Mother Earth's Rejuvenation

The global pandemic has forced many Government's to issue lockdown orders keeping in mind the safety of the citizens and also to restrict mass spreading of the disease. Vehicular movements, production units and factories are shut down.

Olive Ridley Turtlles in Odhisha

Mother Earth is now healing herself. Many endangered species have been spotted. The air and water has become cleaner than before. There is less of noise. Earth has healed herself at a much faster pace than we took to hurt her. Perhaps its a time when we must realize how ferocious we have been and how benovalent we should  have been.

Cleaner Yamuna River after Lockdown

The Olive Ridley Turtles are back in Odhisha and they have started mass nesting of eggs. The lockdown has restricted the number of casualities to the turtles and their eggs. The Malabar Civet, which is supposedly a noctural animal is back in the streets of Meppayur Town, Kozhikode during the day time itself. A Nilgai was spotted walking in the busy streets of Noida. A herd of barking deer was spotted crossing the national highway during bright noon at Kaziranga. A Sambhar Deer was spotted in Chandigarh. The rare South Asian River Dolphin, also known as the Ganges Dolphin which had been marked as critically endangered was spotted at different ghats of Kolkata. Rare Snow Leopards have also been spotted in the Nanda Devi National Park in Uttarakhand. A school of dolphins was spotted near the Marine Drive, Mumbai. Endangered Hawksbill sea turtles have laid the eggs in the empty beaches of Brazil. Endangered Leatherback Turtles were spotted nesting in the empty beaches of Thailand after nearly 20 years. 

Himalayas visible from Saharanpur

Air Quality Index in Delhi usually stays at around 200, where 25 is considered the maximum mark and anything above it is marked unsafe. Now it has dropped to around 20. The scow capped Gangotri peaks of Himalayas are now visible from Saharanpur which is almost 200 kilometres away after AQI has improved. The Kanchanjunga Peaks were visible from Raiganj, which is approximately 550 kilometres away after nearly 30 years. The river water quality of Yamuna and Ganges has severely increased within few days of lockdown. 

Mother Earth has started  shown her best to us within just few weeks of lockdown. The sky is much bluer now and the rivers are much cleaner now. People who were confined to the walls of their apartments have now known to clap in unity or even sing a song. People are forgetting their race and origin and helping others. Humanity is back once again. The lockdown has made us stronger than before.

Mother Earth needs such lockdown for 10 days for twice a year and only then we will see the nature as it was handed over to us by our forefathers. We don't own the nature, we are just a part of it. We have no right to  abuse Mother Earth. We had forgotten it for the sake of our greed. Perhaps now we know it well.

Secularism

I don't get it why even there is a need to declare yourself as a secular? If you are secular, you are and its perfectly normal to be one. If you aren't secular than you aren't fit enough to be a social animal. Even if you are or even if you aren't, why is there a need to declare?

 

The first known person who took me in the lap just after I was born is my Dad. Just after him, his childhood friend, who took me in his lap is a follower of Islam. My parents recall that he occasionally gifted me the 'Kufi' skull cap and even I was too fond of it. They never hesitated me wearing that. In fact, they proudly recall that a few times I even insisted on going with him to the Mosque for offering the Magrib Namaz, and that was when I barely understood what was religion.

 

I inherit a lot of religious beliefs from my Dad and my family members. The 27th day of Ramadan is considered sacred among Islam followers and for the last 37 years my father has had the oppurtunity to arrange the Iftar at our village Mosque and he wants me to continue that. He has also been doing the same for Hindu festivals like Durga Puja. He says he finds a lot of peace when he watches people celebrate. Perhaps that is the essence of religion for him.

 

My Dad has a small wooden book shelf. There stands with dignity, the three sacred religious books - The Madbhadwad Gita, The Quran and The Bible. The Bible was guifted to my Dad by one of his friends Dad who wanted my Dad to know the preachings of Jesus. The Quran was gifted to my Dad by one of his Islam following seniors. He got the Mad Bhagwatgita as a birthday gift from one of his college mates. The three books stand together, supporting as walls, not for differentiating but for upholding the dignity of human belief, preaching good deeds and inspiring great deeds.

 

I have grown in a society where people hardly try to dig in to a persons name and surname to find out their religion. It disappoints me when I see some doing that. The only time when I saw my near and dear ones digging in to a persons name was when they tried to know the persons gender and a few times they miserably failed. Some names, belong equally to both the gender. Religion is a personal thing and I don't understand why it should be bothered about. All that should matter to us is who the person is and not which religion he beliefs it.

