Today 2 representatives of Greenpeace had come to our department to spread general environmental awareness and to distribute pamphlets. They also screened a movie which showed how the glaciers feeding the river ganges are retreating due to global warming.
Something about Greenpeace. Its an international organisation which fights for environmental causes and drags private companies to courts for violation of environment protection laws, spreads awareness about reducing greenhouse gases, sustainable clean energy generation, protection of endangered species etc etc etc.
A commendable effort by all means and perfectly justified from their point of view.
In fact I myself was a cyberactivist signing petitions and distributing them to save the Olive Ridley turtles being harmed by the supposed construction of a port by the Tatas.
And I say "was a cyberactivist", because now I am not. And what did prompt this role reversal?
Greenpeace advocates CFL lamps and in fact has a case in courts of India which will ban yellow bulbs by 2012 to be replaced by energy efficient and long but finite lifed CFLs. Does it know that CFL also contain copious amounts of mercury and lead and that disposing them will cause just as much trouble.
Why does not Greenpeace push for the holier than all LED bulbs?
Greenpeace invented a car which gives a fuel efficiency of 26-30kmpl according to this representative. Why do not i buy the Tata Nano which will give me comparable efficiency with its small 600cc engine?
Why is not Greenpeace pushing for better public transport?
Greenpeace wants subsidies on fertilisers to be removed since excessive use of fertiliser has damaged the soil and is a hazard.
Does it know that the green revolution, this country is so proud of, was solely because of induction of chemical fertilisers in the Indian agriculture system. Because go to any village we still use old equipments, bulls, ox and a hal (plough). The only thing that works is fertiliser.
Greenpeace proudly proclaims that because of its efforts more than 1000 insecticides have been banned by the Indian government which were toxic.
Has Greenpeace carried out a survey of insect reproduction rates?, ever seen a locust invasion and what is left behind.
If we do not grow crops (for which we NEED fertilisers) and if we do not protect them from becoming insect food (for which we NEED insecticides) how the f*%# are we going to feed the billion people of this coutry??
Will Greenpeace feed us?
Greenpeace dragged Hindustan Lever to court for inappropriate disposal of toxic waste, it is now dragging the Tatas to courts for making the port, does it know that combined these two companies have done much much more for social welfare that any politician has done. That both companiues employ and feed a huge workforce and their families, that the premier research institution of this coutry the TIFR was started by Tatas, that the city of Jamshedpur runs because of the Tatas, that around 40000 people of Gujarat will be directly or indirectly given jobs because of the Nano project, that this country needs more of such companies??
Greenpeace wants a ban on coal based production of electricity. Has it carried out any surveys on where and at what cost (both financial and environmental) renewable energy based power projects can be set up in India??
It opposes nuclear power plants, by the example that this representative gave us of chernobyl and 3 mile island. Does it know that Nuclear reactors have an efficiency of 70-80%, that they use negligible amount of fuel as compared to coal, are extremely, EXTREMELY safe, are MUCH MUCH cleaner than coal and can cover the power deficit of this country.
Nuclear power plants produce concentrated radio active waste, it is from this waste that radioactive medicines for treating cancers are derived, ever thought of that?? Or will you want to die of cancer?
Does Greenpeace know that the state of Kerela is so rich in uranium ore, which is mixed with the soil, that Geiger counters regularly keep ticking there, but still people walking, sleeping and living on that soil have not been affected by that natural radioactivity?? That there is no increased incidence of cancer in Kerela. Has Greenpeace considered that radioactive waste is disposed of much more safely than e-waste or bio-hazardous waste from hospitals?
Why does Greenpeace target private companies, can it not sue the government for not enforcing the waste disposal laws??
Every chemistry lab uses Chromic acid as oxidizing agent and a cleaning agent for glassware. That chromic acid goes in the drain where it forms hexavalent chromium. This happens in every college, every industry. Anyone who has see "Erin Brokovich" knows what hexavalent chromium is and what it does. ever wanna do something about that?
Why campaign against the Tatas port, does Greenpeace not realize that the builders in mumbai are slowly but surely encroaching on the mangroves. What about them, or the poachers selling tiger skins and ivory and rhino horns in corbette?? They might say its the governments job, but since the government is not doing anything why doesnt Greenpeace do anything about it.
Why target multinationals?? Why target private enterprises?
