It is in my FLOOD!

Just a week ago complete Vidarbha woke up to a piece of gut-wrenching news - 175 villages and over 95000 people's life was jeopardized. Heavy rainfalls created havoc gulping half of Vidarbha into it. Families had to leave their ancestral homes, farmers had to watch their crops die underwater and the unimaginable pain for loss of so many lives was extremely disturbing. I cannot put it in words. 

But what actually happened? How did a country ranking number one in fertile soil Globally, with 1,753,694 (km. sq.) arable land, could not soak up the water leading to these floods? ACT OF GOD  - people said. But was it really an act of God?

Someone religious would definitely believe it to be an act of God. But we, at Wonder Wisdom, are agnostic, we don’t know whether God exists or not. So to address this issue, we have someone with us who wants to share his story here. We are pretty sure his words will enlighten you with the ultimate cause behind such disasters.

Autobiography of Neel

Namastey everyone! My name is Neel. I can’t tell you about my shape and features because I don’t have any. But certainly, I can take shape of any container I go into. I don’t have any color or surname but the only identity I proudly carry is being a proud son of Maa Prakriti (Mother Nature). She is my identity and everything else for me. You all can call me by my nickname - H2O.

My life revolves around a few people. Chintu, my best friend who keeps me updated with facts from your world. No one knows how he does that, some say he has got political connections down there. Suraj mama and Badal Kaka, who help me in every step of my life without any selfish reasons. I even have a friend from your dimension Baliraja, he is a farmer from Vidarbha who cultivates grains for the general public. And finally, my mother whose lap is the most comforting place to be in.

My mother is a generous person, she takes care of everyone and everything she touches upon. Do you know one secret? She even takes care of you, your ancestors used to worship and respect her. But I guess they forgot to tell you this and that’s where all problems began.

Last few years have been a difficult time for her. She has not been able to keep well. A shiver runs down our spine everytime we hear her coughs. Her fresh and green color has started becoming dark and pale. Her strong and thick branch like hair have started to go thin and she looks a little weak these days.

Being a son born out of her I asked her “Maa is there something I can do for you? I can’t see you like this anymore”.To which she replied me with a smile on her dark pale face “it’s not your time Neel, it’s time for my other kids to do something” 

I never understood who she was referring to until years later in those beautiful rainy days, Badal kaka left me and Chintu along with many to go down and nurture crops of Baliraja. We were happy as we came down singing songs but to our surprise, this time we did not land on the comfortable land toiled by Baliraja but something hard. Ouch! We landed on a floor of concrete and tiles, I still remember that day because my bum still hurts.

I looked around only to see Baliraja’s field covered with cement and there stood a huge building, glaring at us. Baliraja was nowhere to be seen and neither were his crops, to whom I wanted to help create food (through photosynthesis). Because that is the only purpose I serve and then return back to Badal kaka from stomata as Suraj mama's rays hold my hand and evaporate me. But this concrete wall had disrupted my complete lifecycle.

Chintu came running to me,panicking 

“Balraj is dead” he cried 

“What???” I replied to those harsh words coming out of Chintu for the first time.

“His crops died because of low groundwater level, he could not go back home to his hungry kids empty-handed so he chose to hang himself, his family was forced to sell his land and now this fertile land for centuries belongs to a builder who chose to build homes rather than use it for its real potential. Maa Prakriti rest his soul in peace”

“But what are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go now?” I asked Chintu. 

“Government for Humans has set a rule to leave at least 4 feet of land on both sides of the house for lost droplets like us to sink in, to increase groundwater level. But these selfish people have covered up even that space with cement and tiles, they don’t even listen to their government”

“Then what do we do?” I asked

“Let’s go on streets and find a tree to get absorbed by his roots, and then Suraj mama will take care of us,” he said as we moved towards streets. 

Outside those compound walls there were pretty roads and even prettier footpaths but we could not find a single square meter to make our way into the ground and we were lost in a jungle of Concrete. 

"These humans only think about roads for their travel but not for us" ranted Chintu for the last time.

We took refuge on one side of the road creating a mess for humans, we had no idea what to do next, except to wait for mother nature to come and take care of us but before she could come a car came and splashed me on the face of a bike rider and threw Chintu, my only best friend, inside a sewage system. Legends say the sewage system is a whirlpool, you can get in but can never get out it's like a black hole from your dimension. I knew I had lost him forever.

