Sitting in an air conditioned room, watching the TV and sipping in a mocha, might sound luxurious. An urgent call, an appointment or a scheduled task, which drains the laziness out of you, turns up, leaving you with no other option than to get dressed and make sure your valuable presence would be felt at the occasion. So far so good…
A walk to the taxi stand..or a pan shop itself makes you feel what I’m focusing upon. Your well ironed shirt begins to show long thin creases all over, patches of dark marks appear in areas of close contact with the skin…you sweat from almost everywhere, then the itch sets in…scratching…rashes… it goes on. You get an auto, you expect some air to flow…it does flow, but it’ll make you feel nauseated…highly irritable and dehydrated…the dust settles on your skin, darkening it..in your hair, parching it. In a couple of minutes time, you are a shade darker than what you were at the beginning. You get multiple doses of these ‘breath- “taking” stuffs at every traffic signal. Then finally, the place arrives…you get down…pay the auto wala…check yourself in the mirror for the last minute touch ups..and you’re shocked to notice that it requires more than just a touch up to restore what you looked like a couple of hours ago.
This was just an ‘almost nothing’ comparison of what’s happening around us. Every year we speak of the summers getting hotter…the rains getting scarcer…lands affected with droughts on one hand, leaving the people withering, and those succumbing to the mights of the mosquitoes during floods on the other. The cycle has been largely disrupted with infrequent rains and summers over the course of their respective periods in a year. Crisis…sets in.
This is actually what I felt when I’ve been visiting places like Hyderabad and Chennai for the past 3-4 months…and felt that my own place was only a fraction better than these. Its the mornings and the noons till the early evenings…that are so unbearable….sometimes the heat breaking in at nights as well..
The Sun had been there for billions of years, but why have we been thinking of the “heat” so lately??? because it has been bothering us in every way…daily activities, transport, schools, offices and so on. Now, why has it been bothering us??? Is it because the sun grew mightier??? absolutely not…we are baking ourselves, literally… We chop down trees and build huge towering skyscrapers and other air conditioned stuff…not realizing that a more sophisticated air conditioner replaces a natural one. We “fuel” our vehicles in order to “fuel” the air around with things ought not to be present otherwise. We keep puncturing the ozone.. craving a path for the much avoidable types of cancers. We create and destroy hell a lot of NBD stuff….only to think that they are more effective than their natural counterparts. For instance, I would still prefer jute to plastic, if I’m not one amongst those who think jute is heavy and needs more space.
Its not just one person responsible for this……WE made this situation for ourselves, WE have compromised with nature, WE have disrupted its balance, WE have begun to alter the global climate…finally, WE need to start using our heads…..WE need to pull ourselves out of this….WE need to just….”think about it…”
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