And who the f*%# is Greenpeace anyways to fiddle with nature?? Does it campaign against the lion for eating the deer. NO!! But hey the lion is meant to do that other wise how will it survive>??? Right??
Well Humans kill Seahorse Crabs "the oldest organism on earth" to derive life saving drugs against cancer. Are we not trying to survive. Why protect Seahorse Crabs. The Humans who get a job and a mode of survival by the Tata port, do they not deserve to "kill their deer" and survive. Why protect Olive Ridleys??
The Tatas port is just another selection pressure for the Olive Ridley Turtles. If they can evolve to travel so many miles in the sea to come and reproduce in India they can also evolve to withstand the Tatas port. They better, if not, well they came and got extinct just like the million other species that have come and gone. If humans are their own destruction, so be it, the orangutan will be the new Human, no worries, time does not stop for anyone, nor does Evolution. So why is the Greenpeace Organization playing with nature?? What does it gain anyways?? I do not know if it is a non profit organization or not, but it thrives on donations, and perhaps money extorted from industrialists, advertisements, selling Greenpeace wares like T shirts and diaries etc. Why does it not distribute T shirts for free, i like collecting freebies!!! i haven't come across free t shirts!!
Greenpeace is definitely a strongly funded institution, but then why is it wasting the money fighting useless cases? Why does it not promote research on new technologies which will help it to ultimately succeed in its goal.
Dont tell me to not use coal, give me a new technology as cheap. Dont tell me to not use my car, give me good public transport solutions.
A lot can be done which makes a lot more sense than what is being done now. So do it.
On the whole Greenpeace is an outfit which is misdirecting its energies, which will eventually not only harm this countries economy but also its people. Its will be much better for this organization to work in new directions and tackle problems at their core. Fighting legal wars will never-ever solve Environmental Problems. It is not the private companies that want to destroy environment. It is the existing technology which is inherently environmental unfriendly.
Only and Only creation of new environmental friendly technologies is a solution to this global problems. It would be much better if Greenpeace addressed this issue rather than creating a ruckus and becoming a farce that this organization is now.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Trip to Lonavala
26/7/2006, a date which no Mumbaikar will ever forget. It was a day when it rained, rained, rained and then rained much much more. It kept on raining, and it just didn't stop. For some it proved fatal, for others fateful, but it proved to be something significant for everyone.
Do events repeat themselves? I read in "The Alchemist" that if a thing happens just once, it will never happen again. But if anything happens twice, it will happen for the third time. The catch here is, we never know if an event is going to occur the second time or not.
And then 26/7 became a thing of past, something which every Mumbaikar has a story about, something to remember every monsoon, something to relive every time Dadar stn and Sion circle floods.
Well anyways:
This Sunday our class decided to go on a trip to Lonavala. Nothing novel in that you might say, after all half of Mumbai and Pune bathes in Bushi dam every Sunday. We were all gonna go on two wheelers, using the old Mumbai-Pune highway, the NH-4. I was gonna meet up the gang at Lonavala since I was reaching there from Mumbai while the others were coming from Pune. This is a trip which has been undertaken by people umpteen number of times, there are two wheeler groups like us every Sunday reaching for Lonavala.
So in such a mundane trip, to such a popular and heavily visited location, using time tested modes of transport, what can possibly go wrong????
Everything under the sun and beyond, as it turned out in our case.
Since I was traveling to Lonavala alone for the first time, I had instructions to report my coordinates every hour, only thing my cellphone was stone dead. Battery completely discharged. None the less I reached Khopoli without anything particular happening. Here I called up home, said I was starting the ghats now. Then I called up the folks at Pune (Ashwin). Apparently one of the girls (Pradnya) scooty had a punctured tire. So that's it, I thought, they are easily gonna be late by an hour. I started the climb and reached Lonavala in 40 minutes. I called up home, then I again called up the Pune folks (Anil this time), puncture repaired, well on the way. Good, seemed as if they would make it pretty soon I thought. Little did I know that two of the other girls (Sonal and Satpreet) had got loose motions (though Satpreet claims to have controlled the urge, which according to me is not the smartest thing to do!!). So I entered a restaurant, did my chai-nashta. Talked to a few trekkers, got to know from the paan wala that all networks except of idea were down in Lonavala. Now what, so I called up Pune folks again (Anil), where are u guys (rkdkbkj,pcr,acp and other nonprintables!!). Well we are still on the road will reach in half an hour guarantee. OK I thought. So I went into A1 chikki. Took out my wallet. Tasted choclate fudge, coconut fudge, different types of chikki till the guy came to know I wasn't gonna buy anything. So I had to leave. Now what, they should be here any minute now, I thought. So I called them up again (Ashwin), now I was seriously running short of chillar to call these people up from the PCO. Well they had been caught by the police without licenses and some (Nilesh) had turned back to get the licenses. DAMN. I decided to go towards Pune and meet them half way. Luckily for me these people were only about 5-10 minutes from where I was waiting. And FINALLY I met these people. Here I came to know that one of the bikes had run out of petrol (Nilesh), one of the other bikes would stall if it went slower than 30kmph (Suraj+Anil), and these people had stopped in between for samosa and drinks and what not. We asked Suraj and Anil to proceed to Bushi dam since their bike was stalling.
