Shaken and stirred

Being in a country with running water and heating deceives us.. Makes us worry about mundane things , shut our eyes to the ordeals faced by human beings around the world.
Watching a documentary however shook me, brought me back in reality.. This time that of the challenges posed by rivers.
There are no words to describe just how lucky we are, to be born in families who can provide for us.. Who have the resources to simply walk into a supermarket and pick up the salmon meal we are going to eat that day. And yet there are those who have to walk on a tightrope across the rapids of the Mekong to get their daily meal. Risking their lives, just to provide enough for their family.
We have access to transport, one ticket booked and we find ourselves cruising in an aeroplane watching movies.. A few hours later, we are in our destination, whining about the lectures we have to attend. And yet there are those who have to embark on six day treks on frozen rivers called the Chadar trek in the Himalayas just so their little children can attend school all the way in Leh.
We live in stable houses, complaining about the colour of paint or how our doors need a repainting.. and yet there are people in Bangladesh whose houses get swept away by river floods..


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rrd7w/Human_Planet_Rivers_Friend_and_Foe/

The documentary, you will be pleased to know, ends on a positive note with a story about living bridges in Meghalaya. These have been described as sustainable living architecture, known to withstand the powers of the rivers by a peaceful co-existence with nature. In such arrangements it seems, lies our secret to survival.

This is not however the prime thought in my head. All I am thinking now is how it is almost a bane for us to have these things in the click of a button or finger. We ask, and we get.. and yet there are many who have to put our lives in peril, bringing them in close proximity with elements of nature. These are the people who do not take nature for granted.. and then there are us, who think of nature as a tool, a resource to plunder and exploit.. and unknowingly continuing to worsen the living conditions of the other kind.
Leaves me with the question- What are we doing to this world?

Blackpool, 2009

Comments

  1. Very well written Serena...The other side is not always green and we are lucky to have enough. Its a sad state of affairs, not only in the northeast but in all corners of our globe!

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