-Brian
Mendonça
The
soft drink ad by Pepsi which appeared in 1998 seems to epitomize the state of
affairs even today. Yeh Dil Maange More!
– loosely translated as ‘This heart desires more’ – exhorts the viewer or
listener to unabashedly acquire the soft drink by any means. Applied to various contexts as a way of life
itself, the ad through some death-defying stunts, drummed the message that it
was okay to even risk one’s life for, well, a soft drink. The slogan was a
hybrid of Hindi ‘Yeh Dil Maange’ and
English ‘More.’
So
it is okay to have three flats, four cars and five TV screens – one for every
room. This self-aggrandizing stance can
only lead to ruin. For, enough is never enough. Horace (65 B.C.E. – 8 B.C.E.), the
Roman philosopher and lyric poet, maintained, ‘Not he who has little is poor,
but he who desires much.’
The
poor are content, or make do with what they have. Out of the little they have,
they share willingly. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven,’ (Mt. 5:3) proclaim
the Beatitudes, or the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was not rich by any
standards, but a carpenter’s son changed the world.
Is
it easy to be simple when the others around are so sophy (sophisticated)? In corporate corridors they are busy
discussing the virtues of the iphone 5.
Handsome hunk Richard Lovatt gives you tips on the three cars to never buy
in India (the sedan tops the list). This while shooting a documentary film in
Mumbai on his life titled Rich in
Bollywood .
It
is perhaps curious to reconcile abundance with austerity. But ‘More’ is also
the name of a Renaissance Humanist who was martyred for his beliefs. Thomas More
(1478-1535) objected to the move of King Henry the VIIIth of England, to have
two wives. More – in the teeth of opposition- argued that the Catholic Church
does not permit this arrangement. His own family tried to talk him into
accepting the king’s view. But More did not relent. For standing by what he
believed in, More was beheaded. And Henry the VIIIth, adamant to have his own
way, seceded from the Catholic church to form his own church, the Anglican
church or church of England.
In
his sermon last Sunday, Fr. Caetano Fernandes likened the life of Thomas More
to that of the prophet Jeremiah (Born 655 B.C.E). In the reading for the day,
Jeremiah too is accused of treason by influential people in the court of king
Zedekiah. (Jer. 38) He is let down
into a cistern, a place to store water, but is saved by Ebed-Melech.
No
one hears of Pepsi today. Soft drinks have been castigated as carcinogic
(causing cancer) and a health hazard.
But what about generations of youngsters who were brought up endorsing
the slogan by guzzling barrels of the beverage?
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Thomas More was canonized as a saint by the
Catholic church in 1935. His feast day is celebrated on 22 June. Pix of Sir Thomas More and his daughter. Artist unknown. Published in Gomantak Times, Weekender, Panjim, Goa on Sunday, 25th August 2019.
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