Sunday, October 18, 2009

whose world is it anyway?

Hi friends
Its been almost 2 months now that we met and talked. there are many topics to discuss but out of many topics , to choose one topic is very hard and difficult. last time i came up with a bit spiritual topic on helping the dying. this time what do we do?


Hows your diwali going? Must be going on fine and cracky and fun... what do we mostly do in diwali? Of course you might say, this guy is a fool to ask what we do as it is quite obvious of what everyone does in diwali... eating sweets, bursting crackers and what not? right , i meant the same thing. bursting crackers....

We , that is most of us indians burst crackers during diwali. And why diwali alone, we do this on marriage, utrayan , and other joyous occasions , right? Right. We do this.. each time we buy crackers with loud noise and different variations. But have we cared to ever to think about the environment around us or the climate which has became moody? The answer is BIG NO.
You will say that here goes this guy ranting the same old thing about global warming and climate change. Ya ,here i go doing the same but its time I , you, WE, and ALL of us do the same and Act... otherwise we will be telling stories to our kids or grandkids about what existed back then in our time and how we could see some of the things easily and not available "now"

What do we do about this climate change? How do we celebrate a good diwali? Bursting crackers only? Is diwali only celebrated by bursting crackers and shopping and fun?
NO. Diwali can be celebrated in other ways also. and why only diwali only? Other festivals also can be celebrated in other ways. and what are these other ways?

Do not burst crackers at all. if at all if you burst crackers , do so by bursting less noise induced crackers which don't cause noise pollution and most importantly air pollution.
There are many people who have breathing problems and other breath related problems. Think about them. Even if we don't think about them and ask them to stay indoors , think about the climate . Do you know the side effects of high induced crackers which we burst during diwali?
here are some to list some few:

1- There are birds sleeping on trees. They are so sensitive to noise. Imagine we are sleeping and somebody burst a air filled balloon or empty plastic bag or even , say a ' sutli bomb'. what would be out condition? we would obviously wake up frightened, with fear, with heart in our mouths and..... blood pressure coming up..
Now think of these birds... they are so sensitive and how they must be feeling.... they dont have voice to express... they do so only with eyes... they must be wondering whats going on around and when this will end? What would happen if a little spark of our rockets or say crackers would
fall into branch of a tree where a bird is sleeping or resting? imagine.. i will not tell .

2- Now think of climate... see how the whole climate becomes. no, I am not talking of late overall climate changes. I am talking about immediate climate change that takes place. Smoke everywhere, strange smell .... no visibility because of smoke on roads....this continues till the early hours of morning and no this doesn't end after that. then the smoke from vehicles start.


What can we do instead of in Diwali which is different and what can be soul satisfying?
We can do many things. we can help people , we can help environment and help ourselves ultimately. to name a few , we can:

1. We can visit old age homes and be with our " future". We can visit the oldies and spend time with them. We can take some wisdom from them, we can give them solace in absence of their loved ones. We can light their faces and see how we can bring some change in ourselves as well as their lives.....

2- Do some anonymous help. yes . anonymous help. for those who dont know the word , the other meaning of this is gupt help... hidden help..
If you are wealthy, give some money to those in need financially instead of giving to temples. God has enough money for himself. instead you can give your money to those suffering financially at their place by helping them arrange for their children's wedding, or helping the hungry people yourselves. There are many people sleeping with bare body on bridges and roads... provide them with chuddar or clothes and then speed away before they say thank you to you. see what joy you will feel.

3- Visit some nature parks around your city or in your city... on visiting those nature parks.. you will come to know the true nature of god and true way of celebrating festivals. take a camera with you and photograph a few nature stills which you will like to see in future and which might inspire you to preserve nature.

You know why i am ranting this climate thing now? well , here are some facts recently released about the climate change . some of them you might have already read , some of them you may have not. You will say on reading that its going to happen after 20-30 years from now so why worry.. friends. This is the time to worry. if we dont worry now, those 20 years may soon become 10 or 5 years. If we act now, we wont have to cry in future or worry about saving lives of our kids or grandkids. We wont be able to see the snow or the quite nature when we visit hill stations, we wont be able to see the exotic birds and animals , we wont be able to spend time with our "loved one" in those snow capped mountains . Better act now.better safe then say sorry. here are some facts recently released:

1
The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 year

2 Jhelum melting at alarming speed in Himalayas

3 Other snow capped mountains and glaciers are melting.

4
Jammu  Kashmir's biggest glacier, which feeds the region's main river, is melting faster than other Himalayas glaciers, threatening the water supply of tens of thousands of people.

5 Global temperature to rise by 4 degree Celsius by '50's

6-Sea ice in the arctic could disappear sooner then expected

7- Sea levels have risen 18 cm between 1900 to 2000 and 3 cm between 1994 to 2004 and may rise upto 88 cm rise by 2100 and so on.
like i said , if we want to help our kids and grand kids. act now.

These are some of the the warnings, occurrences, and predictions of the coming disaster IF we dont wake up now and act.

So lets see how we can help the world and proudly say to our future generations that how we helped create the world again:

  • Reduce, reuse, recycle anything from clothes, paper, packing materials and other things
  • Conserve power. switch off unused lights , fans, phones and chargers and air conditioners
  • Conserve water
  • Support green business and green NGOs
  • USE a cloth bag when you go out for shopping
  • Tell others not to throw plastic and other rubbish things when they go to hill stations and on ice capped mountains

So at end i would only " suggest" you to please take care of the environment and yourself.
you must be thinking that what did you do yourself. for your records i think it would be
suitable to tell you that i from last 3 years havent burst any crackers. last year i just
bursted 3 crackers. and this year none.

So ending here to meet you soon on another topic another day...
salaam namaste, shabbakher, bye bye, and khuda haafiz, tata.



3 comments:

Abhijeet Jhala said...

well written but there are some facts which is hard to change... If you suggest not to burst crackers during diwali, then you also have to stop bursting crackers on every entertaining venues like award functions, cricket,football and other games, and many more... just like fire crackers, there are so many other factors which also affect the environment.. just like you mentioned - traffic. We also can not stop people from driving vehicles and reduce the pollution.
It is easy to suggest and speak about these things but very difficult to implement... Bud definitely, we can do our bit to save the environment... I'm doing my bit by saving energy and not bursting crackers too... Lets hope people around the world also start doing the same....

Abhijeet Jhala said...

well written but there are some facts which is hard to change... If you suggest not to burst crackers during diwali, then you also have to stop bursting crackers on every entertaining venues like award functions, cricket,football and other games, and many more... just like fire crackers, there are so many other factors which also affect the environment.. just like you mentioned - traffic. We also can not stop people from driving vehicles and reduce the pollution.
It is easy to suggest and speak about these things but very difficult to implement... Bud definitely, we can do our bit to save the environment... I'm doing my bit by saving energy and not bursting crackers too... Lets hope people around the world also start doing the same....

Kash said...

abe ye sab kyaa likha he, itna sab mene jindagi me nahi padhaa tune likh diya...