Monday, December 21, 2009

Emissions in Copenhagen

Leaders from across the countries gathered in Copenhagen and ignited the element, fire in them and caused emissions there. Did they come up with any solution? There will be different opinion on anything and everything. This Kyoto Protocol is quite mind-boggling. How would they cut emissions?

Our life-style and negative emotions are responsible. Actually we are born to live in the woods among animals. Instead we cut the food chain and make shelters to escape from carnivorous animals. We make shelters more and more comfortable and luxurious. But we don’t want to share our shelters with more members. Because of this attitude, ‘hum do hamaare do’ we multiply into nuclear families. Gone are the days of ‘hum do hamaare dus’ and many more living together under one roof. We are getting more and more selfish. So we have to build space-saving high-rises. Concrete buildings cover almost all the space. Soon the earth will become a concrete ball. When concrete buildings heat up in the Sun they generate more heat, whereas, soil heats up to a limit because soil has moisture. Human beings are land creatures but they want to fly in the air and float in the water. so we have made planes and ships to travel through air and water.

To cut greenhouse gas emissions we will have to give up everything we do now. Stop wearing clothes, stop using electric and electronic machines, stop electricity generation, close all mills and factories for ever, stop manufacturing vehicles and so on. Can we stop all these things? If we wear clothes the mills have to work with smoking chimneys and we need detergent to wash clothes, which needs a factory. All these things are interlinked. All works depend on electricity now. The only way to cut emissions completely is to wipe out the industries that provide a livelihood and go back to the Stone Age.

We will have to stop even eating. If we eat we will emit. All creatures on this earth eat and emit. It is natural. Nature can tolerate what is natural. What Nature cannot tolerate is man-made things. We need fuel and fire to cook food. Mumbaikars eat more junk foods—batata vada, vada pav and all that and emit more than others. No wonder if Mumbai’s atmosphere is remain smoggy. All those junk food produce emissions go into the air; the rest goes into the ocean—just kidding.

Don’t blame villagers, who live in a natural way, for global warming. Some city people think burning firewood is the reason for global warming. Emissions from burning firewood are a fraction of smoking chimneys of mills and factories. Actually city people are responsible. Mumbai’s temperature is always higher than that of interior Maharashtra. The reason is concrete buildings, vehicular traffic, excess usage of electricity and lack of greenery. Improving infrastructure means making the city a concrete desert. Temperature varies from place to place across the country also across the world. Then how can they reduce temperature rising to 2 degree. There is no concrete proof to what cause global warming. And there is no instant solution for the same. Nature itself causes disasters. Human beings make it more disastrous.

See, how greenery is helpful to us. Greenery absorbs the Sun light; absorbs the rain water; regulates the wind and help binding the soil. Thus it controls these four elements, fire, air, water and earth. We use these elements changing their particular course.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Village Life

Though village is a better place to live in environmentally, life is tough there. Daily household chores will drain your energy. There is no tap water, no gas for cooking. If you want to have three square meals a day you have to work hard. Drawing water from the well, cutting fire-wood, burning fire-wood to prepare food, grinding spices with grinding stones, washing utensils outside the house and washing clothes outside or in the pond are a tough task.

I am from a joint family. My grandfather had a large joint family where more than 20 members were living together. My grandfather had a farm, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo, moo instead of here a bow, there a bow. Cattle are needed for farming. There was only one female dog which lived for about 25 years. His joint family had vast acres of farm land and a house made from stone and mud and a large compound around it. Now I feel it was only a dream. Our family tree is uprooted by the bad weather of the household. The seeds are shattered here and there. It was not because of family feud. There was no one willing to continue the family profession. When educated generation migrated and settled elsewhere family members reduced to 3-4. When those few members, who came in a stage that they cannot manage the farming, sold the house and land property. There were many servants for farming and household chores. Servants were honest and dedicated then. Now we don’t get workers for farming. They also want to be educated or go for works that yield a better wage. It happens, when all want to be educated and a better life. Educated young generations don’t want to become farmers. Agriculture is not a cheap profession. Agriculture sense is needed, more than that is how lucky you are. There is no way to protect the open farm lands. Anyone can lay hands on them. Fortunately it didn’t happen to us. People were honest then. To protect the crops from pests, locusts, birds, rodents, cattle and bad weather is a tough task.

My grandmother had a separate house with a 50 cent plot where I spent my school days. I had to work hard. I had to make even cow-dung cakes. It was a boon that there were fruit bearing trees and plants in our house compound. And we grow vegetables. We would get the grains sufficient for a year from our farm. So we didn’t have to buy these things from outside. We had to buy only groceries. My mother would manage the household with an income of mere Rs.50 in the 60s and 70s. What will we do with 50Rs. now? I had to shuttle between my grandparents’ separate houses as a messenger almost all days. I missed the organic food ever since I left my native village to Mumbai. I would get to eat a lot of fruits—custard apple, guava, jack-fruit, goose berries and a variety of mangoes. I would eat even berries of neem tree. A dip in the pond at dawn would revive me. Only large houses like my grandfather’s were illuminated with electric bulbs. All other homes had dark nights. I had to study with a kerosene lamp. However, life was peaceful then.

