How do you describe a resplendent starry night to someone who never had the fortune to witness hundreds of tiny twinkling orbs beautifying a night sky?
Fifty years ago, this phrase marked a movement that was meant to celebrate and preserve nature. Despite the years that have since gone past, or the countless resolves made with designs of a healthier and harmonious future, the circumstances continue to be deplorable. In many cases, they have gone worse and reached abysmal levels.
“ Having obtained riches from the womb of our mother, having exploited her endlessly to achieve our mean spirited goals.”
Having been living in warped realities with lifestyles that are becoming increasingly materialistic, to a point where it is hostile towards the healing of the Earth, we are fast losing our connect with our planet, the one which we refer to as our home. The bridge separating the kingdoms is only lengthening, and it might soon be transformed into something unsurpassable.
Across many cities, for the children of today, nature might not be natural enough, when they have been used to smog filled grey skies and a diseased atmosphere. Skies tinted with an orangish glow across the horizon, or a serene pale blue one, might very well soon exist only as poetic metaphors, or left to be adored through captured images. How do you describe a resplendent starry night to someone who never had the fortune to witness hundreds of tiny twinkling orbs beautifying a night sky? These ideas might seem far fetched as of now, but that has already begun to happen, and the day might not be far away when more of us will be doomed to such a miserable life. Thus, do we want our children to inherit a legacy of gross inaction or one of competent decisions? The option is ours to choose.
Now that these poignant issues are facing us more prominently than ever, it becomes essential to point out the flaws which have brought us here. Our apathetic and ignorant attitude is the most to blame, having the capability to drive us even to the brink of destruction. We are left as nothing but mere blindfolded competitors in a vacuous rat race, with no aspirations of a possible collaboration which might enable us to breathe and live freely once again. We are butchering the spark inside us, which would enable us to look beyond towards a paradise which exists outside of our concrete jungle. Once in a while, to project ourselves as woke and morally conscious, we make a grand affair of a few efforts that never should have been highlighted as such. Not compromising on our standards, we expect some sort of miracle to sweep away our sins.
The errors committed are immense, and the journey to atone for them will not be lined up with luxuries, but will surely prove to be a blissful one. Pilfering, looting, and plundering, that has been our norm. These lands and the rivers ornamenting them have nourished us with life, and have made us prosperous and powerful.
Having obtained riches from the womb of our mother, having exploited her endlessly to achieve our mean spirited goals, we have a tendency to leave her lands barren and hollow. Her rivers have been maligned, even though many a times we refer to them as our mothers. We have taken a lot from her bountiful produce. It is now time that we learn to replace and nourish rather than diminish. It is time to self- introspect, so that we may be driven towards the prospects of a future in harmony with nature, one that will prove to be rewarding and liberating.
- Vaishali Mishra
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