Glass house dwellers

Ratna Raman

Glass is an extraordinary substance. Formed in the hot interiors of volcanoes, it was also discovered by humans, thousands of years ago. All kinds of extraordinary objects, aesthetic, artistic, utilitarian and functional; tableware, chandeliers, glazes, stained glass and ornaments continue to bewitch us with tinkling sounds and glittering textures and shapes. The clink of glasses reverberates through cultures and continues to be the hallmark of merry evenings washed down with drink.

The first makers of glass were Mesopotamian, Syrians and Egyptian. Glass-blowing came of age in Murano in the 14th century and the Italians began to work their magic with glass. The Mahabharata, speaks of Maya, Indraprastha's architect, whose transparent glass doorways and pools looked deceptively real to a flummoxed Duryodhana.     Exquisite 'thewa' jewellery, from Rajasthan, continues to showcase intricate gold foil work within molten glass.

Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851) saw the public use of glass as material in domestic and horticultural architecture. Railway stations had glass roofs. 'Glass houses' were also called greenhouses wherein tropical plants were nurtured in regulated temperatures.  Stones thrown at glass houses would result in the certain destruction and death of 'hothouse plants.' The adage speaks of the fragile and limited durability of glass. The metaphorical glass ceiling (highest point, albeit transparent) caps successful careers, but provides opportunities for its being broken, time and again. 

Industrial glass sheets are transparent and St Gobains' is almost invisible. In the advertisement, people flinch involuntarily when water is hurled in their direction, because they only notice the glass partition when the water is stopped by it.

Glass mixed with lead makes durable and expensive crystal ware, both Bohemian and Swarovski. A silver-nitrate coating transforms glass surfaces into mirrors, enabling both critical and narcissistic perspectives. 

Strengthened through refraction, glass steers our vision, enabling us to look through microscopes and   reach out for the stars. Tennessee Williams' play 'The Glass Menagerie' deals not simply with Laura's exotic glass animals, but highlights the brittle nature of human interactions.

The axiom, 'People who live in glass houses must not throw stones at others', offers pragmatic advice on the need for restraint. Were the 'others' to retaliate since 'action and reaction tend to be equal and opposite', then inhabitants in houses made of glass would be exceedingly vulnerable. Ironically recalling another fraught situation wherein 'the pot calls the kettle black', the   axiom underlines why   human interaction must remain measured and thoughtful. 

Nowadays, very functional instructions such as, 'Fragile/ Breakable, handle with care', have reductively diminished our awareness of the extraordinary significance of glass in human civilisation. 

However, it is a well-documented fact that earth's privileged inhabitants   constantly throw things away, with little concern about how it may affect the environment or species. The human race's constant jettisoning of objects no longer in use has led to   over-crowded landfills and polluted ocean beds, rivers, forests, lakes, the world over.  This 'othered' refuse has now struck back, causing us to dwell beneath hostile skies, polluted air, dying species, damaged ozone layers, poisoned land and water and driving us to eat all manner of tainted produce. 

If only humans had understood in the fullness of time that glass was not merely a material substance but an extremely significant metaphor for our fragile ecosystem!  Had we grasped that metaphor early on in civilisational history, this relentless ricocheting of stones, splintering, smashing and reducing our universe into smithereens (little pieces) could have been averted.