But I neither had time nor place to mourn for him, these passing vehicles could not spare me a single minute. They kept splashing me on multiple faces. Bikers kept cussing and abusing rains but unfortunately, I wanted to reply the fault is not in me but you.If there's someone to be blames its not me but your acts. But my mother deprived me from Power of speech.

Suraj mama went down and the Humans finally slept. It was the first time in my life that I had to sleep on a rough concrete road, I missed my mother and her comfortable warm lap.

The next day I was prepared to be splashed on faces again but Maa Prakriti had sent Suraj mama to our rescue, he helped us to evaporate and eventually took us back to Badal kaka and finally to my mother. But this union was not the same as before.

Maa Prakriti had completely turned pale and dark, her fresh green color was nowhere to be seen. She was coughing blood this time, which was thick black in color as if it came from the saturation of air pollution and her thick long hair started shedding like leaves in Autumn. She was so tired that she could not even get up from her bed.

Suraj mama was furious this time, he rarely gets angry. Last time he got angry was when guy called  - Global Warming, was troubling him. I guess it was the same person this time. I never saw him furious like this ever before.

Suraj mama and Badal kaka had made a plan to restore our mother's health but I was scared with their plan because it involved hurting humans. Only thought my mother strictly told me never even to think of.  Maa kept fighting with them that her kids will understand in time don’t harm them, that’s not the right way and solution but that global warming guy had troubled Suraj Mama more than he could take.

The morning when we had to go down together and restore our Mother's health by increasing the groundwater level and remove some concrete from the surface of fertile land. Suraj mama quoted a Shlok from Adhbhut Ramayan by Rishi Valmiki

 

Verse number 18

Oh, the keeper of righteous vows! Whenever righteousness,

propriety, probity, and virtuousness (collectively called ‘Dharma’)

is on the decline, when those who follow Dharma are tormented

and there is an upswing or upsurge of evil and sinful forces, the

cosmic mother known as Nature or Prakriti manifests herself to

reverse this evil trend, and instead, she rejuvenates, enhances,

redeems and reinstates those virtues which make a comeback in

their original glorious and exalted form

He continued...

It is not our choice but a necessity to take these floods to humans else your mother will die of thirst. And in this process, she will have to spill out everything humans have put inside her without her consent. Just because she is a mother and never says NO to her kids, they have started taking her for granted. It’s time to teach them their real place. They are just a part of this universe and nothing more if they don’t let all elements be there the way they are even we can even fight back in the forms of earthquakes and floods.

We went down like warriors with conflicts in our heads whether to hurt you or protect our mother and we choose to protect our mother. We came down quickly and together what you call as heavy rains. The land this time could not soak us up because of your concrete walls and neither Suraj mama came for your rescue. We stayed in your dams for a while but even those weak walls could not stop us from protecting our Maa. As you opened the doors the real havoc started and we are not sorry for that but there’s one thing we are sorry for. In this process of restoration, we had to hurt rural people for mistakes done by Urban India.

Urban India Stays away from water streams in cities covering up land with concrete and Rural India stays near banks of the river not for any selfish reason but for the crops they plant. Those crops which feed 375 million people globally. These dams are created in such a way that the opening of doors leads to flow of water to rivers where rural India is situated and when the rains have decided not to stop unless they restore their mothers health. The water has nowhere to go but takes away lives and concrete cover from surface of mother earth destroying houses and other infrastructure in their ways.

I finally did completed my journey I got sucked in by land now that there are no concrete walls stopping us and my mother healed herself just a little as ground water rose up but the cost was too severe to pay.

Now the question is if we had let fertile land do what it is supposed to and not build houses on it through illegal means and corruption. The land could’ve supported these rains and not just that but increase in ground water level would be beneficial for agriculture too but we choose to build homes and factories as agricultural is cheaper than commercial land.

If only we were a little aware and less greedy these floods could’ve been avoided. But we do exactly opposite of what is right.

Religious texts says god won’t lift a tiniest finger for you. Not to harm you neither to help you if he had to he would not have gifted you with consciousness and intelligence something only we have in these billions of creatures mother earth have produced.

Act of god we like to call it but is it so. Acts of humans blamed on Gods should be the perfect phrase used.

What are your opinions on this after listening to Neels story do write in comment section below. And share it with people not because we are asking you to but because you owe it to Mother Nature.

Author         Piyush Janbandhu 

Co-Author and Editor Shruti Ramteke

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