Sai Baba Serial Makes Me Ask Is New Better Or Do We Complicate Life

CE, Sai Baba lived in the 1800s. His date of birth is unknown but working with the century alone, life in India has improved by leaps and bounds. Wholesome images of loving families and bucolic bliss shown in Indian movies and serials are fantasies. Life was simpler for sure, but it was also very tough. It is possible that those people experienced the same amount of net happiness as we do but that's because it was the only world they knew. They seem content because there wasn't much to be had. You can't miss what doesn't exist. Most of us with our ultra-comfortable lives wouldn't make it half a day in that world.

People in 18th-19th century India had a life expectancy between 30-40 years. The same diseases that torment us today existed then, except they didn't have painkillers and antibiotics. In fact we have eradicated or found cures for the worst diseases of that era like tuberculosis, small pox, cholera and polio. Yes, we've gained a couple of lifestyle diseases but they certainly didn't have it better. People died of everyday colds and infections. Imagine having an impacted tooth, being in excruciating pain for weeks and months, and eventually dying of septic shock. The kind of infection that can be treated with 3 days of antibiotics in our world. They were certainly not curing cancer with herbs and spices. People did cultivate their own food and more often than not, they didn't have much to eat. Thanks to British policies India suffered multiple famines in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Nearly 60 million Indians died of starvation during those centuries. During Sai Baba's time 90% of India was rural. If you want to understand the life of an Indian farmer pre-independence, you should read stories like Godaan by Munshi Premchand and watch movies like Mother India. Life consisted of unrelenting struggle and hardship--back breaking work, waiting for rains that failed often, generations indebted to greedy money-lenders. Women had it far worse than men. Early marriages, multiple unsafe pregnancies, high risk of death during childbirth, and almost no say in their own fate. God forbid if you were widowed you became a liability, lost all agency and became subject to the mercies of the men around you.

As bad as it might seem, when compared to the rest of human history, we live in the best of times. This, now, is the most progressive period we have ever known, in terms of healthcare, nutrition, poverty eradication, education, equality, peace and progress. There is a lot still to be done but we have come very far. I would recommend you read Steven Pinker's new book, Enlightenment Now. He makes a very good case for optimism and holding out hope for humanity's future.

As to happiness, it is not about this world or that, it is a choice. CE, you are an introspective person, but thinking too much takes away time from living. Make your paintings, write your poetry, and make peace with your past. If the grass looks greener on the other side, stop looking, and start watering the grass under your own feet.