“Don’t mess with me…” says Nature!!

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
― Anne Frank

Nature has always been giving. Apart from beautifully balanced, it gives a pleasure of solitude. We have been hearing about the nature being the perfect piece of art by God. Humans have been the most dominant animal on the globe so far. Like all organisms, humans are also totally dependent on the nature for their survival. However, humans are the only living beings who can change their environment to suit their needs. But, in the process, have upset the nature balance. Human nature itself is very self-centered. This being so we augment the natural surroundings to suit our needs. So anywhere you find people and technology, you will be able to find how we have changed / destroyed nature. We hurt the environment in more ways than you could possibly imagine. Misguided construction, irrigation and mining can deface the natural landscape and disrupt important ecological processes. Greed can lead to catastrophic accidents and laziness to environmentally destructive practices.

The most recent example is the wrath showered by nature itself upon Kedarnath. Let me show you how Kedarnath used to be nearly a century and a half ago.

This used to be the old Kedarnath Temple in Garhwal Himalayas in the year 1882. Temples are considered to be a place where we search for solace in ourselves. We could debate a lot on the authenticity of these temple being made here due to the mythological stories and reason with respect to these places. It could be true or false as per ones belief. But the placement of the temples at heights, midst the beautiful valleys and mountains and trees and flowing water are due to the fact that we tend to find peace here. The silent beauty of nature makes us believe in the most powerful artist, magician, creator or any name we could call with, GOD.

But, alas as i would call it, people converted it into a business hub. Humans by nature has been very inquisitive in finding opportunities in anything and everything. The reason of having a temple in the first place changes to an attraction point to commercialize an area. People rather being atheist became more of superstitious which led to another group of people to take advantage of the weakness of the prior. To accommodate more and more of the greed inside the human brain, they slit open the nature.

Here’s what Kedarnath was turned into by humans to quench the thirst of greed.

But, the history has been witness that when humans tend to disturb the balance of nature, it makes sure to set it back to normal by its own. If we believe that the whole universe is created by a super power and that it and only it can create another, we should not forget that it has the power to revoke everything that we humans destroy. Anyone who has been paying attention will note that large-scale nature-related disasters are increasing. Every few weeks it seems, Earth unleashes devastating violence of some sort or other. An earthquake, a tornado, a tsunami, a massive storm, a flood, a drought, a rash of wildfires. It levels property, destroys homes, decimate crops, claims lives. And another constellation of survivors are left breathless in its wake, tasked with trying to piece their shattered lives back together. It is a dreadful reminder of an awesome and important reality. The reality that nature will not allow us to mess with it.

It’s only when nature gets really nasty, when rains turn to floods, when snows stop our planes, when droughts demand water restrictions, when a temblor topples infrastructure, that we even think to acknowledge the power it still holds over us. It dwarfs us. Impressive as man’s skills to build skyscrapers is, it remains awkwardly vulnerable to the sheer elemental power of the planet in its fury. History shows, in fact, that whole societies have risen or fallen because of favorable or foul forces of nature. And in recent times, violent outbursts of those forces have been speeding up in tempo.

Nature makes sure its put back to its original shape however humans might try to change it for their own needs and greeds. Have look at Kedarnath after the wrath of nature on it.

 

We need to be concerned!

We have lost sight of the fact that our very existence depends on nature. Take rain. To the average city-dweller, rain has little bearing on day-to-day life; in fact, it’s often an inconvenience. But to the farmer, rain is life. It nourishes his crops and the pastures on which his herds graze. The farmer sees nature, and all its component parts, for what it ultimately is: the complex, interconnected, vitally important machine that sustains life.

What is wrong with the weather? You have to have blinders on not to at least be asking the question. Why are these once-in-a-lifetime, where-did-this-come-from, never-before-witnessed calamities piling up on top of one another?

Such catastrophes should in fact challenge our thinking. They force us to contemplate the fragility of man. They demand that we consider some of the deeper questions we can all-too-easily ignore in more prosperous and peaceful times.

More and more people today, however, are quite removed from nature. Living in cities and in suburbs, we see nature as Animal Planet, or the dog barking across the street, or the lone tree along the sidewalk that gets in the way.

Nature is recreation,a grassy field to play on, a lake to stroll by, an ocean to see our depths and mountains to find our heights, a place for co-existence, something beautiful to admire, a place to go for serenity. Lets not destroy it for our own good.

I would like to end this with a poem “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth, a poet who has always beautifully portrayed the elegance of nature and how its been his teacher to lead his life.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Related Links :

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-satellite-imagery-reveals-uttarakhand-s-real-story/20130628.htm

http://rekspoursout.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/orphaned/

OPEN LETTER to the “Women of Today”

“I understand my sisters when they say every woman has a story that’s been told a maxim of one soul, maybe less

And that is why you’ll never hear me call a woman slut, bitch or a dyke,
No matter what she does, because I do not blame her
I blame the men who have emotionally and physically raped her,
I blame these corporations whose images tell them they hate her,
And I put my arms on her shoulder and tell her how great to life and
to God that SHE created her”  ― Mark Gonzales

“He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are equal.” – Jane Austen

A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative or more responsible than men. Likewise, she is never less. This is to be understood by both men and women. If we expect men to respect and understand women, it becomes the responsibility of a female to make that happen. Don’t just make yourself a piece to be felt sorry for. Women, you don’t need to be sympathized or protected. LADIES!!!! You are not a SEXUAL OBJECT! You are neither a punching bag, nor a target for EMOTIONAL ABUSE! You are worth more than that. You were created by God to be a partner to men not and not a slave. You are to provide strength and support to them not to be used and manipulated by them. To submit to them for love but not to become fools in that process. You have your Dignity and Self Worth. Never sacrifice those. You would rather be thought of as smart, capable, strong, and compassionate than beautiful. Those things all persist long after beauty fades.

