“One of the reasons I have come to concentrate on imagination as a means through which we can assemble a coherent world is that imagination is what, above all, makes empathy possible. It is what enables us to cross the empty spaces between ourselves and those we (teachers) have called “other” over the years….That is because, of all our cognitive capacities, imagination is the one that permits us to give credence to alternative realities. It allows us to break with the taken for granted, to set aside familiar distinctions and definitions.”
– Maxine Greene, Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change
Imagine me stepping out on a foggy morning in Delhi. Imagine me hailing an auto to the metro. Imagine me pushing through the rush hour, carrying a backpack, waiting, transferring trains, rushing to an auto to catch a train to Jaipur. Imagine me catching my breath inside the train, trying to find my berth, settling down, looking out the window. Imagine the slums of Delhi passing by, then giving way to fields of yellow mustard. Imagine me picking up my smartphone, discovering pictures of the Constituent Assembly “tandav” on my newsfeed. Imagine me, a somewhat educated, somewhat privileged guy, a little perplexed. Imagine me unsure of how to react. Imagine me struggling with whether it’s appropriate to post photos of my travels on Facebook while most of my friends are so concerned about the deadline for the constitution in Nepal.
Imagine me, for a few seconds, swinging between uncertainty and slight guilt. As the train is rumbling towards Rajasthan, trying to, once again, figure out my place in the world.
Imagine me looking forward to the forts and palaces of Jaipur, to visiting the Hawa Mahal. Imagine also the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s biggest free literary festival. Imagine me holding onto the Arts and Literature as agents as important to life as air and water.
Imagine an hour, or two, passing. Imagine me reading Maxine Greene, and thinking about the CA brouhaha once again. Imagine how Greene’s line of thought, in fact the theme of the book – education, arts and social change – perfectly connects to the struggle that Nepal seems to be undergoing. Imagine me savoring this thought as if it was a gift that came to me at the right time.
Imagine how lack of engagement with the arts, lack of imagination, can surely lead to a lack of empathy. Do I dare surmise that this could be one of the reasons for the CA’s inability to form a consensus? This complete inability of, for example, a Constituent Assembly member to understand what it might be like to grow up as a Madhesi, to ask for basic rights.
Imagine chaos. Imagine a perfectly harmonious world. Imagine a traveller in a pink city. Imagine hundreds of guests thronging in to listen to ideas and to learn. Imagine minds being stretched. Imagine change and its elder cousin, transformation. Imagine what it might take. Imagine what it might take to get there.
