A liability called Human being........

For the past many years we have been hearing about the conservation of nature in the backdrop of developmental activities pursued by the humans. Indeed that is not a bad idea considering the negative effects of development that we experience. The philosophy of conservation of nature that we follow is fundamentally skewed. Conservation and living in harmony with nature means giving equal importance to all components of our milieu. Look at all our nature conserving policy! All these have the most important component as the HUMANS or more precisely the HUMAN is the central aspect around which all this revolves! Be it the ecofriendly farming that is advocated to all farmers or be it an Environmental Impact study (EIA) that goes into project like building a dam or even a SEZ (Special Economic Zone).

But our necessities demand that we follow this method or philosophy.

Different organisms have been the climax species at different levels in the process of evolution at different times in the distant past. Be it the mammoth, the dinosaurs or any other organism that fossils have not revealed us. All these organisms gave way to the succeeding climax species in a very environmentally sustainable manner!! When an organisms found any of its basic requirement wanting, it modulated its requirement and ultimately gave way by yielding to the selection pressure. But prior to their extinction they never exploited the nature beyond a limit! They did not, of course, have the “greatest asset” called forethought (in a much stretched sense). The forethought for the animals other than humans is very short, may be maximum to one season or so but that too is more instinctive rather than one that is sharpened by experience!!! Thus even the extinction process of all organisms in the past too was a sustainable one!!!

This accelerated rate of exploitation is partly due to the fact that we may be the first species on earth which had prior knowledge of its exit from the earth. To prevent this humans do all sort of things and in this process may even be accelerating that event ! Humans backed by extreme forethought which has expressed itself as technology go for exploitation which may even go beyond the earth!! We live today at such levels of exploitation of nature that the next climax species after our exit will find it very difficult to survive. We have access to natural resources that we use today probably because the organisms before us never knew that they will one day fall a prey to selection pressures of nature. Thus they unknowingly cared for their future, in a way they were not selfish!

We definitely are to the core selfish or should I say “humanfish” a superlative of selfishness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The meaning of life.....

The shabbily dressed but familiar figure came and begged for money from the bystander standing next to me. I was waiting to catch the bus to my home. She looked at my face came to me. I asked where she was going?? The bystander looked at me with confusion!! A well dressed guy talking to a beggar as a friend, he might have thought. Yes, she is Kunjammu... the wife of the coconut climber, vasu, of our area. She has just recovered from an accident in which a car hit and she broke her femur. I think after the accident she has made begging a side business for I had never seen her begging before.
Vasu may be about 70 years old and she too may be that old. With no tooth and a very thin built she looks cute like my 100 day old son!!! When may parents came here from Bangalore for the post retired life in 1996 she was not as she is now. Then she walked upright. She was always pestered then by l'il children going to madrasa, for she was insane. One noon she stripped herself and lay flat on the road in front of a bus. (I came to know later that the death of her sons had left her in this mental state.) She was taken to a rehabilitation center and she recovered remarkably well. She had a couple of goats which help her and Vasu to make a living.
Vasu is now too old to climb trees and so depends on govt sponsored old age pension. When my daughter was brought home after she was born, five years back, Kunjammu came to visit her. She asked my mother what my daughter's star (nakshathram) was?? My mother said- Pooram. With a wetness in her eyes she said "It is the star of my children, they died soon after birth. They were boys - twins!!" Before going she took a 50 rupee note and tried to place it in the hands of my daughter. I told her not to do it and told her that her visit was enough. To that she said that this is the achaaram!!!!!!! My mother placed the note back into her hands. WE were glad she took it back. The fifty rupee she extended may even take that family for two days, yet she was ready to part with it.
After the accident, Kunjammu is not able to look after the goats and the goats had been sold to meet the expenses for her treatment the rest was contributed by all of us in the locality. Her mobility has been restricted and she walks very slowly she needs a stick too.
As she slowly walked away from me telling that she will come for the naming ceremony of my son in Sept i felt sad. If her sons were alive today she wouldn't have to go around this way. I wondered what according to her would be the meaning of life??
I think she is luckier than me for she does not search the meaning of life like me.... i think about life and conclude that life may be meaning less and hence probably the motto need not be searched.
Yet our inherent limitation keeps us going