The world shrunk to the size of a ball

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It is strange that when I was a young boy I thought my life was pretty much my own and external events happening in the outside world, though seemingly important, were irrelevant.  Now have to face the bitter truth that each of us are so much part of the sway and swell of global events. Whatever we do, as individuals or as nations, deeply affects everyone else.  Our inventions have eliminated time and distance and there is is this relentless march toward an interconnected world... a world of global supply chains, instantaneous capital transfers, social media, transnational terrorist networks, climate change, mass migration, and ever-increasing complexity.

I hear the world is round; it has shrunk to the size of a ball at our feet. If I was a boy, I would have nonchalantly kicked it, but now it looks ominous, a gobal predatory spectre that will control and consume me one day. I can only watch it helplessly, as if all power from me as an individual has been siphoned out. 

Excerpt from C.S. Lewis, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader":

 Quote 

Do you mean to say," asked Caspian, "that you three come from a round world (round like a ball) and you've never told me! Have you ever been to the parts where people walk about upside-down?" Edmund shook his head. "And it isn't like that," he added. "There's nothing particularly exciting about a round world when you're there."

 Unquote 

On an even lighter note, here is a song we will identify with. Armano ka jhol hain indeed!



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