Its Dusk time!
Beautiful colors mingling on the canvas of the sky, the bluish orange colour with dark blots of clouds, tiny water droplets on the leaves, the remnant sun rays, and the evening swift breeze carrying H20 molecules in its pocket- creates a perfect set for the advent of monsoon and fills us with a sigh of relief from scorching acerbic summer. The atmosphere itself has become so weary that today it will break all bounds of patience and will combat and engulf scorching heat of the earth with its relieving water drops.
Although we leave for home early to escape being soaked but eagerly wait for heavy downpour once we reach our abode to satisfy our thirst for relief from summer and humidity. Then, suddenly light shines upon the rim of our glass window accompanied by a little delayed sound of drums being played miles above amongst the clouds. With this thunder and lightning is marked the rainfall, the start of monsoon, which does bring smile on our face.
Lost in this happiness of rains, we do not even realize that the next day we will be having pools. And these pools will consist of water blended with the dirtiest drains and all other unhygienic resources. It’s the same story which repeats over and over the cycle again, but we give a flat ear to it.
What cajoled me to ink this article was a scene on news channel where in scenario of a house in a slum completely filled with water was shown and the news reporter focussed over the sight of books of a little kid floating in that contaminated water which actually bewildered me. What I am pondering since then is that if the choleric rainwater continues to drain away the knowledge and health of little kids of our nation and plunge them into agonies forcing them to seek child labour, then the Bright Future of India is clearly manifested.
Leave the red carpet ministers, but can these politicians whom we have directly voted the Parshad, mayor and MLA of our towns and cities, answer that despite all predictions why our preparation is always nil, in fact it is conducive to all the more miseries. We only find ourselves in state of despair with the Death tolls touching large numbers always. Why not the government who is planning smart cities in various states first improve the basic amenities of sanitation and habitation in many small streets of those large cities? The irony is that majority of the cities do not stand up to the pre-requisites to become a Smart city including the Capital of the very Heart of India.
They say that they have constructed cemented roads throughout the cities but what about big ditches on these concrete streets and also the side-lying areas which lie submerged in water for the entire season. The stagnant water filled in these areas is no less than a calamity for the residents as it claims many lives with deadly pathogens.
Believe it or not, but it is a damn important issue which is always curtained in lights of other political and social issues, but you, me, rather we who live in concrete houses of the affluent society cannot realize the miseries of that unprivileged section of our society who serve us but live in Kaccha houses or better termed as “Juggi Jhopdis” with their Khatias and Chulhas (Stoves) floating in water. What is the status of the government housing scheme when Bholanath (imaginative name) , an unemployed labourer spends sleepless nights with his poor children on footpath during heavy downpour. Covering his little ones with Barsatis to somehow save them but himself succumbs to atrocities of heavy rains and thunderstorm.
Whenever I think upon these issues I am not able to figure out, what is to be blamed?
- The urban planning and housing?
- The poor sanitation and drainage planning?
- The very poverty rate in India which puts the curse upon the poor and lower middle class people to bear every season as a calamity?
- Or is it the very misfortune of the poor to be born poor in a country like India?
And now in the contemporary situation, the question that who is to provide the solution to the problem seems baseless, rather what pricks me and probably you too, is that how long will these miseries continue?
Being a realistic person dwelling in a country governed with religious believes, I salute the heights of Shraddha and Aastha (i.e. devotion and submission to God) in the hearts of Indians that despite knowing the annual rage of Mountainous region of Badrinath and Kaidarnath at this point of time in the year, their spirits do not get deterred and antagonizing against themselves they end up getting stuck in those areas. The problem is not just this, but then the very tedious rescue task begins. Roads and bridges are built at the spur; the entire mountain range is set on havoc.
We should not forget that though we may reconstruct the roads there and we may pressurize the nature, but every time we do so, we ourselves invite calamity for mankind.
