Dear Readers,
The face of the globe is changing beyond recognition. Forest cover is diminishing and huge blocks of land are swathed with soul-less concrete jungles and gargantuan structures. Climate change is making matters worse. Speaking locally, our farmers have been hit below the belt this year with untimely rains and one of the worst bouts of hailstorm. It is saddening to learn about farmer suicides taking place frequently through out the length and breadth of India including in our desert state.
I know where your mind would be racing towards now. The land Acquisition Bill and its nationally engaging debates or more appropriately, "mud-slinging" shown all day long on TV news channels. Well! lets not get into the slush there. All I am bothered about is the question, So! where is the solution? what is the alternative? A few months back I was talking to a dear friend who hails from Uttarakhand, that lovely abode in the Himalayas. I was appalled as well as disgusted when she told me that Real Estate land sharks were now grabbing gigantic mountain-slopes and mountain-tops in the beautiful Shivaliks to erect their clumsy, ugly, cheap and shabby dwellings at the cost of lush green pine forests full of one of the world's richest bio-diversity hot spots!
And so is the case everywhere, riverbeds turning into falana-dhimkana Dream Valley Housing society, the most fertile lands of our farmers being converted into the most repulsive 5 stars and natural landscapes like riverbanks or dunes completely defaced and destroyed. If there is no way we can go back to the old ways, then I would request our leaders to stop crying foul and boldly accept the fact that now, there is no going back and we have to adapt ourselves to a dying planet. Otherwise, let us pledge to plan a life where we are more in touch with our nature and surroundings. With all my heart and my soul I back the second option and wish that some Buddha or Muhammad or Gandhi leads us into the light........
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