Real Life Imitating Fiction, Greater the Misfortune

www.galenfrysinger.com/orissa_india.htm

 

The heart of India is under attack
To justify enforcing a corporate land grab, the state needs an enemy – and it has chosen the Maoists
Arundhati Roy
Friday 30 October 2009, © The Guardian
The low, flat-topped hills of south Orissa have been home to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country called India or a state called Orissa. The hills watched over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have been sold for the bauxite they contain. For the Kondh it's as though god had been sold. They ask how much god would go for if the god were Ram or Allah or Jesus Christ. . . .

 

I have been writing a series of pieces using the character of leadis, a sprite who lives on a hill in the Catskills in upstate New York, USA. Before ever coming across this piece in the Guardian UK, my story with leadis and her devotion to the place in which she has lived for countless aeons took the direction of a conflict with developers over the flattening of her beloved hill and the building of housing units there. I just finished writing the scene where she meets the convoy head on and uses her own special blend of action to address this most vital issue of her long lifetime.

Therefore, I was shocked to read - though I don't know why I would be - a story from 'real life' that mirrors this theme and  some of the specifics rather eerily, though it's not at all a fantasy story. These people believe in the divinity of the land, and that can not be replaced somewhere else or purchased for some fair or unfair number of trinkets, such as money.

Sad, that it continues to be so.

I realize that some of my childhood thoughts have remained with me, long into adulthood. When I was much younger, I used to think that I could contain things if I thought about them (thus is born worry  :(  )

So, for example, if I could think of all the negative consequences of something, that would give me a certain amount of power to prevent 'those' things from ever occurring. Though naive, I realize that part of me must still retain that type of 'magical thinking,' as I thought somehow with some part of me that by writing those stories, I could contain damage to the earth, and I realize, of course, with other parts of me that it takes much more effort than that.

Fascinating what you learn about yourself - and remember - when you write... I know it's true when I do, certainly. 

Here's to the native people of Orissa. May there sacred places be left unmolested, thought it does sound as though it's a bit late... My childhood and adult selves can agree that weeping is in order.


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