‘The next step in human evolution depends on our ability to live sustainably on the Earth.’ Kate Davies
As I pen these words, two sparrows fill the air with their chirping. Winter has been sever this year at various places around the globe. Mumbai has also been cooler than earlier days, though there is no more clear winter in Mumbai for last many years. I still remember growing up days when we needed woolen in this city. Climate uncertainty has taken away the joys of seasons, and yet in midst of this polluted morning, I’m able to pick up Sun bird’s meek ‘good morning’. One learns to hold on to hope.
Though personally, I should not complain. I’ve spent the last few days of 2009 at my little run away home few kilometers away from Mumbai. My Sun filled mornings were greeted by a lone by Kingfisher and nights I with starlit Moonlight. Of course the electricity cuts made the darkness so authentic that stars felt extremely close to my terrace. However, my maid’s reality was very different than me. For her, these dark hours meant adjusting cooking times with daylight, washing utensils with ice cold water, scolding her daughter for not completing homework and wasting expensive kerosene at night. As one of my friend jokes fondly whenever I share such incidences- now you are experiencing India. And sad reality is, most Mumbaikars have no clue what an average Indian’s life is.
The mushroom growth of shopping malls where all global brands are made possible under one roof is robbing the out skirts of the city of their basic need of electricity for many hours everyday. One coke for us means 10 kms. of walk for the village woman to fetch water she is deprived due to consumption of millions of liters of water per day by the soft drink plant. One Sunday movie at PVR costs more than what many families in India earn per month.
Why am I penning all this? Is it again some arm chair critic attitude that we Mumbaikars carry to keep our conscience clear? That at least we are raising the right concerns? No. I’m penning this to share that we all are equally insensitive to our interdependence on not just each other as humans but also the Nature around. Our emotional numbness is result of cutting the umbilical cord with Mother Earth. Let us revive our connection with Nature to make us more sensitive to how our every action impacts many others whom we do not even acknowledge as existing. Will you look out of the window at least?
