An eye on things

http://bit.ly/1SKHy6u
Teotonio R. de Souza
When I was young, one of the sights that engaged my interest and curiosity, was about
vultures devouring some dead animal left to rot in some open space in the village. The vultures
appeared in no time and proceeded with impressive efficiency, though screaming to keep the
rivals away. They cleaned the mess within less than an hour, as the Parsis in India could testify
from their familiarity with the towers of silence, the dakhma.
It is true that vultures have their fill, but they are not petty or charge any fees to perform their
valuable environment-friendly work. Unfortunately, the use of a livestock version of the drug
Diclofenac killed the vultures feeding on bovine carcasses. Before this tragedy was detected
and the drug was officially banned in 2006, but continues to be sold clandestinely, it had
already decimated around 95% of the vulture population [http://bit.ly/1S9KT1F].
It looks as if the politicians hate anyone else doing their job or taking away their chance of
acting as vultures. Just imagine what will be the state of affairs if we had to rely exclusively
upon the panchayats and municipal corporations infected by political meddling to have all the
cleaning services that are routinely and efficiently performed by the Indian crows and vultures
without declaring any strikes.
In Edgar Poes "The Tell-Tale Heart" story there is the vulture's eye. The narrator tells us that
whenever it fell upon him his blood ran cold. Poe calls this technique of narrating in his stories
"arabesque", which consists in twisting and turning of details in a horrific way, building a
creepy image.
In Poes story, the guilt causes the narrator's "blood to run cold" when he sees the vulture's
eye. He sees in the vultures eye of death, the evil which his soul already knows before the
deed. The eye represents the window into the mind and soul of the narrator. It is always
watching him - no matter what, he will be observed. The eye is the conscience of the
narrator. It watches him planning to do wrong, and is haunted by it.
A vultures eye could be a symbol of coming death. When a vulture spots a sick or injured
animal, it starts circling, waiting for it to die, and waiting for its chance to feed on the remains.
The European diplomacy during decades prior to World War I was that of vultures, all about
waiting to share the spoils of the Ottoman empire, by antecipating the demise of what they
called the sick man of Europe. Ironically, the process destroyed much of Europe itself, and
we astill bearing the consequences of the Western policies in the Middle East.
A vultures mystical eye is a distant symbol of the Egyptian mythology, where it is celebrated as
the life-giving eye of Horus. Closer at home the Hindu religious tradition has its Shivas third
eye, which emits flames and burns things to ashes. It is believed that when the Lord is
extremely angry, he opens his third eye and punishes the culprit. It is the eye of wisdom and
power which penetrates the appearences and reads the evil intentions. Worn on the forehead
of the married women, it seeks to protect against any lusty and evil desires, reminding of the
fate of mythical Kama who tried to shoot his arrow of love at Shiva.
Painting eyes on the prow of a boat is an ancient tradition all over the world, including India.
They are called the eyes of Kanni Amma in South India, and they are associated with the belief

that the goddess will protect the boat and make it successful in its use and mission
[http://bit.ly/1qU3DJY]. We need some research about this tradition in the Konkan and in Goa.
But there is little doubt that successful sea trade brought much wealth to Western India since
the early times, despite the tradition of kalapani or the ban on brahmins to engage in overseas
travel and trade as a form safeguard against caste pollution.
Lure of wealth gets over all bans, and to pacify divinites a part of the gains was usually offered
to deities and temples. The temple of Somnath in Gujarat gathered immense gold on this
account year after year, and it attracted the first Muslim invasions into India via Afghanistan.
Their yearly sack of Somnath became a ritual, and there was always more waiting to be looted
in the following year [http://bit.ly/1MvFMd0].
It may be concluded from the above that humankind has always believed in watchful eyes as a
dissuasive power to protect itself against external harm, but also sought to overcome their
vigilance in various ways to loot others and enrich oneself. Much of the political activity
illustrates this contradictory behaviour. Regard or disregard for the watchful eyes could
provide wide scope for wikileaks and Panama papers.
Turning a blind eye is a common saying when we do not wish to act against what we know to
be wrong. Live and let live is a rule of pragmatic accomodation that guides much of our lives,
unless we are bitten by some bug of fanaticism.