Things Fall Apart!
‘Things Fall Apart’ is one of the famous novels of a Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, which I have gone through superficially way back in 2012 and now after a decade I hardly remember what was the primary message of the novel. But yesterday while scrolling down the social media I came across one of the posts of a user on Facebook, a beautiful and touching post about her perception and understanding about things and processes which happen in day to day life and luckily this phrase “things fall apart” caught my attention which prompted me to write about the theme in the present day context to this part of the world.
Well! Things Fall Apart, as the phrase suggests is used when a thing or process does not go your way, when you want something to happen but contrary happens, when you aim for something but that is not in your fate, when you aspire for something but that goes in others’ lap without asking for it, when you put your best for your dreams but those dreams are not for you, when you plan a thing but something unplanned happens. This is where you realise that you are just a human and you have some human ‘pitfalls’ and ‘shortcomings’. And then, you have to bow before the divine plans which run underneath everything.
Now, coming to the contemporary context of this phrase, I am of the opinion that we see this ‘things fall apart’ scenario everywhere and in every sphere of life- social, political, economic, moral, religious etc. And I think, the time and the space are not proper and congenial to discuss ‘things fall apart’ scenario of every sphere. So let’s restrict it to the social and the administrative spheres only for now.
So far as the society is concerned, we see ‘things fall apart’ like scenario everywhere and in every walk of life. From the individual to the family to the society at large, everywhere seems that things have fallen apart and are falling apart drastically with a rapid pace. At the individual level, individuality is at the altar; at the familial stage, the familial relations seem to be disintegrating and at the social setup, all social norms, conformations, rituals, customs and traditions are at the verge of extinction or, at least, are being replaced with the currents of so called modernity and advancement. In all these perspectives and scenarios, no one takes and owns the responsibility, rather we play a blame game and put the ball in others’ court, unfortunately. We all, in one way or the other, aspire for some change but we never ‘be the change’ we want to see and flourish. We all want others to start but we never dare to start from our own selves.
Is it not true that we all want to see some changes but we are not ready to start from ourselves. If we all, at the individual level, would have played our part, the things would have been totally different. Not only our familial and social institutions would have peacefully flourished but our administrative and government machinery as well would have been presenting a totally different picture, which otherwise are presenting a very dismal image, of which we all are aware of.
Talk of the education sector, health sector, tourism, R&B, PWD, and other departments which are there to ease up the problems faced by the common masses; unfortunately, from the perspective of common masses they are not performing up to the mark. The common masses have to go from the pillar to the post to get their genuine demands addressed and fulfilled. And, if their problems get addressed and solved anyhow, never on time, and that too after many requisitions and visits.
So the point is that things have fallen apart quietly and gradually, one way or the other and we never paid heed to mend them. And now, unfortunately, situation is so grim that they are falling apart more rapidly and there seems least possibility that they would be into the place in near future, keeping the ground realities in mind. The reason is that, this has become the norm of the society now. And, as it is said, unless you feel pain, you would never thought of its treatment. Similarly, we have never realised the problems and possible solutions. And if we have realised, to our good luck, we are not ready to start from ourselves. We want someone to start and play our part, we are supposed to do.
And, when a society is at this stage, it gets hollowed out gradually from within and its roots weaken.
So, before things fall apart totally, let us pledge and start now to act.