Man Versus Animal And Nature
By Tribhuwan N. Bhan
Last-night I had a dream in
which I walked along the
periphery of Powai lake.
Suddenly I realized that
someone was pulling at my trousers,
thus not allowing me walk any
further. I turned round to see who the
intruder was. I noticed it was a
lioness, pulling at my trousers with
her fangs. As I looked at her, I noticed
tears in her eyes and her right paw
raised as if to greet me. It took me
quite some time to disentangle my
trousers from her fangs. Then, I heard
some voice from above directing me to
follow the wild animal fearlessly as
she had a special message, not only
for me but for the entire mankind.
I
followed the lioness as my pet dog
Caesar used to follow me decades ago,
when I was at Srinagar. Reaching a
lofty high-rise building, the lioness
stopped to check whether I was
following her or not. Walking further
near the huge iron gate of this twenty
storeyed building, the lioness sat on
the ground. Again the same way voice
from the skies above said in a
resounding tone, "The piece of land
on which this concrete monster is built
was once the abode of this lioness.
She lived her along with her four cubs
in utmost peace and harmony with the
surroundings of all types. But the
heartless and unscrupulous builders
and promoters intruded into her home
broke it apart and shattered her
dreams and hopes. Man has thus
committed an aggression which is an
unforgivable sin".
Seeing this and
hearing the celestial
voice from above, I felt
ashamed of myself as
being one of the species
of man, whose greed is
limitless. Some decades
ago people would go for picnic to Powai
lake. Those were the day when man
and animal lived in absolute peace and
harmony. Picnickers would sometimes
see lions and leopards crossing the
roads without harming or attacking
anyone. But things have changed
since then. A luscious green jungle
has disappeared and in its place has
come up a concrete jungle. Suddenly
the star-studded sky was overcast
with dark clouds and it became pitch
dark. There was a blinding lightning
followed by deafening thunder. The
lightning was right across the black
sky, as if it would part the sky into
two. This awe-inspiring scene was
similar to the breath-taking one, when
the red sea breaks into two, allowing
Moses the Hebrew prophet and
Israelites to escape from Egypt. When
the Lightning and thunder subsided
to a certain extent, I heard the same
voice again prophesying, “Huge tidal waves several meters high
will rise from the sea swallowing
all the high-rise structures built
on the reclaimed land, which will
disappear as the waves recede”. With this loud voice in my dream,
I found myself sweating, as I had
never experienced such a dream
sequence ever before.
Man has to realise that nature
is all powerful. Without
understanding this, man is
continuing to intrude into
domains which are not his. The
exploding of spaceship Challenger
seconds after its launch in
January 1986, the bursting into
flames of Columbia on re-entry
into the earth’s atmosphere inFebruary 2003, put a blot on
NASA’s space programmes and shook its very foundation. Still
man has not learnt a lesson from
these tragedies. It is high time
we realize that it is better we set
things right on the surface of this
planet, than to pillage the
heavens above. The colossal
amount that is spent on various
space programmes should be
utilized for removing poverty,
disease and to provide life’s basic amenities to the poor and
helpless. NASA’s mission is "to improve life here, extend life
there and to follow life beyond".
First comes first "improve life
here", then think of the rest.
A dreamer turns to fiction,
which rolls out myths. Some of
these eventually become reality
which at times are stranger than
fiction. Thereby hands a tale!
Source: Milchar
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