I opened my eyes today to a sky on the verge of tears. Sheathed in grey armour, heavy and hideous, I felt distraught in the early hours of a weekday knowing pretty well that a load of work was in the offing. The sense of fillip was somehow missing for the day ahead.
Life in Far East is typically tropical - hot and humid. With super typhoon "Haiyan" crushing Philippines's soul and spirit few days back, my mind raced back to the nature's annihilation sending a slight shudder down my spine. I bounced back to reality engaging myself in the daily routine.
Later in the evening, while I was sipping green tea and looking out of my French windows to the city's traffic slowly crawling in and the distant emerald hills and the tropical bloom, I reflected on the early morning's image. Now the sun was playing peek-a-boo with earth hiding its gleam behind the dun clouds. We do not experience winter here barring the periodical and regular heavy showers.
I remember my growing up years on a distant shore that spilled four distinct seasons - spring, summer, autumn followed by winter. The summers and winters were long and intense. I used to fall in with every seasonal variation. Our family physician scripted the same prescription every time my parents dragged me to pay a call to him. Replete in feeding and fully clothed to brave the weather proved ineffectual for me. I was feeble and frail.
Little did I know back then that I would live some years of my life on a shore apathetic to seasonal shifts. But I was living in a fool's paradise. The weather today and all over the globe is exhibiting draconian aberration - a manifestation of nature's marvel.
Mother Earth filled our laps with abundance. Be it plants for food and medicines, raw material for clothing, fossil fuels and natural reserves like coal, oil and gas, mineral and mineral ores and water bodies for running our daily lives, oxygen for breathing or wood for our habitats - she did not give us a chance for repining. The mountains and the oceans, the pebbles and the sand, the dense foliage and the wild animals, the showers and the breeze, the glaciers and the deserts - the laxity of greener choices left to mankind stands today few and far between. How sincere was our obeisance to her?
“What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?” voiced Henry David Thoreau. For ages, we, the human race, have been responsible for raping her lap of luxury. We have never been able to live sustainably on our planet ever since its evolution although a robust natural ecosystem was always out there.
Even today when I pass by a garbage dump teeming with plastics in all moulds and colours, I make a sincere effort in averting my gaze towards all that is refulgent. How often do I attempt to carry my eco-friendly reusable shopping bag while I pick up my weekly grocery? When was the last time I touched and felt Mother Earth? How many times in a day do I switch on my air conditioner for cool purified air in my room? Every day I need to put the geyser on in my bathroom as I love to have hot refreshing showers. How often in a month do I use public transport for my errands? The list will dash hopes - my mind can hardly open up to the unerring responses my conscience triggers off.
I take a delight in lighting candles every day in my house when the sun sets in. I have been carrying on this ritual almost a year. Usually to savour in the ebony moment when the electric lights in the entire house are turned off. A playful act metamorphosed into energy saving feat albeit few hours of the day. I had long finished my tea and the sun had already set in. Time for the candle wicks to flicker. In retrospect the easy plunder of the nature, to which I had been a serious part of, is a blotch on our very existence. An arduous and protracted responsibility we all have to bear and do our bit to save Mother Earth from extinction. Long it's past the high time!
Life in Far East is typically tropical - hot and humid. With super typhoon "Haiyan" crushing Philippines's soul and spirit few days back, my mind raced back to the nature's annihilation sending a slight shudder down my spine. I bounced back to reality engaging myself in the daily routine.
Later in the evening, while I was sipping green tea and looking out of my French windows to the city's traffic slowly crawling in and the distant emerald hills and the tropical bloom, I reflected on the early morning's image. Now the sun was playing peek-a-boo with earth hiding its gleam behind the dun clouds. We do not experience winter here barring the periodical and regular heavy showers.
I remember my growing up years on a distant shore that spilled four distinct seasons - spring, summer, autumn followed by winter. The summers and winters were long and intense. I used to fall in with every seasonal variation. Our family physician scripted the same prescription every time my parents dragged me to pay a call to him. Replete in feeding and fully clothed to brave the weather proved ineffectual for me. I was feeble and frail.
Little did I know back then that I would live some years of my life on a shore apathetic to seasonal shifts. But I was living in a fool's paradise. The weather today and all over the globe is exhibiting draconian aberration - a manifestation of nature's marvel.
Mother Earth filled our laps with abundance. Be it plants for food and medicines, raw material for clothing, fossil fuels and natural reserves like coal, oil and gas, mineral and mineral ores and water bodies for running our daily lives, oxygen for breathing or wood for our habitats - she did not give us a chance for repining. The mountains and the oceans, the pebbles and the sand, the dense foliage and the wild animals, the showers and the breeze, the glaciers and the deserts - the laxity of greener choices left to mankind stands today few and far between. How sincere was our obeisance to her?
“What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?” voiced Henry David Thoreau. For ages, we, the human race, have been responsible for raping her lap of luxury. We have never been able to live sustainably on our planet ever since its evolution although a robust natural ecosystem was always out there.
Even today when I pass by a garbage dump teeming with plastics in all moulds and colours, I make a sincere effort in averting my gaze towards all that is refulgent. How often do I attempt to carry my eco-friendly reusable shopping bag while I pick up my weekly grocery? When was the last time I touched and felt Mother Earth? How many times in a day do I switch on my air conditioner for cool purified air in my room? Every day I need to put the geyser on in my bathroom as I love to have hot refreshing showers. How often in a month do I use public transport for my errands? The list will dash hopes - my mind can hardly open up to the unerring responses my conscience triggers off.
I take a delight in lighting candles every day in my house when the sun sets in. I have been carrying on this ritual almost a year. Usually to savour in the ebony moment when the electric lights in the entire house are turned off. A playful act metamorphosed into energy saving feat albeit few hours of the day. I had long finished my tea and the sun had already set in. Time for the candle wicks to flicker. In retrospect the easy plunder of the nature, to which I had been a serious part of, is a blotch on our very existence. An arduous and protracted responsibility we all have to bear and do our bit to save Mother Earth from extinction. Long it's past the high time!
