Page 11 - Seniors Today - June 2021 Issue
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pastoral inventions of hoary yore to Sentinelese in the Andaman and Nicobar
technological innovations of contemporary Islands in India. Both tribes are near
today, in real terms, has meant ease of extinction with a maximum of about 1,500
living, ease of food on the table, ease of Hadzabes and about 200 to 400 Sentinelese
access, excess production and consumption, known to exist. Unspoilt by civilisation and
economic disparities and of course development, they continue to be hunters
environmental dangers and ecological and gatherers the traditional way. The
unsustainability. Typical of human foibles, respective governments are doing their best
such fears are dismissed as too ‘long-term’ to preserve them though both tribes are
to really worry, though voices to go green under constant threat of encroachment into
are increasing in decibel and cadence. Will their lands and way of living. The Hadzabe
tomorrow ever be if we don’t live today? tribe seemingly are not sequestering
Fed as we have been with the fear of themselves as much as the Sentinelese,
insecurities of life, the word ‘more’ has been who violently stave off any visitors to their
twisted around to mean ‘infinite’. It has had lands.
its impact on our mindsets of never being
satisfied but ever crave for more. The search
never really ends from birth to rebirth.
‘More’ has perhaps morphed to ‘so less’.
Many would have perhaps heard this
apocryphal story about Akbar. Known for
his munificence, a poor mendicant went
to the king to seek some gifts. As he was
waiting, he heard the king praying for
more wealth, property and honour. The
mendicant thought to himself that the all-
powerful king himself is no less a beggar Bare necessities
than he. Hence, he went off. On hearing Interestingly, I came across a couple of
of this, Akbar had him fetched. The king videos depicting an adventurer spending
enquired why he went away without taking a few days with the Hadzabe tribe to see
any gift. The mendicant said that he heard how they live and survive. They essentially
the king asking God for more wealth, more hunt animals, anything that moves, and live
property and more honour and hence off the land and what nature has to offer
thought that the king’s wants may be a them. They hunt when they are hungry and
thousand times more than his own. How everything is a shared experience. Baboons,
can you, a beggar yourself, then help me in antelopes, zebras, bats and birds are their
my need? It’s a telling comment on human favourite meat and honey is their favourite
psychology of chasing ‘more’. drink. They drink water out of watering
Which brings me back to my reference holes like animals do. They have a pack of
to civilisation. We all were hunters dogs to aid them in their hunt. Their shelter
and gatherers at one time. Progress has is just the ground with a thatched roof
transformed all of us, save for a few tribes overhead.
like the Hadzabe in Tanzania or say the It was a revelation to hear their simple
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #24 | JUNE 2021 11
