In the Shadow of the Herd: Walking for Truth and Nature

What lead me to this walk across the western shore of India

It was during the time of Covid that I first felt a complete disconnect from the world I was living in. Until then I had come to believe that living in a society and conforming to its dictates is what made me an ideal citizen or an ideal human. Something shifted profoundly in those early months of Covid. I was reading through many scientific papers which gave an idea that painted an opposite picture to what was being portrayed in the media. The restrictions and lockdowns imposed gave me a strange feeling. Initially I tried to shake it away, saying to myself, “you can’t be the only one feeling this way if the entire world feels otherwise.”

I was standing on the shoulder of the greats like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Schopenhauer, Carl Jung who time and again had advised me to not fall into the trap of the ‘society’. Moving away from truth comes with a hefty reward but moving towards truth comes with a massive price. What followed during those months was a total disillusionment of basic human dignity - the complete disregard of the individual who felt otherwise and the inevitable rise of the herd. Government’s cashed in on this and Science, which was otherwise debated and discussed, became obsolete with only a few ideologies reigning incredible power. All skeptics were seen with a total disregard; they were shamed upon. I saw the world in a different set of lens because I was thrusted into a tiny little village in the middle of Scotland. That experience of living in tune with nature and going on long walks had shown me a totally different picture of the pandemic. While others were trapped in their homes, I was wandering with the butterflies and flowing with the rivers. I saw people being manipulated, herded into groupthink and finally moving slowly towards totalitarianism with all the ideas of Digital Stamps and listed countries taking shape.

I felt the sword of isolation cutting through me, given the kind of skeptical views I held during those times. I wasn’t making things out of thin air though. This skepticism was passed onto me by the scientists and philosophers of the past that I had read. I kept my motto of speaking the truth throughout this time. Not giving into the ideas that were showered onto me through my friends and family, who were obviously being a subject to this worldwide experiment of mass formation. I made a vow then, that I will not give myself into despair. I won’t speak ill of anyone but I will speak out my personal experience which went in opposition to the mainstream narrative— be in a perpetual state of fear. How could we give into fear when all the mystical schools of thought, all the people who went onto scientific endeavours and all the philosophers who spoke their truth never went into it and rather spoke about fear as the only thing that subverts human intelligence and stunts our spiritual evolution…

I travelled a lot during the lockdowns and thus saw an extremely divided world. I saw the widespread corruption, the surveillance state, the excessive use of power by a select few. The cities, which are the bastions of educated people, were more in tune with the narratives which were being forced (I wrote an essay about it during the second lockdown—I was merely 23 back then) but the villages stood as pillars of sanctity and morality. While the cities and most importantly the educated class were eyeing their neighbours and reporting them for possible misconduct, the villages filled with “uneducated” people went ahead to help their neighbours. Something was terribly wrong. This had happened in the totalitarian states of Russia and Germany when mothers informed their kids to the police to be the honoured citizens of the state. This mass formation obviously didn’t take the evil shape that it could have, (we are still here today) thanks to the skeptics who averted the danger by constantly speaking the truth that resided in their private hearts, but I knew back then that it very well could have gone that far.

So, the need to speak the truth- my individual truth -became my priority. This substack was started as a response to that groupthink. But while all this was happening, I witnessed a phenomenon in India where rural people were being urbanised at an unprecedented scale. This urban population of educated idiots gave the much needed fodder for the politicians who wished to have a mass of uncritical voterbase who believed in everything they said and never questioned a single thing. For me, this was unacceptable. I made it a mission to work on this and thus went on to this walk across India. Maybe I was naive to think that I would be able to change that, but during the walk I realised that I was being thrusted into this groupthink more often than me speaking my truth. I definitely had to rethink and start with myself and thus started this journey towards self-actualisation and coming back to the roots. To begin change, I had to start it from myself and then my family. Thus, my return to the village —that I write about and that all of you 850 people read. (WOW! 850 of you read this guy, that’s mind-boggling - although most of you who read don’t like and comment, let’s do that more often..)

This walk across the western shore of India that I am about to leave on, did not happen in isolation—nor is it an act of bravery or self-loathing. All these previously mentioned experiences, my personal evolution and my unfettering belief - that one must stay ethical and true to oneself even when the entire world goes against these principles, have contributed greatly in bringing me to the place I am in today. I see the politicians in my state and my nation using this inherent fear within the masses to turn them towards their agendas and further degrade the inherent good within the human soul. The other side of the coin is all the educated people who are totally focused on rationalism, they further their agendas, their ideologies - believing that that will lead to truth without a need for a sort of spiritual or a metaphysical experience. They too are failing. My honest experience with psychedelics, much like what Huxley explained in his book -much later in his life- “The Doors of Perception”, brought me to the conclusion, that in denying a higher force, we are creating many other forces which are furthering our social anxiety and depressive sentiments. Urbanisation will finally lead to a degraded human soul - or rather we won’t have a soul left to have this ultimate human experience. Thus to speak our truth, our radical truth, even in the event of being demonised by the masses, is of utmost importance. Read an essay I wrote about this here.

I walk in the coming three days (24th of November), with the ideas of natural conservation and the ideas of urbanisation because it is hard to explain this idea of ‘mass formation’ which has created a state of psychosis in the society, to the people living in the village. They are yet to confront the ‘machine’. They are yet to become ‘nuclear’ like the urban human has and thus they would understand the things that are dear to them, nature and the sense of community. Today we all are coming to the conclusion that the antidote to this mass formation and societal hysteria is going back to having strong bonds, immersing in communal living and the need to have honest and truthful discussions with our neighbours, but these villagers who live close to me already have that. Do they really have to go through this state of chaos to finally come live the same lives that they are living right now?

I don’t think so.

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Contributions for the walk…

Most of you came along on this Substack after reading stories from Saving a Village. There I mentioned the urgency of taking measures against the imminent deforestation, coastal highway projects alongside chemical and oil factories that are about to open up on this eco-sensitive zone. This might end up destroying many villages, including mine, and thus I have decided to walk this 500 km stretch of land. My aim isn’t political, nor am I pointing fingers at any specific companies or factories. Instead I want to speak in each village about this forthcoming change being in the right direction rather than a wrong one. The devil of urbanisation will end up haunting everyone and it will further disconnect people from nature.

For this, I would need your help. To plan out the walk, to take care of necessary supplies means having enough funds. I could start a kickstarter or manage crowdfunding through some other website, but none of those options are available to me here in India. So, I will be dependant on your donations. You can contribute through paypal - here’s the link. I will send out a personalised postcard if the donations are above $30 and if it’s above $100 then whatever comes out of this walk - a book, a documentary or anything else - you will be the first ones to receive it.

Thanks for your continual support. I am truly grateful!

The Konkan Coastline that I am about to walk.

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If you have reached this far then I hope it means you like what I’m doing and if so you might consider supporting me by ‘buying me a coffee’ ( Substack does not let me monetize my articles because I am based in India) which is a one off payment rather than a continuous subscription. Payments, however small, encourage me in my writing and mean that I can spend more time honing my skills.

You can buy my book about my 1800 km walk through India through my website. Thankyou, really! You people have been such a strong support system. Have a wonderful week ahead.