Squirrel feeding style-4
Squirrel Feeding style-7
I spent about four hours watching the protest scenes of New Delhi street in the social media on 14th October, although it was a day without any pre-announced protests by any group. My phone primed me that I had exceeded the sixty minutes threshold I had set for social media viewing in 24 hours.
It was then I felt how much I am engaged by the disturbing sights in the streets of New Delhi where the police chase the protesters in the streets in a way that casts a shadow about the fair behaviour of police on the peaceful protestors walking on the streets chanting slogans. The protestors are speaking a language that is uncomfortable to the policy makers and yet, there is a good enough reason to hear them tolerably.
I felt inclined to explore for myself how people behave in stressful situations! The protestors are anxious because they are chased, detained and arrested. Therefore they protest with a lingering fear within. The police too carry a high level of anxiety as they are called upon by the policy makers not to allow any protest marches in the streets. To stop the charged young people from protesting, the police personnel resort to force. The mood and behaviour of the police as seen in the videos that I watched show, how forceful and inconsiderate they are to helpless youth. The men and women get dragged along the street, and suspended between their hands and legs and are carried away to vehicles to be take them away to detention centres. There are confessions of how students were beaten up in the detention centres. The police force show signs of anxiety and stress. I do not think that the police personnel who have been trained in psychological skills of handling difficult situations would normally do the way they behave in the streets of New Delhi. To me it is a sign of their stressed behaviour under pressure form their senior officers.
Feeding behaviour of squirrels
I felt intrigued to observe the feeding behaviour of squirrels in our feeding station. I have a collection of forty series of photos on different days of squirrels feeding, out of which I chose seven examples of the feeding behaviours in the photos above.
Often it is a squirrel who arrives at the feeding station at twilight each day. I have a suspicion that at least three squirrels are residents in our garden.
From the feeding behaviour I felt inclined to think that they have seven different ways of feeding, each in its own context.
If the feeding station is without any birds, a squirrel would feed from the bowl.
If the birds are present in the vicinity waiting to arrive at the feeding station or are already present at the feeding station, they have different feeding practices which I presume is because of stress. The feeding style-3 is likely to be one such behaviour. The feeding styles-5 and 6 indicate how a Squirrel partly overcomes stress by feeding along with birds, but being away in a corner feeding by itself.
It is occasional that a squirrel would be seen co-feeding with birds. I watched it today which is in the following photo.
It was when I saw this scene today, I was even more inclined to think that this would be the normal behaviour of a squirrel in all likelihood, where it behaves tolerably and comfortably to accommodate birds in its vicinity.
Psychology of stress
The young people of India in the recent years encountered a departure from the earlier patterns and norms. The question papers for competitive examinations were leaked by those responsible to oversee the examinations, to favour some and tohave financial gain. The unemployment scene is a worrisome that many young people are forced to migrate to other countries, initially enrolling as students by taking bank loans. The shop keeper where I went to buy electrical goods yesterday told me that he sent his son overseas with a huge bank loan as he had no chance to get a job. He added, 'At least 100 young people have left the village in one year, seeking opportunities overseas'! The political order in the country created a vicious ambience in the recent years, where fairness, tolerance, regardful behaviour and honourable social practices have been set aside by a utilitarian approach.
A police officer secretly seems to have told a press reporter that 'We work under fear. If we are seen to fail to obey the Master's voice, we would be threatened of action'!
The Delhi streets become a meeting place between the stressed young people and the fearful police.
It is not logic or reason or social regard that guides this encounter between the young people and police, but confrontation!
Countering stressful behaviour
I recall the wise and timely action of the Dean of a medical College where clashes between two groups of students in the campus reached to a confrontational level. It came to a climax that the Dean invited the students for an at home at his residence. He did this every fortnight when they played games, conversed and shared thoughts and concerns. In three months, the situation returned to a comfortable level from being a dis-ease for several weeks.
The prime Minister and the President of India belong to the order of the first citizens in India. I wonder if they would see themselves as those who have the mandate and constitutional obligation to find a way forward before the current protests escalate to a point of no return, which would harm all of us equally!
During the two years Anna and I spent at the MGIMS Medical College at Sevagram, we were used to visiting the Sevagram ashram, which was the home for Mahatam Gandhi during the freedom struggle. It was during those visits we got to know the background of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement. Whenever there was a confrontational trend during the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi would pause and call for prayer vigil, which was his satyagraha movement to bring back peace and creative resistance approach against the British rule! He did not allow any protest to turn violent or to propagate hate. His non-violence was based on truth, love and freedom for all.
Peace activism during troubled times
I do not have a good track record as a peace activist. I have had at least two occasions in the last twenty years where I could not negotiate difficult situations to bring a peaceful outcome during my involvement in two institutions.
That brought yet another level of consciousness about peace pursuit! We can weave the web of peace only through an intentional participatory process. It was reinforced to me by a colleague with whom I was closely associated, who having watched me attempting to negotiate a difficult situation said once, ' You were too late to 'let go' of an ideal situation that you pursued'! He reminded me that an infant falling while attempting to walk is preparing to stand steadily one day! I wish I had that insight on those two occasions, where I could have been accommodative of the situations although different from my own perspective! The participatory process which I was committed to, collapsed because of which there was rupture of relationships. Most of it got resolved in the recent years about which I feel grateful!
A public protest or solitary silent protest, both can be a peace pursuit, provided both categories of people have the larger peace as their vision and vocation. Any form of bias to favour any one group is a seed for further escalation of stress!
Peace is not wellness, but a pathway to wellness! The ambience of peace creates openness in conversations and relationship. I hear the leader of opposition in the Indian Parliament and the home minister of India using a language of challenge, confrontation and threat towards each other. That causes further hurt and makes the wounds to fester!
The democratically structured civil society would have multiple shades of thoughts. What is important is to consider the urgent needs of the majority of people of India. Are not the unemployment of the youth, corrupt practices during competitive examinations, non-transparent actions of the Election Commission of india, or the people becoming polarised between the majority and minorities, issues which the parliamentarians, who are the elected representative of people ought to engage in the parliamentary proceedings and outside! When the civil society sees the Parliament of India engage in these issues with interest and a resolve to find a way forward, people would feel comforted and hopeful.
Is not the Prime minister of india who ought to lead in this restorative and healing journey within the Parliament!
Let me conclude! I have good enough reason to believe that the squirrels that I shared above had different feeding behaviours. When it was probably under stress, it seemed to be pre-occupied with its own need! Normally a squirrel behaves comfortably towards others.
The protests in the streets of New Delhi is a sign of the stressed state of the youth of india!
Let the nation become awake to heal their wounds and nurse them to their fullness of life and opportunities!
We owe it to them!
The President of India and the Prime Minister of india have an obligation to the nation to lead the country beyond the troubled times!
Let me send this flower from our garden to all engaged in pursuing or promoting peace in different ways as the situation calls for !
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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