As we live

Biopics are great aid to class room teaching besides being a source of entertainment. These are used as courses are taught at the universities. They are accompaniment to lectures on related topics such as 'A Beautiful Mind' on how a Nobel prize was won by an obstinate scientist. A lecture on Game Theory would not be complete without the film. The world of teaching has gotten richer through them.

Theoretical Physics was a less attractive area of studies in our time. Enter Stephen Hawking and the scenario changed. The same can be said about Astronomy and Carl Sagar. Their fictional books 'A Brief History of Time' and 'Cosmos', later turned into biopics, did wonders to attract students to these subject areas. In turn they became rockstars of modern-day education. This is aside from their theoretical contribution to the subject areas.

The two books were written in a fictional style and hence drew wide attention. They became best sellers.That was towards the end of twentieth century. Looking further down the period of time there were four other fictions that had a similar impact on our lives, mine in particular. These are the Animal Farm, Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Hitch Hikers Guide to Galaxy. This is not to disregard earlier great works such as 'Alice in Wonderland' but to focus on the century that shaped our lives as we grew up.

Socialism ruled supreme in our lives. Khrushchev was our hero as he banged table at the UN with his shoes. We worshipped Castro for standing up against the evil force across the seas. The book Animal Farm had a different message with the donkey takingcontrol of the animal farm. The book was crisp and became a favourite in spite of being a sarcasm on socialism. The Brave New World with experimentation on the creation of alpha males was a precursor to the German concept of the master race. This experimentation was a new idea at the time. Nineteen Eighty-four talked about the Big Brother in the form of governments that would keep tab on the citizens. And then there was the Hitch Hiker who would want to demolish the planet earth as it obstructed the Galactic Super Way. Each book, deviant in approach, led our thinking to the world that we have today. This is how my life was shaped as we moved into the new millennium.

This was also a time when the world was driven by two isms namely, Capitalism and Socialism. People would fight as they chose a side. These are almost gone today as economic forces have overtaken them. The parties are the same, only the forces behind have changed. Economy rules supreme as nations fight for the privileges of various sorts in selling and buying. But life has gotten more difficult with the passage of time. There are restrictions of all sorts on what can and cannot be done. Again, these vary within and between nations. As I flew to London via Rome, I was not allowed to buy duty-free cigarettes at Rome, even though the two countries were members of the EU. In a similar manner I had to pay duty at Dhaka customs for a book that I ordered from the USA. These were pre-Amazon days when books were not as easily buyable.

In terms of access to various conveniences life is definitely better today. We now live longer. But there are sufferings when one ages, in particular when alone and there is no help around. Old homes in the developed world have not been able to solve this problem in spite of the availability of as much support. As we move ahead, is it possible that we are in a transition to a future world where many of the existing ailments will disappear or become less stressful? Look at insomnia that was a bother among the older people in particular. I have seen people cursing life for not being able to sleep. Technology has brought some relief through the Internet. One can browse the net or listen to podcasts for hours. That is some relief if not a total cure.

Can aging be made more tolerable? The retirement age is regularly extended by countries to accommodate the geezers, as the older people are called, to the benefit of society. It is their wisdom that can aid a company through the experiences gained. This has happened during the recent recession in the USA when the young leaders had difficulty in handling the situation. Some countries have now removed the retirement age for people to work as long as they are fit. We now stay healthy longer compared to the earlier years. This process of aging may further slow down once we migrate to other celestial bodies as evidenced by the slowing down of clocks in the outer space. Thanks to Elon Musk, we are almost an inter-planetary species today. Welcome to the world of centenarians!

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