Geneva

 Arun Kumar

Geneva. Geneve. One of the financial capitals of personal wealth management (if you are lucky to have that kind of problem) and home of many international organizations striving to make this world a better place. It is a city I have been to so many times that being there brings the feeling of being at home.

Last week we were in Geneva once again. Our first international trip after a hiatus of three years, courtesy Covid. Who would have thought that we would have the privilege (or the misfortune} of living through the times of pandemic. It  is something for the history books. We have the perception that we have outsmarted nature, have broken the chains of natural selection, and have the wherewithal to alter the basic chemistry of life. Guess we are not there yet. We may never be.

A bit hesitant of venturing out and embracing the normalcy of life again, we took the leap, boarded the flight on United and took off into the blue yonder to be magically transported to Geneva eight hours later the next morning.

There we were standing at the Geneva airport train station waiting for a seven minute ride to Gare de Cornavin. It felt like returning home after being away for a long time.

Like every time, this is how the script plays out - step out of the station and there in the front is the familiar sight of Hotel Bernina. Savor the moment of being back home again, look around, inhale a deep breath, and then, turn left and walk to the Hotel Jade and be at home away from home for next six nights.

There is a sense of comfort, ease, and confidence in returning to places we have been to. Before you leave, the usual thoughts for the need to figure out the logistics of a new place does not cross the mind. Where are the ATMs located in the arrival hall, how to buy the ticket for the underground at the airport, do we have to validate the ticket, how to get to the hotel? None of that crosses the mind. That is what it is like when coming to Geneva.

Being here, when I take a right turn at an intersection, I know what the view would be. There are only a few places in the world that have that feeling of comfort. One another is my Didi’s (sister in Hindi) place back in India.

But all journeys end. They have to if we wish new ones to start. 

On the last night we decided to pick up something to eat, pack some wine and sit on the bench along Lake Geneva and have our dinner. Few hours later, it was time to get up and head back to the hotel. If it was winter, we would have seen the lights across the lake shimmering in the water,  and perhaps, would have tried to freeze frame their snapshot in my mind. But it is still the balmy months of summer and the night descends much later.

Early next morning, we checked out from the hotel and started retracing our steps back. The first stop is to enter Gare de Cornavin and take the train back to the airport. Before entering the station, I turn around and take a last look at the Hotel Bernina. Somewhere inside a thought lingers will  I be back again or  this was the last time?

If I knew that it would be the last time would that bring a some unusual flavor of sadness? 

The finality of doing something for the last time could be such a stark reminder of our mortality.

Or perhaps, it is better to think that there is never a last time and when leaving, look forward to coming  back once again. Perhaps a hope, but it becomes a distant flicker of a candle to look forward to. 

We also know that we have the wherewithal to come back and make a conscious choice of taking a trip to Geneva the last time. It is then that I will turn back, look at Hotel Bernina and the Restaurant Les Brasseurs and say Adios, it was always a pleasure being in your embrace.

It is time to head to platform #3. Don’t want to miss the train. As always, the present takes over the sadness of things coming to an end. 

Ciao.

And I wait for when

One day, a day will just be a day not a question mark or an exclamation, or a double and definitely not an …

Consummate

There were tears in your eyes when we watched the ending of Cyrano the other night.

Let me enter
the place
they came from, and

float in the
holy waters
you blessed, and

when we watch
Cyrano the next time
we both will get,
teary eyed, and

hold hands and consummate
our solitudes together.

Choice of compassion

 Arun Kumar

Pixaby

Few months back, standing on the back deck at our home, at the edge of the woods, we saw a fawn hobbling along. It looked injured, vulnerable, and alone. There was no sign of the mother or a herd that it belonged to. It felt like it was left behind. In its condition, it was not going to be around for long. 

The fawn's mother must have tried to help. That is what mothers do. She must have licked the wounds, nudged the baby to get on its feet and keep moving. Such efforts on her part are the innate nature of being a mother. Care and love a mother has for her child are the mandates natural selection puts on us for our continued survival. A lineage that did not do so, will not be around for long.

Perhaps, one can even say that if a branch on the evolutionary tree is green, that branch has an innate sense of mothers taking care of the newborn.