 

My thoughts on secularism doesn't indicate that I am an atheist. I am religious and I strongly belief religions brings discipline to our lives.

The empty purse

He tamed a long dream of investing in mutual fund. His little interest in the equity market made him tame this far-sighted dream. He awaited long for his first salary. Although it is not much, still that petty amount would have made his long tamed dream come true.

After a fortnight of his salary, he saw the slip out of the ATM. It was enough for him to survive for the remaining fortnight, but purely scarce to get near his dream. He had nothing but a broken heart.

His moments of disgust were interrupted by a pat on his shoulder by his father. He stared at his dad.

"Thank you Son for these wonderful gifts. It means a lot to receive them from you. Your first salary has made the home glitter again. Everyone is happy with their gifts. I am proud of you", said the old father expressing the happiness of the younger brothers and sisters and his mother.

He soon got relief from those moments of disgust. He was happy. The empty purse and his lost dream of investing in the market had restored the happiness in his family.

Written for Indispire

To my future child

To my future child,

First of all, if you are able to read this then probably you have grown up and you already have a glimpse of life. Probably you are in a bed of roses or probably life isn't so easy for you now. May be you are fighting with the issues of early teens. Believe me, after half a decade those won't even matter. Three dreams that I want to pass on to you as your dad are -

• Firstly, I want you to love your country. You are born with a debt towards your motherland. You can only overcome the debt when you serve your motherland. Its good if you can be in the army and stand front foot while serving your nation; but if you can't don't be disappointed. Serving the countrymen is as important as serving the frontiers. Make sure you do something that benefits the people of the nation. Be proud because you are an Indian.

• Secondly, it doesn't matter if you are a boy or a girl. I don't know if you are going to be a boy or a girl and it doesn't matter to me even. I want to you to learn to respect a person because of his personality and not because of gender or demography. I don't want to you respect a person because of his gender, religion, caste, community, income group or age. I want you to realize that personality, attitude and thoughts are the real assets of a person. Tangible aspects like demography don't measure a person; but intangible aspects like personality does.

• Thirdly, I want you to know that you must realize the value of money and then you shall realize the importance of hard work. I want you to do smart work so that you be intellectually sound and strong enough to be competent for any challenge. I won't suggest you where to spend but would ask you to think on what you spend.

You shall be a human being, but its up to you to judge 'Being Human'.

Submitted for Indispire

Victory

Victory I do yearn,

 but pain I hate,

I choose to fight,

cry in another heart.

The Girl Child

In India a parent would save money to spend on his daughter's wedding rather than spending it for her education, where the girl child is taught to obey and serve man under their dominion, where she is expected to sacrifice everything for the family's sake and where she is expected to confine to homely chores.

With this mentality at the back of our brain and then we worship at least a dozen of Lady Goddess. Isn't it ironical??

We are drawing the gender difference line right from the childhood and are upbringing the girl child with an inferiority complex. After such a flaw-filled mentality, we wonder why is the crime against women increasing??

The answer to all questions relating to crime against women has the root result as our mentality. 

As the girl child is in the womb she has to fight foeticide, as she is growing up she has to fight infanticide, as she is in the adolescence stage she has to fight the eve teasers look and manage to stay bold and as she gets married she is expected to meet the In-Laws expectations. The change in such a mentality is an urgent need.

What should be done to bring the change??

• We mustn't set limits for the girl child. We must let the girl child be independent.
• We must eliminate dowry.
• We must stop blaming women's clothing as the reason for eve-teasing and rape. The only reason for rape is a psychic mentality.
• The shouldn't be any alternative to rape other than capital punishment.
• No separate Juvenile laws for rape. In Dec 16 Nirbhaya Rape Case the key accused being a juvenile escapes. He escapes after three years and he will rape again He should have been given the capital punishment the very next day his involvement was proved.
• We as boys and men, must know how to respect women. If anybody is found humiliating a women's self respect we must stand and fight. Fighting against such social evils isn't a crime at all.

I would like to share an incident which clearly tells what an Woman's esteem is and how we should really act when the hour is there to stand up for an Woman's right.

Bishnu Shrestha, who had just retired from the Indian army where he served as a Gorkha soldier, held off a horde of robbers that tried to rob a train in India. From the article on Republica: 

“The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight." Shrestha– who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting–was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3. 

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers. 

“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others…“Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier; taking on the dacoits in the train was my duty as a human being,” said the Indian army nayak.