Imbalance in Seasons

Another week of cold weather is here. Right as the spring was about to end we had winter starting. Sounds absurd, isn’t it? But it is true. The mercury dipped close to freezing point and some cities are braced to receive record Snow for the season; which had been a mostly a snow deprived winter. But for a snow storm that had hit earlier in the winter. Actually that snow storm came somewhat before fall in October last year.  Surely the seasons are out of balance. May be the nature is trying to mimic us, the “developed” the scientifically supreme human beings of 21^st century.

The new gadgets have made our work place so much more efficient so the work that used to take days in the past is done in hours or even minutes. That should free up our time; ideally that is the logical conclusion. However; we define our logic; so that should not free up the time; rather that should ensure that we accomplish many times more work in a day, every day (and even nights and weekends). We boast to our friends about our demanding jobs that don’t even give us time to spend with our families. In fact we want that to be glorified because that is in fashion.  In short we are confused, disillusioned about ourselves and above all an out of balance generation of people. And we define that as the right way to live.

I think I did get carried away and started writing off topic, the topic was weather imbalance. So nature is giving us back what we have been glorifying for last many years in our ways; “Imbalance” Not only that we have been teaching the whole art of imbalance to the nature by forcing our ways to it and depleting it every day with our way of life. Unfortunately many people are not ready to take any ownership of this and claim global warming as hoax. But it is a fact; the weather patterns are changing as due to the impact urbanization/industrialization/ Modernization is having on the nature.

Don’t take me wrong; I am not against any of the growth; I am against the blind race that is leading to uncontrolled damage to nature. This is irresponsible and insane and at the same time, it is not growth, it is damage. Remember that hen who laid golden eggs. Don’t you think it was unwise of the farmer to kill the hen in order to get all the eggs and be rich instantly? And well we all remember what the farmer got in the end. And what we are doing is even worse than that; somewhat like burning our own house piece by piece in order to use that fire to stay warm. Soon there will be no roof on our heads and no walls to save us from the wind. And no wood to burn too as we would have burnt the whole house down.

Honestly I think of this and feel helpless, usually something like “what can I do?” But isn’t that thinking wrong? If none of us do anything; nothing will get done. However if even a small percentage of the world population decides to take one small step towards restoring things; the cumulative effect can be huge. Remember if 20% of the world’s 7 Billion people walk just one step then a cumulative distance of more than a quarter million miles is covered. So it is worth the effort. Before I state my pledge let me point to some of the news that scream that an immediate action is needed.  (you may know all of this already, but if you didn’t then Google the items below and see details)

·         Alaskan Snowicane : The snow storm that hit Alaska this winter season at a hurricane speed. The reason for it not slowing down before hitting the land was reduced ice level in sea that typically has cooled similar systems in the past

·         Man-made Earthquakes: There have been reports of Earthquakes that are alleged to be linked to drilling for oil and fracking.

·         Snowtober :  Unusual snow storm in part of North East US in the month of October, 2011  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/11/snowtober-fits-climate-change-predictions.html. Similar storm in April 2012 (Snowpril)

·         Himalayan Glaciers Melting:  “Everest and Himalayan Glaciers Could Vanish By 2035, Imperiling a Billion People”

·         Extreme Tornado activity: There has been no scientifically proven  (accepted) link between Global warming and Tornadoes; however any weather phenomenon or storm is nature’s way to restore balance and with the extreme climatic variations these days when you see so many tornado outbreaks, there might be link somewhere yet to be proven scientifically

There are these and a lot of other such news every day. I don’t believe that the World will end soon. But I certainly believe that if we don’t take some deliberate steps towards improving the situation then we will be leaving a very difficult world for our children to live in. And honestly my two little sons are too cute to be subject to such hardships. So for my precious kids, my nephews and nieces and for all the other blessings that come to the world as little children I will à

·         Recycle whatever I can

·         Reuse any paper/ plastic etc that can be reused

·         Do not waste a resource (electricity, gas, water etc)

