I can’t understand why any human being, who is supposed to be intelligent, would want to torture and kill another fellow being.

But that is the state of affairs that Maldives today has come to.

That was what I was thinking, as I was walking on Majeedhee Magu today, counting pavement bricks, depression and disappointment alternating in my mind; when suddenly I just happened to look up, and check out the faces of everyone around me, both Maldivian and expatriate.

I felt like as if I was living in Trivandrum, the Indian city in Kerala state inhabited by hundreds of Maldivian families.

A strange realization came to me that in my time, when Male’ had under 30,000 people – when everyone knew each other by face – there was no way to be anonymous, so you always felt under psychological pressure every time you step out of the house because you always feel under the constant gaze and judgment of others.

But today I realized, living in Male’ now offered that valuable anonymity you get when you live among strangers, in this strange case, both Maldivian and non-Maldivian. Strange because, as I said, back in the early 1980s, there were so few people in Male’ basically everyone knew everyone else personally.

Yes, the population of Maldives has now exploded, a main reason being that almost everyone I know want to have at least two children, “one of each kind” they say, as if children are toys or trophies they need to add to their pride collection to show off their “social status” to everyone. (How inhuman can a person be if his/her purpose to get children is not because of humanity and genuine love for children – yet most of us would overlook this factor and would like to continue to be deluded that there’s no such thing as “bad parenting” in Maldives when in fact there is, and a lot at that).

The population explosion (with now over 100,000 people living in Male’s 2 square kilometers, making it the world’s densest city) has not only strained Maldives’ limited – and mismanaged – resources, which has put everyone on edge because of poverty, but has also resulted in children growing up into psychologically troubled adults, resorting to drugs or anti-social activities for survival and happiness. Thus the “natural” urban woes “born” like street gangsterism.

But the “good” side to the population explosion is, I suppose, positive only because of the psychological relief you get: by the ability to feel anonymous.

Whether you think I am unpatriotic, you have to admit that it is indeed a guilty pleasure: the feeling of being anonymous on Male’s streets is actually a wonderful and wondrous feeling.

Now you don’t have to wear sunglasses to block out the unusual and pointed staring that you get from passersby. On the other hand, you can wear sunglasses to check out and stare at other people without them knowing you are staring at them!

You now also don’t need to wear iPods to block out the useless chatter.

So, walking on Majeedhee Magu today, I felt a strange of relief and euphoria, yet at the same time, I also felt a sense of loss, emptiness and boredom because for the first time, I felt like a stranger in my own land, clueless as to where my extended family, my neighbors and my friends had suddenly disappeared. Now, as The Doors would say, people are strange…

And if you are a Pink Floyd fan, everyone has become just another brick in the wall, just another stranger wading through a sea of strangers; comfortably numb, indifferent, unsympathetic, and perhaps, outright malicious, vicious and violent, in the quest for wealth and power.

Welcome to 21st century urban alienation.

Those who find joy in loneliness and the indifference of Nature will find this a heaven.

Those who haven’t been able to shed off the need for companionship (a feature that we inherited from our ancient culture) will end up feeling useless or suicidal or will resort to drugs, pharmaceutical and otherwise, if he’s to live on in this ‘purposeless’ existence.

By a nice coincidence, tonight when I came home, on TVM there was some graduation ceremony telecast live, and out of the blue, a family member commented: “Isn’t it strange that years back, you were acquainted with almost everyone in Male’, because there were so few people, but now, during this graduation ceremony alone, you can’t recognize even one face.”

It was true. During his time, each parent recognized the children (the pride) of the other parents – but this also meant trouble for us because we can’t do anything ‘naughty’ on the streets, like smoking, because some parent was bound to see and telephone and complain to either of your parents!

And during his time, we all recognized the 30 or so students who studied in SEC (now CHSE) but I guess now, because of the population explosion, it has not only resulted in more pedestrians but also more students, and one “positive” “advantage” taken by the present generation of CHSEians is that you can find them openly smoking in their uniforms on the streets or restaurants or cafes nearby because they know that the statistical probability of being seen and reported by anyone who recognizes them is almost zero

I guess Nature has two sides to it.