Living or living Dead?!

To be who you are, after all you have been through at the hands of this world is beautiful.
-Bianca Sparancino ( A Gentle Reminder)

Living dead are often referred to as zombies. I remember my dad telling me that I have become a zombie. For context, at the end of 8th class, all I did the whole day was play Roblox, scroll through shorts and look at my phone at each time of day. Back then I thought it was a weird way to refer to someone who is an addict ( in this case, a phone addict ).

After 2 years, I met my former high school friend. Her name is Rashmi. I was left with the impression that she was headstrong, always up to challenges, a determined girl, who doesn’t realize her potential. As to why I say this is: During our 10th class, her “best friend”  told her that people like her would not be able to score good marks. She challenged her best friend that she would score more marks than her. After 1 month of our final exams, our results were released. Guess what? She not only scored more than her “best friend”, she scored 97%. Definitely a huge feat. I confronted her about how she achieved this and why she did not do this well in the other exams. She told me about how she was challenged and that’s the reason she pushed her to score good marks. I remembered the conversation I had with her mother, back when we used to be very close. I asked her mom why she always compares and makes us both compete against each other. Later, this was one reason why we didn’t continue to be close. But, we still hold a unique bond till date. I had a huge question, she was so intelligent and driven, but why did she have to have something to force her to do things that ultimately help and empower her? 

Back to the present, 2 years after our 10th class. I met her again after the EAMCET 1st round of counselling. We talked about our daily life, how our intermediate was and the extra stuff. For her intermediate, she joined one of the “factory” colleges in the Telugu-speaking states. She regretfully told me that she didn’t study and all she did at the college (“coaching”) was enjoyed.  Watching dramas, series, anime and whatever during the lectures, at home, while sleeping. Practically, her whole day all she did was glue to her phone. She would stay up until late at night (“Early mornings”) at 3 am and later she would sleep. Her parents sleep in the room right next to hers. She confessed about being scared about looking at her phone till late at night and being caught by her mother. She told me about how she gets goosebumps and shivers down her spine. Rashmi failed her intermediate and also in her entrance exams (the one she was aiming for). Fortunately, she managed to pass the supplementary exams. When I told her about her addiction to her phone and that her body clearly doesn’t accept and likes the things she does hiding from her parents, shows how wrong are the things she is doing. She agreed with my words but also added that I know I have to do something, but that she can’t help herself because she is addicted to it. She even confessed that she likes to watch series and dramas, whatever that she is watching and doesn’t want to stop. But, still knows that she is wrong.

The fact that she goes to bed at 3 am shocks me. In Indian culture, time around 3 to 5 am is considered as “Brahma Muhurta”, the most productive period in a day. Students who are supposed to at such time, are the ones who go to bed at time? Will these students ever get out of phone addiction? Will they ever actually be able to feel the world and their body? Will they ever realize their loss? Time is slipping away from their hands. Before we realize, we might be in our 30’s, looking back, nothing to remember as we rot our brains now. For sure all the world goes on, we will somehow graduate college,  get jobs, maybe even get married and have kids. When we spend all our time on these useless things and at the end realize that we have done nothing in our lives, it will be gone. Forever. All these students who are not connected to the real world, their whole life is around a screen. The warmth of human touch, the sense of empathy will they be lost over time? It is high time we help our students get away from the  virtual world and actually feel the real realm. As new technologies like generative AI  are bleeding into our everyday lives, the only thing that differentiates us from the virtual things is humanity.

 Unfortunately, this is the story of most of the students in India, if not the story of students all over the world. Very few fortune students, one such as myself, are only able to get away from it. People always talk about how alcohol and substance abuse are major addictions. But, my belief is, addiction to phones is as equal to dangers as alcohols and substance abuse. It creates the same “नशा” (“intoxication”) as substance abuse. As a former phone addict I strongly believe that getting away from the “नशा” of phones is equally challenging as other addiction. Let’s help each other overcome our addiction and feel life again. Rejuvenate the human spirit in us. Change is not brought by someone. It is brought by us, by changing ourselves. As students, the carrier of humanity into the future, let’s take charge of our own lives and get away from the soul-sucking things.

Ask yourself, are you living, or are you a living dead?