by: Altaf Hussain Rather
Recently I saw a Facebook post, uploaded by some ‘self-styled’ journalist, wherein a girl has been shown capturing a selfie at the famous Dal Lake, as if the said journalist has achieved some important milestone. Leaving aside the Facebook post, the selfie menace is getting dangerous daily. The era in which we live today can rightly be called the era of capturing moments. Today we are trying to save every happy moment of our life in the camera. Then we have to prove this happiness to the world. In old times, first, one had to buy a camera. The film had to be washed. We could only take thirty-six pictures and the picture could not be edited. This picture could not be sent to all the friends and relatives in a moment. But now mobile phones with cameras, internet, WhatsApp, and Facebook have changed the scenario. Today a person is uploading selfies, moment by moment. Unfortunately, several deaths have occurred in these attempts at selfie capturing. Despite these unfortunate incidents, people are doing these acts of selfie capturing like an addiction only to show others that we are extremely beautiful, stylish, bold, and witty.
Everything else in life is on autopilot. Why are we doing all this? The answer to this question is, to show people, although a great majority of people are not interested in your photos at all. We are hungry for a comment and a like from people, whom we don’t even know. We try to show our childhood photos to strangers. We are sharing our sorrows and joys with people daily with great pride. We love our parents, which we should, but what is the reason to show it to the world, by uploading it on social media platforms? What is the fun of presenting every good deed to the world? We are now living in the era of social media. In the subconscious state of mind, there is always a desire in us, to present something to the world.
People who knew had already explained the reason for this menace. In the language of Sufism, this state of mind is called “Hab-e-Jah”. Hab-e-Jah means that a person wants to look good, unique, beautiful, and hearty in the eyes of others. This desire for good looks and attraction to the opposite sex has made people crazy.
Another very scary thing happens in this game of capture. The thing is that we can either capture a moment or save it for the future. In an attempt to capture, we sacrifice our present. As far as enjoying these moments in the future is concerned, the situation and the psychology of a person change altogether, as they reach the future. Our toes capture every moment of our infants because of their extreme beauty so that we can show them in their adulthood, but when he/she grow up, until that time, that intensity in love does not remain Today, people capture photos excessively, with the idea that they will be happy with them later in the life but ninety percent of them are not opened and seen later. Even the mobile phone is disabled or lost. We can only truly enjoy a scene when we are present and mindful of the moment with our own eyes, rather than through the eyes of a camera. The vision of the human eye cannot be the same as that of the camera. If we spend 15 to 20 minutes in a three-hour ceremony making pictures for the future, it is still understandable but unfortunately, if a person is in a state of anxiety, during the entire event, to capture things, then the present is also gone in the future cycle. There is no future guarantee. One heart attack, one accident, swallows all future possibilities. The person with whom we want to enjoy the memories of the past may be separated from us forever in seconds.
The meaning of a hadith is that “if you have food today if you and your family are in good health, then you have everything.” But unfortunately, people have become obsessed with securing the future. If leaders like Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussain, and Ibrahim Raiesee could not secure their future, then what would we do? This body itself is so weak, that death and suffering are chasing it, that permanent happiness cannot be attained. Yes, we can learn to enjoy what we have been given today. Today, if we don’t have enough time to play with our child at this stage when he is very beautiful and very innocent, then this time will not come back. This does not mean that we should not plan for the future at all, but rather we have to maintain a balance.
The author is a teacher at Govt Middle School Kawhar. He can be mailed at ratheraltaf184@gmail.com
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