We proceeded towards Bushi dam after having tea only to encounter traffic, people and drunk people. Progress was excruciatingly slow. What would have been 5 min drive took half an hour, that too on 2 wheelers. There were just too many people. And all of a sudden every one stopped. Dead stop, not a single vehicle was moving, something had happened ahead. And soon it became apparent as we saw a Skoda stuck into a truck. A fight was going on. Out of nowhere a group of drunks turned up, started shouting and the crowd started beating the driver of the Skoda. He is not going to visit Lonavala ever again that much I am sure of. Soon enough the Skoda moved, we decided to park nearby and just head into the nearest waterfall.
And while we were climbing Pradnya had a great fall, so great in fact that she chipped her front tooth. And two of her upper front teeth came loose. One down. More will go down, don't worry!! Guess who was next?? None other than yours truly, and how!! I went down in style, a drop of 15 feet almost. I was doing hero giri up a water fall and the rock surface was slippery due to all the algae, and all of a sudden I lost grip and I knew then I was going down. And I slid down onto a few rocks, luckily I could break my fall with my legs which in turn got badly bruised. For the rest of the trip I was pretty docile!!
Next to go down was Dhiraj, and if it was possible in more style than me!. His record was a straight 25 feet down another waterfall higher up, his antics were in fact so bad that if he had not broken his fall by grabbing a rock we would have found his half dead body in the parking lot below. So much for stunts!!
Enough accidents we decided. And it was getting late. So we decided to turn back considering Pradnya's now drastically changed oral topology and the rain which was by now pouring. We all were totally soaked, chilled to the bone and facing a ride back to Pune in wet underwears.
However all of us were scattered here and there. When we finally regrouped we saw that one of the bikes was missing (Umakant's)!! OH damn. But then Umakant was also nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did he go?? He was definitely up there on the waterfalls with us. And that's when it struck us that Suraj and Anil had gone to Bushi dam where we never reached. We called up Umakant, he would not pick up the calls, we called up Anil, he would not pick up his calls either (Later we came to know Anil's cell was with Umakant, and as i write this Anil's cell is still with Umakant only). And Suraj's cell was with Pranav (Who was with us and who also had Praveen's cell, point to remember at a later point in the day, not much of which was left btw). So Suraj and Anil did not have their wallets, did not have their cellphones and had a bike which was faulty. Bad.
Anyways we decided to start our return journey then without Umakant, Suraj and Anil. Because of the traffic Nilesh's, Pranav's and Praveen's bikes got separated from the rest of the group. When we finally regrouped where we had tea in the morning (afternoon actually), Praveen and Rajnish were missing. And Praveen's cell and wallet were with Pranav. And Rajnish's cell was also with Ashwin. So these two were totally non-communicable (is that a word?). Well so we had 5 missing!!
Man this trip was turning out to be eventful. Somehow, as if by providential intervention, nothing happened on the highway and we reached Akurdi, still no sign of the missing 5. Here some decided it was better to eat cause we were famished by this time, it was night and drizzling. While we were going to the restaraunt, Modak took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else altogether. We had to wait till he turned up, after we finally called him up and gave the right directions. Here I ran out of petrol. But thankfully my reserve tank was full, so no worries for at least 30 more kms. When we eventually reached the restaurant, it was getting really late and Pradnya wanted to get home fast (obviously her new smile being the reason). Some people did not want to eat, others just wanted to get home. So we left for university. On the way, as if my antics in the day were not enough, I hit a cycle wala who was attempting to cross the road in the dead of the night in front of the car ahead of me, which is why of course I did not see him, well he didn't get hurt, nor did it leave so much as a scratch on my scooter, though I am sure he will have to replace his rear rim and serves him right.