The same invisible hand of natural selection, in the end,  however, also guided the mother, and the herd, to eventually move on and leave the injured fawn behind. Compassion comes at a cost. For the herd, taking care of the injured fawn was a necessary strategy, but only to a point.

Are we the same? Merely pawns in the hand of natural selection which does the cost-benefit analysis and tells us to take care of the newborn to a point, but no more.

Hopefully not. Hopefully, we ignore the answer on the piece of paper the cost-benefit analysis spits out.

For us humans, the scope of compassion is broader. Not only do we have an innate drive to take care of a newborn, we also have the capability of making the  conscious choice of compassion that goes much beyond what natural selection dictates. 

As an individual, and as society, we make a conscious choice of compassion above and beyond what is required for the mere survival of ourselves as a species. 

Perhaps our ability to make a conscious choice to be compassionate is yet another characteristic that differentiates us from animals.  There are plenty of unfortunate people among us - young, adult, old - who do need help to keep their heads above the water. That sometimes also includes you and me.

We have made a choice to help those who get hit on the head by lightning. And misfortune strikes in innumerable ways, and ensnares many. These strikes begin from the moment we are born.

At the moment of our birth, we are dealt the genetic lottery. Some, for no fault of their own, draw a bad hand, and from the very beginning, are severely disadvantaged to carry on in this world on their own.

After the moment of birth, life proceeds smoothly but the dangers of being struck are not over. Besides our best efforts, and through no fault of our own, anyone among us can fall prey to sudden adversity.

There are plenty of ways for lives to unravel at any moment, and they do. If there is a way, our sheer numbers on the planet assures that some of us will fall victim to each and all of the possible ways. Anything that can go wrong does go wrong. Sometimes, horribly so.

When life does go awry, the unfortunate among us could use the safety net, a helping hand, to get back on their feet and feel the dignity of being a human again. 

In the animal kingdom, being unfortunate ends the journey in a hurry. With the evolution of intelligence within us, we have made the choice to be compassionate and to help those in need. This choice allows us to blunt the cold brutality nature can be.

The choice of compassion, however, comes with a cost.

Seeing compassion to its logical conclusion needs resources.  Those resources can only come from developing appropriate social structures - social security, medicare, food stamps, and various other safety nets. 

Since resources these days are equivalent to some form of transaction between people in the form of money, taking care of unfortunate souls requires some redistribution of wealth. Take a little from those who have more than sufficient and give it to the needy.

Did someone just whisper socialism and liberals?

The mechanics to turn compassion into a reality begins to sound like socialism, and those who see this as the right path, the liberals. Doesn’t it? To get to that socialism it is also essential that  the voice of the majority is heard, and hence, the need for democratic forms of government. 

Then there is the other side. Capitalism and (modern day) Conservatives.

Take the example of the present day conservatives in the US (mostly republicans). Their often heard drumbeat continuously wants to dismantle the safety nets that are desperately needed for a society that makes the choice to be compassionate. Their motto is survival of the fittest.

Their war cry is to chant "Conservatives think like lions. Liberals think like lambs."

You have to wonder, what kind of society do present day conservatives really want? What is their end game? A society based on principles of Darwinism? A society based on the coldness that natural selection could be? Leave the unfit, old, ill, and decrepit behind? Because that would be the natural thing for natural selection to do. 

Do conservatives want a society without compassion? Indeed, there is a notion of social Darwinism where everyone’s well being depends on the strength of their two limbs, intellectual wherewithal, and the strength of their heart, lungs, and their ability to avoid the pandemic.

Deep down, do conservative really believe what they preach from the podium? 

If by some misfortune, a republican (preferably a politician; they are ones who babble the most) fell into a dark hole, will they live up to their words and will not want anyone to extend a helping hand? Perhaps we should give the test to all senators and house representatives, and let them be Dan Aykyrod in Trading Places and see how they emerge two hours later when the trial ends.

We should let them walk over hot coals and see if they come out at the other end with their principles intact.

As for the fawn, we did not see it again. Perhaps it got devoured by the conservative lions who tore up the safety net that compassionate lambs had put together.

Ciao.