Our Precious Mountains…

 

 

Last few days have been terribly humid. The overcast skies refusing to yield and the sun, when it is out, adding to the woes.
But I’ve been trying not to wish for rain, feeling guilty for our comfortable air-conditioned lives, the ease of home-delivered food and daily utilities. Guilty for carrying on with a normal daily life- weekend outings, mid year sales, movies, pizzas deals – and still complaining about a little heat and humidity while a tragedy of apocalyptic scale has overshadowed our country.
The Himalayas – precious, awe-inspiring, challenging, inviting, mesmerizing, soothing- our beloved mountain range is today devastated beyond words.
The first pictures and videos on the morning of 16^th June were just
unbelievable – like someone had uploaded or printed glimpses of some ‘End of the world’ Hollywood flick !

It was just over 24 hours when we had returned home from our lovely Himalayan holiday. All the more reason why I was shocked and shaken to the core.
 

The extent of carnage staring at us is unbelievable. It is like nature burst at the seams one fine day when human atrocities proved too overwhelming. Screaming, shaking with fury, crying with abandon, destroying everything in her path relentlessly….
In a matter of hours hundreds of fancy hotels and summer homes fell like doll houses and were washed away without a trace. Scores of tourists, pilgrims (it is peak of the peak season here!) local villages, birds and animals, precious roads, electric cables disappeared beneath the raging waters of a furious Ganga and her tributaries.
 

 

 

One wishes one could avoid reading, watching the unfolding carnage but then one gets entirely mesmerized by the extent of it all…one is glued. What next? What now?
The words, the pictures…they make you cry, cringe, guilty, helpless…. what have we brought upon ourselves?
The beautiful hills, the peaceful singing rivers…why are they all so angry?
 

 

 

Tales of bravado, supreme sacrifice and relentless courage emerge. So also the shameless, callous face of politicians cashing in….
June of 2013 – a month India can never forget. Thousands homeless, more dead, over a lakh and a half rescued but forever shaken, scores of villages stripped of entire means of livelihood, heroic armed forces men and women defying terrifying weather helping in rescue work and finally many making the supreme sacrifice, mass funerals, entire eco-systems destroyed, uncountable animals, endangered birds and trees washed away and our sensitive border with China now exposed and unreachable.

It is time we wake up, truly and completely out of a slumber we have all sunk into as a nation.
Green norms, animal and eco-system conservation are not just topics of debate at UN forums. There are consequences for flouting these which are vividly evident and how so.
Real estate development, infrastructure and economic reforms can never be excuses for destroying certain things that are truly SACRED.
It is time we all realize that when we throw that plastic cup in the drain, cut down that tree for a parking space or do not repair that leaking tap in the bathroom we are in every way contributing to a carnage like the one that has shaken our nation.
We are all in many ways responsible for the death and devastation that is happening in Uttarakhand. So many families will never find closure, so much is lost which will never be recovered. For those alive, there is the daunting task of rehabilitation…
The world doesn’t just belong to us humans…we are just a small part of it.
When will we accept this?
 

 

Technorati Tags: Himalayas,Uttarakhand,Rishikesh,Kedarnath,Badrinath,Flash Floods,Nature,Apocalypse

Four Years Ago…

 

 

 

Little did he know that his life was going to change for ever. If you had asked him then I’m sure he’d have said no. He certainly wouldn’t have agreed to the change that was being planned for him.

After 4 years with people whom he loved n adored, knew the ways of  he would never have opted to be shifted somewhere alien, entirely unknown. A new set of people, new language, new rules, new terrain, new food, new everything. However much everything and everyone new was nice, he would still have opted to be where he was with whoever he was, just the way he was.

But then, it was not his choice. The fact is, it is never the dog’s choice when his people decide to leave him and go away somewhere for ever.

This very day four years ago, Buddy came to live with us. He was three years 10 months old then. An age by which a dog is settled and have learned with conviction that the life he leads and the people he knows are his own. Especially when he is well loved and cared for. Which is why it must have been all the more difficult for Buddy when one fine day he went on a ride and found himself with new people, new home and a new dog…me, Ginger, never to return to his old home.

It took him almost a year. Yes, a year till we actually felt he is no longer looking to see if the next person on the road was his earlier Daddy or if the car that passed by our gate wasn’t his earlier family’s.

It broke our hearts to think what he must be going through but we always hoped that with time and a lot of love, he would accept us totally and completely as his own.

Being the super gentle doggy that he is, he has always been polite, obedient, calm and extremely adjusting but his eyes told a different story….

Today, it has been 4 years since he came to live with us. He has finally been with us longer than he had been with his earlier family. Today when we look at him, we see a happy, bouncy, confident sweetheart of a dog. Perfectly and completely at home. No longer looking for anyone, no longer bothered by any passing car, no longer partly someone’s dog.

We are blessed that we got to know you, Buddy. Thankful beyond words that you came to live with us and did not end up with someone who wouldn’t have valued you for what you are…A SUPERB DOG…the BEST that can ever be.

Happy Homecoming Day, Buddy Bubba Boy. We LOVE YOU.

 

Wags,

Ginger

 

(And Shadow n Mummy n Daddy too)

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Gotcha Day 4th,Buddy,Love,Family

WE ARE HIRING!

 

 

A dedicated typist with good computer knowledge and English language skills. Interest in photography and photo-editing are desirable attributes. The pawson must be a confirmed animal lover, with strong inclination towards matters of adoption and street dog care.

Exemplary remuneration can be expected by the candidate meeting all standards. Apart from the usual package that includes life-time love, unconditional friendship, wags licks and adoration in abundance a deserving candidate can expect to be introduced to a glorious and highly satisfying world of blogging new friendships and meaningful relationships that proves gratifying in more ways than usually imagined.

 

 

P.S. : Hello Friends, Ginger, Buddy n Shadow here. Hope you are all fit and fine and wagging hard. It has been so long since Mummy helped us blog. So many things have been happening at our front and we haven’t been able to share, write or read at all.

We miss our friends terribly and are rather upset that life goes on without us being a part of something that has always proved so very gratifying – blogging. Finally we are taking matters into our own paws and hence this Ad.

Please don’t tell her yet, but the moment we find somepuppy who can take over our blogging work, we mean to fire her!

 

 

Technorati Tags: Hiring,Delhi,Photography,Life