We reached university in another twenty minutes or so. The one restaurant where we went was full so we had to wait, in the meantime me and Ashwin had 3 dabelis each since we were hungry.
Still no sign of the missing 5. When we finally got a table and ordered, out of nowhere Rajnish and Praveen turn up. Apparently they were in front of our whole group and in fact had reached before us. Next the dinner came and so did Suraj and Anil!! They had reached Bushi dam before the Skoda accident and had fun there. And had come back. And just as we were thinking that at least we did not have any really bad accident they told us that they had skid at a speed of 50kmph. It is really a miracle how neither Suraj nor Anil was injured and the bike which was already faulty still worked after the fall, especially when we consider that neither of them had their cellphones or wallets with them!! We now called up Umakant and he finally answered, he had to reach Pune by 7 so he had left us at 5 itself without telling anyone, the bloody dunderhead that he is. And so the missing 5 were accounted for.
While eating we were just recalling all the things that had happened, we had punctured tires, people having loose motions, people falling from waterfalls, breaking their teeth in the process, people vanishing, going missing, going out of contact, accidents, bikes running out of petrol, licenses being misplaced, being caught by police, plus all the riding in the cold, wet conditions that too on empty stomachs, and we all were in a pretty pensive mood thinking that such a hell lot had happened when Pranav said the one thing that shocked me to the core.
Today's date was 26/7/2009.
Do events repeat themselves? I read in "The Alchemist" that if a thing happens just once, it will never happen again. But if anything happens twice, it will happen for the third time. The catch here is, we never know if an event is going to occur the second time or not.
And then 26/7 became a thing of past, something which every Mumbaikar has a story about, something to remember every monsoon, something to relive every time Dadar stn and Sion circle floods.
Well anyways:
This Sunday our class decided to go on a trip to Lonavala. Nothing novel in that you might say, after all half of Mumbai and Pune bathes in Bushi dam every Sunday. We were all gonna go on two wheelers, using the old Mumbai-Pune highway, the NH-4. I was gonna meet up the gang at Lonavala since I was reaching there from Mumbai while the others were coming from Pune. This is a trip which has been undertaken by people umpteen number of times, there are two wheeler groups like us every Sunday reaching for Lonavala.
So in such a mundane trip, to such a popular and heavily visited location, using time tested modes of transport, what can possibly go wrong????
Everything under the sun and beyond, as it turned out in our case.
Since I was traveling to Lonavala alone for the first time, I had instructions to report my coordinates every hour, only thing my cellphone was stone dead. Battery completely discharged. None the less I reached Khopoli without anything particular happening. Here I called up home, said I was starting the ghats now. Then I called up the folks at Pune (Ashwin). Apparently one of the girls (Pradnya) scooty had a punctured tire. So that's it, I thought, they are easily gonna be late by an hour. I started the climb and reached Lonavala in 40 minutes. I called up home, then I again called up the Pune folks (Anil this time), puncture repaired, well on the way. Good, seemed as if they would make it pretty soon I thought. Little did I know that two of the other girls (Sonal and Satpreet) had got loose motions (though Satpreet claims to have controlled the urge, which according to me is not the smartest thing to do!!). So I entered a restaurant, did my chai-nashta. Talked to a few trekkers, got to know from the paan wala that all networks except of idea were down in Lonavala. Now what, so I called up Pune folks again (Anil), where are u guys (rkdkbkj,pcr,acp and other nonprintables!!). Well we are still on the road will reach in half an hour guarantee. OK I thought. So I went into A1 chikki. Took out my wallet. Tasted choclate fudge, coconut fudge, different types of chikki till the guy came to know I wasn't gonna buy anything. So I had to leave. Now what, they should be here any minute now, I thought. So I called them up again (Ashwin), now I was seriously running short of chillar to call these people up from the PCO. Well they had been caught by the police without licenses and some (Nilesh) had turned back to get the licenses. DAMN. I decided to go towards Pune and meet them half way. Luckily for me these people were only about 5-10 minutes from where I was waiting. And FINALLY I met these people. Here I came to know that one of the bikes had run out of petrol (Nilesh), one of the other bikes would stall if it went slower than 30kmph (Suraj+Anil), and these people had stopped in between for samosa and drinks and what not. We asked Suraj and Anil to proceed to Bushi dam since their bike was stalling.
