21st century cannibalism
There used to be movies and fictional tales about human flesh
Eaters in the past. Many of them were about interaction between the Whiteman of
Europe and the African tribes to show dexterity and prowess of the Whiteman.
The tales mostly reflected the Whiteman being caught and tied near a fire
cauldron where he was to be boiled and eaten or he was tied above burning wood
to be roasted and eaten. The savage tribe along with their leader danced and
raised strange voices to show their happiness. Sometime a white woman was also
included. But all these movies had one sure outcome that the savages could
never eat the victim who was saved right at the nick of time. Besides these
fictional tales, occasional news about human flesh Eaters occurred and died. A
few movies were also developed about civilized humans eating the flesh of their
dead fellows when they were lost in an unknown part of the world because of a
plane crash or ship crash. But this practice was never found or reported.
The recently published novel ‘The Centre’, y Aysha Manazar Siddiqui
looks like an extension of all the fictional tales in the sense that humans eat
the flesh of their fellows in an organized and well-planned way. And the beauty
of the whole system is that the organization secures the consent of the body
while alive. The author has very intelligently interwoven the subjects of
language learning, the intercultural marriages, and the life of women migrants living
as Diaspora in advanced civilizations of the world. The Centre is the central
place where all subjects link up together. The Centre is the name of a
beautifully constructed old building from outside yet from its inside it is
converted into a hostel type of building where not only the classes of teaching
English are held but also other activities go on. This is a secret place, and
no one knows about it because the agreement is signed between the people who
come to visit this place and live and work here, but no one tells the secret
outside every member who joins this building or center is supposed to tell the
secret to only one trusted person and that also after the confirmation that the
secret would not be out. The visitors are required also to stay inside the
building for at least three months to master the skills of language taught
there. Apparently, all these people get involved only in learning the language.
However, it is seen that among these members some are superior members, belonging
to India, America and England. They are very rich people and are also very
healthy and strong. They meet each other after intervals and when they meet,
they have parties of human flesh eating. These are the humans who have been convinced
that instead of their bodies being wasted on the earth they should allow that
their bodies may be eaten up by the surviving members of the center. The same
keeps on happening but very soon Anisa, one of the aspiring members, enters the
building to learn languages. She is introduced by her friend, Adam, who was
himself expert of so many languages. She enters there to learn different
languages like German so that she can improve her profession of translation of
different novels and movies and earn more money but with the passage of time
she finds out that there are other activities also going on especially at the
time when she was able to enter into a frozen hall by chance because she
developed friendship with another member of the center who was in the
administration of the Centre. Very soon Anisa found that the human beings were
being eaten up especially one of the kind old lady the maidservant of the
center disappeared all of a sudden and her body was somehow found out by Anisa.
Apparently, she became so upset and underwent counseling sessions. Therefore one
of the members, Shiba, takes her in her confidence and shares numbers of things
with her and they talk a lot and ultimately become friends. They visit India
and Anisa lives with her for a long time and there in India she discovers that
there are so many people included in this organization, and they tell the
benefits of eating human flesh and that the proof is a very useful, spiritually
and physically and socially as well. Instead of handing over their loved ones
to the earth and wasting their bodies they thought it better that they would
become the source of nourishment of the survivors. Although it was very horrible,
Anisa still agreed to listen to these details and at a point she became
convinced also to become the member but however ultimately, she left the whole
system and constructed a new world for herself.
Of course, this is possible only in the fictional world, this may
not exist at all. However, at the symbolic level the novel can be taken as a
kind of description of the social political and psychological cannibalism of
the capitalistic system because it has happened number of times that the people
get killed if not physically, at least, mentally or psychologically or socially.
They lose their lives because of the system they are forced to do the things
which they would not do if they were free. Similarly, the control of the
capitalistic system over the thinking or the minds of the people kills them
psychologically or people get killed financially when they lose their hard-earned
money, and all sources accumulated throughout their life. At such a time the
physical death may not be that important but the psychological and social death
becomes more important. So, it is right to say that this tale is apparently
about the eating of the flesh of humans in a systematic way, but it is also a
tale of the human beings suffering at the hands of capitalistic system and
dying or being eaten up by this system psychologically socially, physically and
mentally.
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