the second story, the third and the fourth, after the first; before arriving at a conclusion.
It is a lot more work certainly, but it brings us closer to the truth as it exists and farther away from the truth as we know it.