From a tiny Cat to a massive Construct: Everyday experience of a rider

-

 

From a tiny Cat to a massive Construct: Everyday experience of a rider

by

Priyambda Samanta Ray (Sem I, 2023)



 

Today I want to share an incident with you all. It happened when I was returning from college to home. I ride scooty to travel. So, as I was driving home, I observed how people’s belief works while driving.  A man driving ahead of me spotted a cat crossing the street. The man was on one end of the street and the cat was already on its way to cross the street. That man mindlessly increased his vehicle's speed like it didn’t matter if the cat died or if any of its parts got crushed under his tiers. His only motive was to cross the road before the cat did. His humanity, kindness, and mind went out of the window as if he were chased by a leopard. He just passed by the cat’s face. It was so close that if it was not for the cat’s reflex, then it would have died on the spot, and its ‘’crime’’ is that he tried to cross the road before a “superstitious man”. REALLY A BIG CRIME TO COMMIT.

I really want to know how threatened a 5 - 6 ft tall man can be by a small cat crossing the road.

Now after he “saved” himself from this emergency I crossed the same road after the cat crossed the road and to my surprise, I didn’t find any cliff or anything that would hurt me as such. I am perfectly normal after that. No, I am not, how can I be normal after seeing my fellow species doing such things?

The human brain is so emersed with superstitions that if that guy had any kind of accident, he would turn all his fingers towards the cat. This also makes me wonder about a man who is alive apparently even after driving on “INDIAN ROADS” I don’t think just any random small cat crossing the road can be life-threatening right?

The groves and curves of the roads are not any less than a rollercoaster and of course, how can I forget the speed breakers? Oh, my bad! the vehicle breakers are too good for practicing driving.

Now if I think of it from the perspective of the cat. As a cat, I should be away from humans as far as possible as they are ready to take my life and then blame me for coming in “their” path. Aren’t they being too self-centered? Oh! How did I forget that they are the most self-centered beings on the planet?

I will come back with such incidents, so stay tuned…….


Click here for the PDF of this article

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Respect and Disrespect: Beyond The "Trophy' Controversy

-
Image
  Respect and Disrespect: Beyond The "Trophy' Controversy by Agnimitro Ghosh, Sem V, 2023 Night had descended in the thick forests of Kanha. Mathew Halbert, one of the chief officers of a Textile Factory under the East Indian Company had set up camp in one of the clearing in the forests. Earlier that day, arrangements had been made in the huge Neem tree located in the mysterious depths of the jungle, so that our gallant officer, armed with his beloved double barreled Black Powder Express c ould have a steady aim at the site where the bait goat had been situated strategically.   The unconquerable beast of the dark, the one who is feared by all, the terrible one, was to be conquered. Veni. Vidi.Vici. Locals had reported seeing the magnificent creature with the yellow coat adorned with long swathes of black. The villagers were ready with drums and sticks, if the goat was spared by the tiger, they would be the one to lure it with noise, into the clean shot of Mr. Halbert,
Read more

Public anthropology in practice

-
Image
  Public anthropology in practice   By Prof. Abhijit Guha     BACKGROUND   A.L. Kroeber (1876-1960) in his essay Eighteen Professions published in the American Anthropologist in 1915 began with two interesting paragraphs. I quote:   Anthropology today includes two studies which fundamental differences of aim and method render irreconcilable. One of those branches is biological and psychological; the other, social or historical (Kroeber 1915).   The second paragraph starts with a more interesting sentence, which runs as follows:   There is a third field, the special province of anthropology, concerned with the relation of biological and social factors. This is no-man’s land, and therefore used as a picnic-ground by whosoever prefers pleasure excursions to the work of cultivating a patch of understanding. Some day this tract will also be surveyed, fenced and improved (Ibid).   Yes, Kroeber was right and he came to anthropology from another subject like hi
Read more

An Ethnographic Snapshot by Abhijit Guha

-
Image
  An Ethnographic Snapshot [1] Abhijit Guha abhijitguhavuanthro@rediffmail.com   ‘… When someone tells you what he states happened to himself, you are more likely to believe that he is telling the truth than when he tells you what happened to somebody else. It has besides the merit from the story-teller’s point of view that he need only tell you what he knows for a fact and can leave to your imagination what he doesn’t or couldn’t know’. W. Somerset Maugham (Preface, Collected Short Stories, vol.2, Penguin Books, 1963).   Background or false consciousness? Since I began my research on development caused forced displacement with a special emphasis to land acquisition on a particular locale, I also tried to collect public opinion outside my field area. I talked with people of other places who were not affected by land acquisition. For example, I talked, listened and debated with my colleagues, friends, relatives and strangers on the streets and public transport systems on t
Read more