How utterly have we been reduced to mere numbers! Our door number, phone number, vehicle number, identification card number(s), passwords..and so on. It requires minimum effort to memorize, I suppose. W.H. Auden's The Unknown Citizen rings true in this age.
Today, I got a chance to behold the changing art scene in my country, on attending a film festival of sorts.Filmmakers seem to be reacting to the noise on and off celluloid, through mostly silent creations.I list a few of my favourites here: A Beast Called Beauty - directed by Aakanksha Chitkara Maybe because I am a woman living at a time when India is renowned for objectification of and heinous crimes against women, this documentary film struck me the most and inspired this post.The film voices the common woes of our sex racked by the rigid concepts of beauty set by the society; a situation only worsened by the marketing techniques of fairness creams and other beauty products.However,the movie ends on a happy note, with the featured females professing to have realised that they have accepted who they are, and are content with themselves.I hope every girl out there does the same. In case your interest is piqued, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M1kI5FNz_g ...
So true, this numerical reduction. What is so frightening for me is the mnemonic tyranny of it. Personally, i find numbers more difficult to remember than faces. May the effect of aging. How many daily deaths i experience on account of forgetting my passwords!
ReplyDeleteI don't think age has anything to do with it, sir. I too find it difficult to memorise numbers. Remembering passwords nowadays, whatwith the numerous "accounts" one inevitably seems to create, is a nightmare.
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