Today, we are halfway through the 21st century and I can’t believe I’ve made it this far. Yes, I literally cannot believe that I, along with many like-minded human beings from the Millennial age, not only saved the planet, its animals, and the human race on it, but we also made it a far better place to live than what it was back then. Today, in 2050, there’s ample food on everyone’s plate no matter where they live on the earth, a comfortable home to live in, good healthcare, and education as well. The nature is thriving as are the animals, there’s greenery all around, the air is clean, the sky is blue, and everyone is just happy and cooperative! But, how did we get here? Why do I say that I cannot believe the good world we are living in? Well, to know that, let me take you to the world that was back then first.
2024: I live in one of the most polluted cities in the world, Mumbai, in India. The human population has blown beyond the bottleneck in this region, majority of people have turned a blind eye towards the deteriorating climatic conditions, the increasing cruelty to animals, and the overall declining mental peace of themselves. Humans have become slaves to the consumerist lifestyle, leading them to live a selfish life without giving two hoots about the impact of their choices. The only hope in this almost dystopian human world is a group of few empathetic, calm-headed, forward-thinking, self-aware human beings realizing the need for action to change the way world thinks and works.
It’s time we stop thinking about short-term solutions that act just like instant relief medicines but do not treat the root cause. The root cause of everything wrong in this human-dominated world is the lack of empathy, kindness, and compassion. Humans have long forgotten their core trait of being human: the ability to feel empathy for others, the ability to be kind to every being, the ability to think consciously and choose, and the ability to be happy and cooperative.
The actual problem starts in childhood. Children are like learning machines (like artificial intelligence); what you feed them directly and indirectly is what they’ll grow into. The society slowly rubs off their core human traits of empathy, compassion, kindness, critical thinking, and conscious thinking ability by feeding them a consumerist mind-set that makes them selfish enough to not care about others. A lot begins at their food plate as well, where they start to disregard the lives of other sentient beings that are brought into existence, exploited, and killed just for their own consumption and benefits. This is where they start to devalue the resources they’ve been provided with and think that everything on this planet can be exploited for their benefit.
So what I’m doing today is educating the children and teenagers first. After all, the adults of today will not be the ones running the world in 2050, but it will be these children and teenagers of today (2024) who will run the world in 2050. I am adopting both approaches; top-down and bottom-up, to make sure that the young ones of today are more aware of what is happening in the world that doesn’t meet their eyes. They should know the impact of the choices they make today, which will determine how good or bad their future will be. I don’t want them to be another generation of short-term thinking human beings who know what they’ll get tomorrow but don’t know what will come the day after tomorrow.
Having a background in media and communication, I’m utilizing the network of people I have. I create awareness by taking informational sessions at schools and colleges that will make students aware of what’s happening and what will happen if they don’t change the way things are happening right now. I also partner with institutes to make audio-visual content with children for children. Here we break down complex terms, mythological stories, and deep issues into simple, understandable concepts with a quest to make them better human beings who make compassionate choices. This is a bottom-up approach to creating awareness at the grass root level. I’m also trying to work on a top-down approach where I find like-minded policy makers or myself become a policy maker to introduce policies, systems, and rules that will level-up the consciousness of children as well as adults and make them better, kinder, and more compassionate human beings.
It’s the year 2050.
The world is beautiful with happy, intelligent, and cooperative human beings! The journey to this day was not easy. In those days, a majority of my time went into doing the work that helped me earn money so that the survival of me and my family was assured, while I was also suffering from congenital heart disease, so taking care of my health was also important. But as you may know, when we work towards something with all our heart and mind, the universe also extends its hand to help us achieve it. On my journey, I found so many like-minded people from around the world with the same vision and the same vigour to change the way world works. They, too, were on a mission to save this world and make it a better place to live and thrive. One notable person who turned the spark inside me into flame was Suzanne Taylor, who was on a mission to shift mass consciousness so we-the-people create a world where we care about each other as much as we care about ourselves. Special thanks to Dr. Sailesh Rao for enlightening me about that special essay writing contest by Suzanne, where we threw ideas to save the world that led us to the world we are in today. It perfectly aligned with my long-term vision and helped me write down the things I wanted, and create a road-map. Since that special Valentine day of 2024, I, along with Suzanne, Dr. Sailesh, and many such like-minded people from around the world, set-off the butterfly effect that changed the world forever.
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. — Steve Jobs