What Happened To Free Time?
On Modernity and the Age of Overwhelm
I. Visions
Lying on a pitch-black field amidst a galaxy of stars
Running through millet farms along an endless sunrise
Drifting into new islands of consciousness on a sweltering afternoon
My memories from boarding school are like the visions of some other life.
Because it was some other life. My boarding school sprawls over hundreds of acres of rural India. Its 300 students are the disciples of an antiquated way of life. No internet, no phones, no money¹.
In every way, my school life was the antithesis to modernity. We were ancient, not modern; childlike, not mature; free, not powerful.
For four years I lived that life.
And then, in the span of three hours, I was thrust out into the modern megapolis of Bangalore. A high-school graduate newly minted into modern life.
On the surface, some things had changed. I knew that.
But something had changed fundamentally in my life. And it would take me years to piece it together.
