‘Ghar Wapsi’ web series and Climate Change
Apparently, I can make anything about Climate Change. Even a film like Titanic. Well, there was a stray iceberg and large number of deaths!!
I watched the web series ‘Ghar Wapsi’ (Homecoming), because the trailer showed my Business School’s certificate on the walls of the protagonist, Shekhar. And it was based in Indore, a place my partner’s family belongs to, but now everyone has left it for colder shores!
The plot in 4 sentences. Shekhar is the academically brilliant eldest son of Dad, who runs a travel agency, Mom, who teaches maths to school students. He has recently been fired from a fancy start-up he worked at in Bangalore and is back in Indore, unable to pay the loans that he has taken on. Bro, younger brother, supposedly helps out in the agency but actually wants to run a gaming parlour and Sis, is a brilliant student. BFF, is childhood friend who runs a pharmacy and is very proud of and happy to be in Indore.
Why I thought of Climate Change (besides that I always think of it) while watching this:
1. Enormous focus on ‘economic activity’ and none on happiness. After initial hesitation, Shekhar starts ‘chilling’ in Indore. He eats home food and the street food that Indore is famous for. He sleeps in the afternoon. He comes out with a great plan to customise tours to reach travellers who want a local, unique experience. He is happy. But his parents are shocked. What about his academic achievements and back-breaking, mostly pointless but high-paying metropolis job? How can he settle for a simple life of jalebi-poha and afternoon naps?
My partner and I regularly take afternoon naps and are often caught roaming in a park, in the middle of a work week. But NOT when his parents are around. Because his father feels very proud to declare that his son works from “9 am to 9 pm”! Imagine if he could be proud that his son is happy, healthy and free to use his time as he wishes — reading, walking, sleeping, playing and doing his Machine Learning work only because it gives him joy.
N is largely stabilising. There is constant effort at increasing Alpha. But y needs to be controlled if we are to stop planetary damage. How is this possible if our parents (and we) are ‘Tiger Moms and Dads’, who push down a narrow definition of achievement, in which ‘purpose’ and ‘happiness’ may have no place?
2. Pride in local. Indore outskirts are full of some of the most fascinating structures that I’ve seen and I’ve seen a lot across the globe. The Dad’s travel agency’s business picks up when Shekhar gets them to focus on local history and culture — involving a lot of food and interesting Hindi dialects. In contrast, Bro wants to invest in a gaming parlour — carbon intensive, brain damaging and possibly the least unique leisure activity that one can think of.
One of the largest emitters of GHG is energy consumption in households (where did this come from? Wait). Hot countries like India, in their hurry to ape the colder Global North and lose its unique, relevant structures, has been creating Steel, Chrome, Glass structures which are heat islands. A lot like gaming parlours — in structure and attitude. Increasing the need for air-conditioning, further heating up the earth and then increasing the need for MORE air-conditioning. Biodiversity loss is the second humanitarian crisis that we are dealing with, alongside Climate Change and Pollution. Homogenising diets, where everyone eats cornflakes for breakfast for example instead of jalebi-poha if you are in Indore, in a vastly heterogenous planet, is disastrous for biodiversity. Imagine if we were brought up appreciating what is unique about our place, eating food traditionally grown and therefore great for soil and our health and living in weather-proofhomes that our ancestors lived in. We would do ourselves and the planet a good deal of good. BFF talks about me when he says cool things like “Some of us are actually happy where we were born” throughout the series. No spoilers but it’s easy to guess which one of the two, the travel agency or the gaming parlour, became a success.
Picture below is from Jahaz Mahal, Mandu, about 100 kms from Indore, where we went this December.
(Can’t help plugging this: the jeans are hand-me-downs, sweater was lovingly knitted 20 years back by mother-in-law, watch is a kiddie plastic Rs 200 watch my daughter got as return gift, 15 years back, bag is upcycled material).
