Missing the Green.

Conservation of our environment and spreading of awareness for the same is the buzzword everywhere and it is truly heartening to see the same. Everyone takes steps to do rain water harvesting, saving on electricity, recycling paper and plastic and so on. It definitely is the need of the hour and the fear factor induced by catastrophic visions of the future like Global warming, and Ozone holes have somewhat helped add a sense of urgency and alarm to these efforts. So today people buy environment friendly cars and builders or factories aggressively advertise how environment friendly they are. We have suddenly started to embark upon a mission of repair and restoration, in fear of the future repercussion nature could wreak upon us, which is all very good, but the truth is it would be more honourable and also spirited and powerful if the soul of our efforts were not just to save ourselves, but to save nature and mother earth that we once loved a lot and was effectively a part of our lives.


This love for nature and the soothing effect it can have needs to be rediscovered. Tomorrow`s generation today grows in concrete jungles, in complexes where they are used to travelling by elevators. Playing in the water, to them, means playing in swimming pools with all those rubber toys. It is for the benefit of this generation that they must rediscover the simple natural joys of the past, which their ancestor had the privilege to enjoy. You cannot venture out to rescue something, which one primarily has not loved or known personally.

Take the case of all temples and heritage sites. It is because we marvelled at their beauty and splendid workmanship and art, that we actually took steps to renovate and preserve. Similarly unless we are marvelled by nature`s beauty and comfortable in living a simple life in communion with nature, it is very difficult to relate to and understand the need to preserve and take care of the same.

It is time to head to the villages, to those remote places, where we all have our roots and absorb and appreciate it`s value and beauty and allow this love and warmth in us to permeate to the next generation, to show them that there`s a world and life outside your flat, without a television, without a washing machine, without a shower or a geyser, and yet, a place where you can learn to live, and thus provide an experience in all that they will treasure and aggressively and actively seek to maintain throughout the stretch of their lives.

My uncle, who has his own wonderful little blog here had recently written about the alarming decline of crows in Kerala. It is a startling observation, because it shows to what extent the change in our lifestyles is affecting the natural cycle and ecosystem at such a rapid pace. Crows are not just birds, they are cleaners and scavengers who are given the natural responsibility of cleaning up the place around you. It is our lack of love for the natural process and techniques, which is leading to this decline, the loss of this knowledge and hence putting us in the grave situation that is there today.

In our active and vibrant society we are used to a lot of colours. Colours of paints, colours of buses, new buildings, office complexes, food wrappers and what not. The secret to the panacea of our environmental problems is that today we forget to miss the crystal blue of the sky, the beautiful placid blue of the waters, the dark black of the crows, the sprightly green of the trees and plants. The secret lies in missing the green of beautiful mother earth.

Pics Courtesy : All pics taken at my native place in Kerala.