Once upon a time, in the valley of life, there stood an ancient rood. From dawn till dusk it's entire body used to be reverberated with the melodious twitter of different kinds of birds and squirrels who lived on it's trunks. Then one day an evil giant came with his huge axe and cut off it's trunks. And that ancient rood came crushing down, filling the valley with a painful roar. All the birds flew away; all the beautiful blithe squirrels ran away, leaving the tree lonely and destitute in the huge valley.

If this quintessential anecdote of a fable could be taken metaphorically, then in this valley of life the ancient rood of joint family that once stood firmly had been destroyed in the hands of the evil giant called the modern age and all the family members that once filled the house with their gladsome clamour got scattered over in different destinations.

Our puerile heliocentric pomposity about once - upon - a - time - we - were - the - hotbed - of - wisdom has been relegated to the margin of historical anachronism especially under the bicentennial rubric of British colonialism. In retrospect, history holds the purview of a unique familial settlement attributed to the coronation of a dada ji or a dadi ji to a geo-centric stature whose gravitational pull used to hold the rest of the scions to their concentric ideograms that in the due course of time transformed into the shining insignias of respected lineages.

But the onset of English ruling with its genetic spawning of socio-political and socio-economic depredations brought forth systematic corrosion of the archetypal Indian ethos. The intermittent lashing of the colonial government - abetted famines, communal unrest and most importantly the machinations of various land and revenue laws proved to be insurmountable impediments resulted in gargantuan decline in the pecking order of the archaic feudalistic economy. The age old joint family state of existence felt the first tremor albeit holding it's sway over this on-rushing economic tsunami with the characteristic Indian irreverence.

But very shortly after, the Indian historiography witnessed the dawn of a new epoch in the guise of Industrial Revolution. The gradual acceleration in the cost of survival in connivance with a sharp decline in the wealth generation per capita has precipitated a newly bred mercantile class whose incessant market aggression tore apart the Indian joint families into many disseminating nucleus whole. Since then, the journey of state of existence has arrived in the present time with all its respective stigmata on the Indian social polity causing irreparable harms on the individual's social life also. The incessantly rising pressure in professional life has well-nigh robbed a professional of the slightest scope for the minimal humanisation. True to the bastion of this newly found corporate culture an executive meets the deadline even on Saturdays and Sundays. Then again from the very next day, the drudgery of a new working week begins.

But this gradual absence of a much-needed relief after a hard week's labour, from a person's life is breeding an inner turmoil that is surreptitiously creeping inside the human mind, gradually reaching to a leviathan proportion leaving the person on the verge of losing one's mental stability.

But throughout the ages, our self-complacency in a desperate bid to hide those imperfections is putting further impediments in driving off all the social evils that are corroding our very existence like gangrenous infections. Standing amidst this age of decadence both on individual and collective ethos, we are trying to camouflage our tormented selves under the carapace of invincibility. When in social gatherings, we are hiding our vulnerabilities behind an ostentatious display of a tinseled bearing, ultimately falling prey to our own gullibility in front of all other prying eyes gloating over each other's' catastrophes. And when far away from the clutches of all those lampooning roving eyes, within the four walls of our home, we hide our wounds from each other by losing ourselves in the collective inertia conveyed by the idiot box. And the inevitability that we become prone to are domestic violence spawned out of suspicions between each other resulting in frequent divorces that are taking its toll on the offspring and the gradual accelerations of stress, dragging us towards a decaying existence.

But just for once in retrospect if we ruminate over how staid an existence our predecessors had lived in a society, free of all kinds of self-promotions, then these gulfs existing in between one another in personal and social spheres can be overcome easily. True that in today's economic scenario, going back to that old joint family state of existence is completely forbidden. Still, within the four walls of our microcosmic existence, we can hark back to that much-cherished warmth between a husband and wife, between parents and children, thus keeping that ancient tree called unified family alive and nurturing. Instead of playing hide and seek relentlessly if we just open our wounds to one another and extend the healing touch, then the family comes back to its unified whole. Remaining true and committed to each other cements that foundation furthermore. A proper consciousness about what kind of detrimental effects family feuds bring on the children can also strengthen the parental bonding. Remaining true and open-hearted to the pious flame of one's family values is the ultimate key to realise our atavistic craving for a happy family.

In outer world, it is this much-needed willing suspension of self-agrandising pomposity that only can ward off all the social evils existing between two friends, between two colleagues and between a superior and subordinate. In the last instance, especially condescending can generate a healthy office life. Renunciation of hectorian attitudes can break the ice between relatives and the rivalries between friends and colleagues. Giving a shoulder to a colleague or known ones in need can even develop the cosiness of home within one's official or social milieu. Thus one can reach to that much-coveted symmetry between personal and professional life and becomes rejuvenated in the new elixir of life. And that ancient family tree becomes alive and stands firmly again in the valley of life.

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