Bangalore. A city where, till less than four years ago, electric fans were redundant and thick blankets were comforting. Where the sun was never harsh and the brow never saw a drop of sweat. Where a ride on the motorbike was refreshingly cool at eleven in the morning and biting cold at eleven in the night. Where the wind never died. Where the trees were not only a hallmark of the city's heritage but also the sustainers of its lovely weather.
All that is slowly fading away in the wake of the inevitable industrialisation and the so-called modernisation. However, these factors are often blindly blamed without due consideration to the fact that it is poor planning that lies at the core of it. Generations of architects, engineers and entrepreneurs all over the world have worked on a single idea that man can co-exist with nature for the simple reason that he has no other choice. And yet, through generations, a lot more people have remained blissfully unaffected by the significance of such an idea. While many people have repeatedly shown utter disregard of nature through their actions, several others have joined them in thoughtlessly ignoring the consequences of following such a course and continue to do so.
However, in spite of all this, you catch glimpses of nature's stubborn old ways in the city: The wind refusing to die, temperatures fighting to drop and trees battling the polluted air.
This leaves me wondering about what is more amazing: How mankind managed to destroy so much of the Earth and its resources, that came into existence billions of years ago, in less than hundreds of thousands of years, or how the Earth managed to sustain itself and its resources through several thousands of years of endless consumption by mankind and continues to do so.
Shamanth Huddar.
- Typed on an electronic device, posted on a social media website and submitted from a building made of concrete and glass, where, once upon a time, there probably stood a tree.
