Before our eyes

I had the same tense discussion with two close friends in the same week Both times it was over the word elite Both friends were hurt and upset when I used the word elite in referring to them and myself It was as if they felt I had rudely criticised them I was perplexed by why either would think that it was in some way a slight when I felt all I was saying was that in a country like India where many people donrsquot have rights over their own bodies leave alone access to food shelter care people like us who have access to education mobility food shelter health care and leisure are clearly elites in that societyGajendra Singh sitting on tree during the Aam Aadmi Party AAPs rally He committed suicide a few moments later Pic PTIPersistent discussion revealed that for most though the word elite implies someone very rich and maybe undeserving of what they had someone who has not worked hard to earn what they have as we do Itrsquos as if by using the objective description elites I derecognised their struggles or their helplessness in a politically complex and often adversarial system Because we all feel we donrsquot have what we deserve and that we are at the mercy of other well elitesPartly because the idea of elite as very rich implies uncaring zamindar characteristics And none of us would like to think we are uncaring ndash and in essence we are not But itrsquos also true that for several years now not just cinema and television at least in Hindi but even our news media supposedly reality has ceased to show a heterogenous India to itself The reference point for what is India is far more homogenously middle class Development is an upmarket brand now To speak of the poor the landless the disenfranchised happens little The media doesnrsquot report or ask much from that pointofview and in fact those who raise these questions are quickly villainised and branded antinationalIt is as if through this electronic shadow play of the media our reality becomes the overwhelming one the real reality so to say In such a situation onersquos good fortune never seems to be that we always see ourselves as the ones with less One could argue thatrsquos simply human nature and even the richest feel it But itrsquos also true that there are not too many things around us to remind us that we have where or because others do notIn these gradual ways people even when they are around us become invisible and realities become insubstantial to us Poor people appear on our screens rather as developing countries appear on first world screens as quaint exotica or the spectacle of disaster or tragedy often framed by lsquotraditionrsquo because festivals and rituals we observe in cities are not like tradition hai na Only some backward Indians have itIn other words we sometimes speak of more than half the country as if we are foreigners or they are foreigners take your pick That is why perhaps it is possible as a man hangs himself in a crowd for TV cameras to simply train their cameras upon him and feel they are doing their job For there to be no qualms about showing this on television For people to watch and not seem utterly traumatised For some people to tweet that well the man was an AAP activist so obviously canrsquot tell with these anarchist types When all of reality is ephemeral only our own pain or anger or indignation feels really real I suppose and suffuses our vision and senses It is a lonely fearful place we find ourselves in indeedParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at wwwparodevicomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper