My Modern Man

         I and my friend were in a bit of argument and he put forth a question asked by a host of a TV program. The question was “What is meant by being modern or to be simple what is Modernization?”

It was a nice conversation and we shared nice time between us. After that chat, I wanted to watch the program desperately and I did it. Thanks to YouTube.

A girl answered “Girls were wearing chudithar once, now the time has changed and they are wearing denims, T-shirts etc” in the show and adding to my boredom, a boy replied and his reply revolved around the dressing codes. The host gave a stunning reply “tell me what exactly modernization is?” in a stern voice.

I had to bang my head on the wall after hearing their replies. Why do people link their so called dress codes with modernization? Is it so easy to define modernization? Dear God, do we really have sixth sense?

Modernisation doesn’t lie in the dress we are wearing or the cosmetics we are using or drinking and dancing in the bar. Above said things are nothing but cultural disasters and please! Don’t say that we are modern boys or girls just because you live in a city. Modernization is nothing but the evolutionary change in our intellectual thought process. While everyone was worshipping Idols, one king yelled and said “Sun shines and showers us the energy and why are you worshipping Idols when our real idol shines in-front of us and our earth is revolving around it”.  I would say that Intellectual thinker Akhenaten is “My Modern Man of that age”. While everyone said “women are born slaves and they are born to serve this men dominated society” and one Bharathiyar raised his voice against that slavery. That intellectual poet is “My Modern Man of that age”. People were nerds and slaved by power holders once. One man taught his people and thought different from his fellow country-men. Finally, he was killed and he too accepted it with grace. That Socrates is “My Modern Man of that age”. While priests were dancing in the midst of our unassailable trust on God, one old man said "in the name of god, religion, and sastras you have duped us. We were the ruling people. Stop this life of cheating us from this year. Give room for rationalism and humanism". That Periyar is “My Modern Man of that age”. When there were no laws, a king wrote the laws of that land. That Hammurabi is “My Modern Man of that age”. A group of people said “that is a beautiful sun set!” A passerby said “nerds! Sun never rises or sets, it’s our earth that rotates”. That passerby is “My Modern Man”. Any human being who initiates a thought process which could initiate a revolutionary change in our society, that intellectual thinker is “My Modern Man”. We may say “industrialization is modernization”. But, I would love to say “Thoughts that lead to the industrialization are nothing but the pillars of modernization, if there are no thoughts, there are no inventions. If there are no inventions, there is no modernization. If Einstein hadn’t thought about a change, there wouldn’t be a photoelectric effect or hailed theory of relativity. Imagine a brain dead Newton, we would have been in a belief that “we are floating”. I hate to imagine a blind Galileo. There were people who revolutionized this society with their thought process. All it needs is a trigger, just a little trigger like a synchronized clock pulse.