Though we always blame the men for the discrimination of women in all forms, we have men in our society who are worth to be applauded for their initiation to treat women equal. Starting with, Raja Ram Mohan Roy who went against sati pratha, child marriage, polygamy, etc. and stood for the rights of women in India just on humanitarian grounds.

Recently, Farhan Akhtar, writer, actor and director, conceived and launched a campaign M.A.R.D. for men who stand and work against rape and discrimination of women.  It became a hot topic on all social networking sites and many men in the society stood up and supported the cause.

I would like to share with you all a write-up my husband wrote for my blog keeping in mind the rate of rape cases coming up every day in our society. I understood it as the views of a human who empathized with the strength of the woman of today and of course the concern of a father of two young daughters.

OPEN LETTER to the “Women of Today”

We were animals with brains and slowly evolved as intelligent species. We humans formed a social structure and started living in adherence to the rules of the societies. But somewhere sub-consciously we could not disconnect our self completely with the animal instincts within, which we were suppose to have suppressed with the time since of evolution. We fight, we play, we get attracted to opposite sex, we mate, we have our own territories etc. just like animals have. And if we look around, there is a set pattern how a man and women behaves. Be it is because of the genetic structure, social structure or the preferences of the individual sex.

A female has always been considered as a physically weaker counterpart in the animal world, and same goes for humans as well. Blame it on the nature. The only exception is the black widow spider where a female dominates. Since long time back, in this male dominated world, women are always seen as a something which could be owned, possessed and used. They have never been the part of main stream or the reason for any bigger changes in the world. Pick up the history; we had kings with multiple wives. The sole purpose of having so many wives was to have sexual pleasure and nothing else. The same mentality has carried forward. Today’s women are well aware and educated and ready to conquer the world, however there is big section of males who are still living in the past, 1000 years back and think of women as an object of desire which could be owned, possessed and used as per their needs.” And that’s a harsh truth. As the reflection of male mind-set, we see similar things happening around in Media as well. We see a female model attached to every object of desire, be it car or phone or pickup any damn thing, which definitely sends a wrong signal to the animals living in this human society.

As per my limited knowledge, I tried to find out the reasons behind crimes against the women. Somewhere deep inside, women themselves are also responsible for the current situation, if not fully, partially. They love to be presented as object of desire. Take the Item numbers where a bunch of men are lusting around the sexy dancer and she is comparing herself to apples and oranges. Or take the persona of women presented in current ad world, for example bunch of female models running behind a lame male just because he uses a X Deo brand, where he is free to use and throw all the “mad about him” girls on his will. Or think about the lady in the male undergarment ad. It was heights when I saw lady in swim suit on cement ad hoarding. I was confused and unable to find connection between two.

I have a question to the girl models that keep doing these cheap ads just for the sake of money and other girls, who copy these models blindly, aren’t you responsible towards your own female fraternity. Who is going to stop these men with the animal mind-set, when you are feeding them with lust and desire constantly? For god sake, bring out the women in you as a character and not as an object of desire. You are a human being with same bone and flesh by which a male body is made of. Stop assassinating your own persona or be equally prepared and strong to defend yourself when these animals attack you.

Yes, men are dogs, if not all, most of the men are. If given a chance would definitely bring out their animal instinct, and we see this time to time and I think the reason is more scientific than social. You may call it anti-social, but I would prefer call it “they have not completely evolved as humans”. These animals will keep attacking you and they need to be controlled by the law enforcement agencies or by yourself. But I have a little trust on the government. So the whole responsibility lies on you as women. There is NO OTHER SOLUTION to the current situations. To make an ideal society, where every female is safe, it is going to take another 1000 years. Would you like to wait for it or take the charge in your hands? Choice is yours.

Stop considering yourself a weaker sex, and stop blaming the nature. Time has changed, change your lifestyle. Take some time out of shopping and beauty care; make yourself physically and mentally strong to challenge these animals in the society. Go into sports. Why don’t we see women participating in games and sports when they grow up. I find this strange, because if you see in the schools, the count of girls and boys participation is almost same. Go out more often; let your presence felt in the society. Remember, a star less seen is more noticed and desired for. Participate. You are integral part of the society, don’t be afraid of your DE-glamorize self, make your inner character as your identity and not your outer unreal polished look. Be loud and raise your voice against any discrimination or injustice. Take control in your hands. Stop crying and fight back, you are Women of Today!! — Rakesh Sharma

All I have to say in the end is to stand up against female discrimination in any form. Raise your voice loud. Don’t restrict your thoughts and your needs. Make your daughters strong physically, emotionally and mentally and most importantly to respect themselves. Teach your sons to understand the need to respect women and how important it is for a female. So, RING THE BELL!