I just love the Himalayas.Period.I am in awe and admiration over her pristine beauty and grandeur. The blue sky with flakes of woolly clouds, the green mountains and distant blue snow-capped hills, the murmuring brooks, the lonely sunsets, the chilling winter nights...I can see them all whenever I wish to. I feel at home there. If past lives exist, then surely I have been there in some form or the other, among those trees and those flora and fauna.
But the recent disaster in the Himalayas owing to the incessant rain in those regions has added one more dimension to my feelings to the mighty Himalayas. It is the feeling of deep respect, that one develops from a sublime and subtle fear; something that a kid has for his parents, I guess. However much we travel or trek, the Himalayas has a special place in Nature and we should never think that we are in control of her. Many of the Hindu mythologies revolve around the existence of the Himalayas. In fact, the Himalayas is the abode of the Hindu GOD of creation and destruction Lord Shiva. Lakhs of pilgrims undertake the Char-Dham yatra, as a ritual, primarily to pay homage to Lord Shiva and his different avatars. And now that yatra or pilgrimage tour is itself in shambles. Thousands struck, hoping to get rescued by the army. I can only imagine the horrifying experience those religious people are experiencing - the dreadful thoughts and the nightmarish nights and living every moment in a mix of hope and anxiety.
It is destruction, to say the least - destruction of roads, bridges, cities, house, dreams! The houses fell like a pack of cards; miles of towns, which cradled hundreds of huts, were washed away by the monstrous waters of the rivers, which only days before was the reason for their existence. We went there a year and a half back. Now when I compare those photos with the ones I see in news channels and newspapers I can hardly control my grief. The saline tears of those people have mixed with the muddy water that is gushing down the mountains with the ear-defying thunder. But perhaps this is Nature's way to creating new grounds for creation - getting rid of the old and making way for the new. Yes, eventually when the government figures will be out, we might find thousands have lost their lives in the calamity and thousands more missing. But when we consider the vastness of the Himalayas and her existence, then this is, at most, a small flurry and nothing more. I am sure that such events or even worse have taken places earlier and innumerable times in the history of the Himalayas. It might not have taken place within the living memory of anyone, but if the age-old rocks and boulders and the trees that dot the Himalayas could talk, they would have put a seal on my words.
Creation and destruction are like days and nights, like life and death. One cannot exist without the other. They need co-existence. While one involves pain, the other joy and yet one is nothing without the other. New trees will show up where the fertile soil from the mountains have deposited. The boulders and rocks which somehow managed to stick around has been flung around. After 4-5 years traces of the destruction may remain. But another 2-3 years from then, Nature will get rid of the slightest dent of this calamity. It will get over it as if nothing has happened, just like during days there is no trace of nights except in our memories.
The warm sun will again rise over the Himalayan mountains. People will travel and trek across the mountain ranges once again after a brief pause. Some people may be hesitant initially to venture in those regions, but the zeal inside will conquer the fear. Today's week-long and month-long dark days will seem like a blip. People will talk about it. Those who experienced them first hand will recollect them from time to time. And then like the deposition of the soil on the river banks, other events in their lives will fade their memories about this horrific calamities. Deep inside in our DNAs we have been programmed to look for the light in the tunnel and not the darkness of the tunnel. That spirit is what keeping thousands of lives stuck in the Himalayan calamity, alive. We look forward towards the sun rise and the beginning of the day.
So, years after this disaster, life will be back to normal in the Himalayas, like it had been since eternity. It will foster the flora and fauna and continue to nurture a vast majority of the Indian civilisation, which depends in some way or the other on Her, most of all the water from the Himalayan rivers. Many years from now what will glitter are the marks of creation, not destruction - new trees, new roads, new bridges, new homes, new huts, new villages, new towns, and a whole set of new dreams of new people.
But the recent disaster in the Himalayas owing to the incessant rain in those regions has added one more dimension to my feelings to the mighty Himalayas. It is the feeling of deep respect, that one develops from a sublime and subtle fear; something that a kid has for his parents, I guess. However much we travel or trek, the Himalayas has a special place in Nature and we should never think that we are in control of her. Many of the Hindu mythologies revolve around the existence of the Himalayas. In fact, the Himalayas is the abode of the Hindu GOD of creation and destruction Lord Shiva. Lakhs of pilgrims undertake the Char-Dham yatra, as a ritual, primarily to pay homage to Lord Shiva and his different avatars. And now that yatra or pilgrimage tour is itself in shambles. Thousands struck, hoping to get rescued by the army. I can only imagine the horrifying experience those religious people are experiencing - the dreadful thoughts and the nightmarish nights and living every moment in a mix of hope and anxiety.
It is destruction, to say the least - destruction of roads, bridges, cities, house, dreams! The houses fell like a pack of cards; miles of towns, which cradled hundreds of huts, were washed away by the monstrous waters of the rivers, which only days before was the reason for their existence. We went there a year and a half back. Now when I compare those photos with the ones I see in news channels and newspapers I can hardly control my grief. The saline tears of those people have mixed with the muddy water that is gushing down the mountains with the ear-defying thunder. But perhaps this is Nature's way to creating new grounds for creation - getting rid of the old and making way for the new. Yes, eventually when the government figures will be out, we might find thousands have lost their lives in the calamity and thousands more missing. But when we consider the vastness of the Himalayas and her existence, then this is, at most, a small flurry and nothing more. I am sure that such events or even worse have taken places earlier and innumerable times in the history of the Himalayas. It might not have taken place within the living memory of anyone, but if the age-old rocks and boulders and the trees that dot the Himalayas could talk, they would have put a seal on my words.Creation and destruction are like days and nights, like life and death. One cannot exist without the other. They need co-existence. While one involves pain, the other joy and yet one is nothing without the other. New trees will show up where the fertile soil from the mountains have deposited. The boulders and rocks which somehow managed to stick around has been flung around. After 4-5 years traces of the destruction may remain. But another 2-3 years from then, Nature will get rid of the slightest dent of this calamity. It will get over it as if nothing has happened, just like during days there is no trace of nights except in our memories.
The warm sun will again rise over the Himalayan mountains. People will travel and trek across the mountain ranges once again after a brief pause. Some people may be hesitant initially to venture in those regions, but the zeal inside will conquer the fear. Today's week-long and month-long dark days will seem like a blip. People will talk about it. Those who experienced them first hand will recollect them from time to time. And then like the deposition of the soil on the river banks, other events in their lives will fade their memories about this horrific calamities. Deep inside in our DNAs we have been programmed to look for the light in the tunnel and not the darkness of the tunnel. That spirit is what keeping thousands of lives stuck in the Himalayan calamity, alive. We look forward towards the sun rise and the beginning of the day.
So, years after this disaster, life will be back to normal in the Himalayas, like it had been since eternity. It will foster the flora and fauna and continue to nurture a vast majority of the Indian civilisation, which depends in some way or the other on Her, most of all the water from the Himalayan rivers. Many years from now what will glitter are the marks of creation, not destruction - new trees, new roads, new bridges, new homes, new huts, new villages, new towns, and a whole set of new dreams of new people.