A century old one or two storied mud houses withstand weather because we will not do any alterations once they are built. We don’t allow any activities on upper floors; don’t even let children play there. Upper floors are only to sleep. Houses are located at a distance because every house has at least a small piece of land around it. So what? You just sneeze, the entire village will hear. In other words, you cannot do anything without the consent of neighbours. They will stay ears pricked and eyes wide opened. Though houses had no proper bolts and locks we didn’t have to fear robbers. There were no daring robbers then. Now the situation has changed. Crimes started in villages too.

Early to bed and early to rise’ is the villagers’ habit that makes them healthy and wise. No one will dare to go out after nightfall. Dimly-lit lanes would remain isolated till dawn. Street lights that have 15 w. bulbs don’t make any difference in the pitch darkness and that too only for main lanes. The lamp posts stand on the lanes gloomy throughout the nights without seeing anyone. People return from movie will be the last ones to sleep. Most of them are workers. Though they don’t have three square meals a day they will spend money for film. Women from respected family might have seen a few selected films in their life time. There were make-shift sheds in a 5 mile radius as theatres. Some entertainment loving people would organize a stage show once a while. A few would gather to watch. Dimly-lit stage with gasoline lamps wouldn’t fascinate anybody much. Shops for essential things were a few but there will be country liquor shops everywhere. One thing good is there are no garbage hills or overflowing drains. Villagers have Nature sense. Though they are aware of the natural disasters deaths rarely occur by snake-bites or drowning. Villages are gradually developing. Because of the arrival of TV, computer, early to bed and early to rise is changed in to ‘late to bed and early to rise’ so wisdom also goes out of them. Village life totally depends on agriculture. Converting farm lands into residential plots is something inappropriate that they do. Since food is the main resource it should not be done. A dream house will give only day dream, not food. Development of villages means destroying landscape and greenery. Villages should be developed without spoiling its beauty. At least villages should remain as it is.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Beautiful Villages

A village is beautiful with greenery, ponds, farm lands, open houses and surrounded with dense forests and hills. Lush green paddy fields look like a green carpet spread across the village. Paddy fields dance to the whistle of the wind is something worth to watch. When the wind passes through the paddy grass blades it makes a melodious whistling sound. When open paddy fields cover with a thick fog from sunset to sunrise in winter we need a thick blanket to sleep. Village is calm and not crowded. The atmosphere will be filled with calls of birds and other creatures. Different kinds of birds will sing in different melodies. Since the houses are surrounded by trees and plants many species of birds can be seen around. So we don't have to go to any park for bird watching. Villagers don't wait and watch birds either. It is nothing new to them. Only I would get immersed in the calls of birds and other creatures. Crows will sing a classical note at times. They say it is for guests to come. Want to believe? Cocks around there will crow on time early morning in a gap of 5-10 minutes as if to wake up all. So there is no need of alarm cloak. Cattle grazing around will keep bellowing. When cicada creaks you will have to plug your ears. Comparing to Mumbai’s, dogs, cats, rats, bats and crows population is less.

When day creatures finish their activities by nightfall and rest at their shelter, night creatures start their activities. Owls, male and female will hoot responding each other. Foxes will howl in high pitch. Mass howling is really annoying. They come out to have a feast with crabs they get from the paddy fields. Night birds will sing at night. Fire-flies are like stars on the earth. But they can be seen only in a particular season. Toads, male and female croak responding each other is funny to hear. Jungle fowls will crow at night sometimes. The villagers are very superstitious about that bird. They say if it crows somebody will have to go. Its calls would take my breath away. When my grandfather was living, a jungle fowl came and landed on the roof of our house and started calling. Its calls can be heard from distance places, not to speak of if it is closer it will be loud. The calls have a peculiar vibration which is eerie. I was only a 3-4 year old. My grandfather got annoyed and tried to shoo it away by pelting a stone. Annoyed by the stone-pelting it flew down in a swift to peck him on the head. He ran into the house. If it touched somebody it should be considered as absolutely inauspicious. Thereafter my grand father was bed-ridden and he passed away when I was a 6 year old. You don’t have to believe in it. It must be a co-incidence. In the summer months dust devil can be seen in open places. The wind blows giving out a whistle like dog's howling. Once I was standing on the veranda of my house I saw the dust devil on the nearby lane. I told my grandmother, "See how it looks!" Suddenly it came with a force and lashed me and passed through the back window. Dust got into my eyes. Scared I stood there for a while. My grandmother started scolding me for calling the devil. People say, embers will break out suddenly on the way while walking in the darkness. Only men might have seen it. Women cannot go out at night. There are reptiles in the compound. Sometimes poisonous snakes will crawl into our house. I had to fear wicked human beings more than these things, still I fear them.

The greenery that looks beautiful in the day becomes fiery at night. The trees stand like monsters. Silhouettes of the tree would scare me in my childhood when looking at them constantly. I would watch the Moon playing hide and seek. In Moonless nights I would count the stars. I still like the toys we would make from palm leaves. A grass will not grow without my consent in our house compound. I like to see caravan steadily moving on the lanes. I prefer bullock carts to these life-taking vehicles. If all were born like me there would be only bullock-carts on the roads. I like village very much. But I cannot go back. My family took root deeply here in Mumbai. Now it is too old to transplant.