·         Plant trees (near my house, community, participate in tree plantations)

·         Educate my kids on the beauty of nature and the need to restore it

·         Go back to nature on my living (to connect to nature again and realize that the hen will give golden egg everyday if it is treated right)

·         Reduce my reliance on gadgets / Appliances

·         Think more ways to give back to nature. Read/learn better ways to give back

The rewards can be huge, even in the short term I can see how much fun some of the above activities/ practices will be when I do them with my family. Snowtober and Snowpril are nothing but some gentle nudge from nature to say that it is time to understand and mend the ways. Because in this game if nature starts playing against the rules (as we have been doing for years) then we will be the one loosing it greatly. As nature will always bring things to balance even if it has to annihilate a few spices that don’t play by the rules; and we know who is being nature’s bad kid in modern days.

दो रूप

                               निखिल डोगरा

सोचता हु जब भी तुम मुझ से मिलो

तो मैं दिखूं जैसे,
ओस की बूंद सी ताज़गी लिए हुए
उगते सूरज की गुनगुनी रौशनी लिए हुए
पंछियों की चहक, फूलों सी महक
और भोर की हवा सी ठंडक भी लिए हुए

 

डरता हू कंही तुम मुझे उस समय न देख लो
जब मै अमावस चाँद सा खुद में ही हू घुल रहा
आधी रात काले चोर सा, अपनी ही आँखों से छुप रहा
कुंठित, घ्रणित शराबी सा खुद पे ही लज्जित हो रहा 
वोह जो मुझ से हो गया, या मुझ पे थोपा गया 
उस सारे पाप का भार, झुके कन्धों पे धो रहा

इक दर्पण में यह दो स्वरुप,
प्रतिबिम्ब यह दो, दोनों ही मेरे
छांट कर बाँट सका हू मैं जिन्हें
मुझ में ही समाये मेरे उजाले और अँधेरे
हो तुम ही वो एक प्रयोजन
की मैं स्वयं से श्रेष्ठ बनने चला हू
और उठ सकता हू हर आत्म्संदेह से जो कही मुझे घेरे

Space Shuttle Discovery Fly Over VA

I dont know if this really qualifies as a historic moment as many suggest; but most certainly it was a very rare moment and a very exciting one too...Sharing some pictures that I took from the top level of my office Parking Garage

Re-Made but Feels Fresh

“Why can’t you eat the whole thing, why do you have to pick the marsh mellows only? Try the rest of the cereal as well and it is all very delicious.” My wife was telling our 5 year old son; who had been busy picking the colorful mash-mellow bits from his ‘lucky-charms’ cereal bowl.  “I know, but they are the best, try this Ma!” he replied extending his hand towards her mouth, with one white and orange colored bit in it.

They were sitting outside the main door of our house, while I was watering the plants nearby. I was watching this and it was almost a Déjà vu moment for me.

I am the 5 year old sitting on the front porch of our house many years ago, with a bowl of a savory treat (somewhat similar to Haldiram’s khatta-meetha) in my hands, the yellow gram flour crispy noodles, fried black lentils and other things all mixed up with a salty -tangy seasoning and my small clumsy hands; picking the roasted peanuts from the mix with almost clinical precision. And my mom had said exactly the same words to me then as my wife had said to our son a few minutes ago. And my hand rose towards my mom’s mouth carrying a peanut in it “try this Ma!”

“Let it be, let him eat what he wants, we can finish the remaining stuff later; if needed,” I told my wife; and I could hear my dad’s words from many years ago just leaving my tongue.

Now as I and my wife were smiling at this; after many years I understood why my Mom and Dad had exchanged a look and smiled at that moment. They have been kids once , so the same moment has been lived in the past and would repeat in the future too. Same script, similar locations, same characters but always different actors. And forever the scene stays fresh.

Note: “I am in that role now Ma and Papa hope I am able to perform as good”