Apocalypse now

Beware, doomsday is upon us. Ever since an astrological magazine predicted that natural calamities will strike on May 8, based on their c...

Beware, doomsday is upon us. Ever since an astrological magazine predicted that natural calamities will strike on May 8, based on their calculation that the planets will neatly fall into line, mass panic has been reported from around the country. Scientists have been at pains to scotch hysteria by arguing that, first of all, the planets will not perform this symmetrical feat and, second of all, even if they do, they cannot choreograph tsunamis and hurricanes and tornadoes. To no avail. Denizens of the tremulous Chamoli hills are gazing skywards to divine what travails nature still has in store for them; fearful of the fury of the sea, workers at the Alang ship-breaking yard have fled to their faroff homes in Bihar and Orissa, no matter if it entails losing their livelihood. And in everyday homes, well, this is simply one more occasion to consult the family astrologer and deliberate over what stone to wear, what precaution to take to ward off the evil eye. As for the shrinking circle of rationalists, panic isequally contagious. What has, they wonder, happened to the scientific spirit.

It8217;s the paradox of our times. The inexorable march of technology 8212; with a baffling array of stress-relieving gizmos and solutions for all eventualities 8212; is matched by a deepening faith in the occult, in the New Age paradigm. It8217;s not a question of one or the other, holistic is the buzzword. And it8217;s not quite the brave new world envisioned just a few decades ago. But then, as scientists at the time pondered over a linear passage ahead, they did not reckon with the baffling choices and spiralling uncertainties in store. Indeed, for those groping for the ground beneath their feet, science, mired in quantum uncertainties and multiplying imponderables, is not enough. Medicine no longer seems to have the definite solutions it was once thought to have and is struggling to keep pace with new plagues and the return of drug resistant varieties of old ones. For all the talk of grand unified theories and physicists delving into the Mind of God, answers to the basic whys remain as elusive as ever. Frenziedscholarship and information technology have simply resulted in an information overload and a bewildering data fog 8212; besides, of course, more looming calamities like the Y2K meltdown.

What better guide in this maze of choices than the certainties offered by astrology. Unambiguous lists of dos and don8217;ts from old astrologers and New Age gurus offer concrete ways of dealing with insoluble contradictions and conflicts in ordinary lives. And in why-us tragedies. In the hills of Uttar Pradesh, the people, exhausted after persistent earthquakes and raging forest fires, are perpetually aquiver with panic over the possibility of the big one. Focussing their worries and vigilance on one day offers a rare certainty. So, does this mean that science can never prevail? No, it can. But it would require another leap of faith, the will to painstakingly seek order in an increasingly chaotic body of knowledge.