We proceeded towards Bushi dam after having tea only to encounter traffic, people and drunk people. Progress was excruciatingly slow. What would have been 5 min drive took half an hour, that too on 2 wheelers. There were just too many people. And all of a sudden every one stopped. Dead stop, not a single vehicle was moving, something had happened ahead. And soon it became apparent as we saw a Skoda stuck into a truck. A fight was going on. Out of nowhere a group of drunks turned up, started shouting and the crowd started beating the driver of the Skoda. He is not going to visit Lonavala ever again that much I am sure of. Soon enough the Skoda moved, we decided to park nearby and just head into the nearest waterfall.
And while we were climbing Pradnya had a great fall, so great in fact that she chipped her front tooth. And two of her upper front teeth came loose. One down. More will go down, don't worry!! Guess who was next?? None other than yours truly, and how!! I went down in style, a drop of 15 feet almost. I was doing hero giri up a water fall and the rock surface was slippery due to all the algae, and all of a sudden I lost grip and I knew then I was going down. And I slid down onto a few rocks, luckily I could break my fall with my legs which in turn got badly bruised. For the rest of the trip I was pretty docile!!
Next to go down was Dhiraj, and if it was possible in more style than me!. His record was a straight 25 feet down another waterfall higher up, his antics were in fact so bad that if he had not broken his fall by grabbing a rock we would have found his half dead body in the parking lot below. So much for stunts!!
Enough accidents we decided. And it was getting late. So we decided to turn back considering Pradnya's now drastically changed oral topology and the rain which was by now pouring. We all were totally soaked, chilled to the bone and facing a ride back to Pune in wet underwears.
However all of us were scattered here and there. When we finally regrouped we saw that one of the bikes was missing (Umakant's)!! OH damn. But then Umakant was also nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did he go?? He was definitely up there on the waterfalls with us. And that's when it struck us that Suraj and Anil had gone to Bushi dam where we never reached. We called up Umakant, he would not pick up the calls, we called up Anil, he would not pick up his calls either (Later we came to know Anil's cell was with Umakant, and as i write this Anil's cell is still with Umakant only). And Suraj's cell was with Pranav (Who was with us and who also had Praveen's cell, point to remember at a later point in the day, not much of which was left btw). So Suraj and Anil did not have their wallets, did not have their cellphones and had a bike which was faulty. Bad.
Anyways we decided to start our return journey then without Umakant, Suraj and Anil. Because of the traffic Nilesh's, Pranav's and Praveen's bikes got separated from the rest of the group. When we finally regrouped where we had tea in the morning (afternoon actually), Praveen and Rajnish were missing. And Praveen's cell and wallet were with Pranav. And Rajnish's cell was also with Ashwin. So these two were totally non-communicable (is that a word?). Well so we had 5 missing!!
Man this trip was turning out to be eventful. Somehow, as if by providential intervention, nothing happened on the highway and we reached Akurdi, still no sign of the missing 5. Here some decided it was better to eat cause we were famished by this time, it was night and drizzling. While we were going to the restaraunt, Modak took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else altogether. We had to wait till he turned up, after we finally called him up and gave the right directions. Here I ran out of petrol. But thankfully my reserve tank was full, so no worries for at least 30 more kms. When we eventually reached the restaurant, it was getting really late and Pradnya wanted to get home fast (obviously her new smile being the reason). Some people did not want to eat, others just wanted to get home. So we left for university. On the way, as if my antics in the day were not enough, I hit a cycle wala who was attempting to cross the road in the dead of the night in front of the car ahead of me, which is why of course I did not see him, well he didn't get hurt, nor did it leave so much as a scratch on my scooter, though I am sure he will have to replace his rear rim and serves him right.
We reached university in another twenty minutes or so. The one restaurant where we went was full so we had to wait, in the meantime me and Ashwin had 3 dabelis each since we were hungry.
Still no sign of the missing 5. When we finally got a table and ordered, out of nowhere Rajnish and Praveen turn up. Apparently they were in front of our whole group and in fact had reached before us. Next the dinner came and so did Suraj and Anil!! They had reached Bushi dam before the Skoda accident and had fun there. And had come back. And just as we were thinking that at least we did not have any really bad accident they told us that they had skid at a speed of 50kmph. It is really a miracle how neither Suraj nor Anil was injured and the bike which was already faulty still worked after the fall, especially when we consider that neither of them had their cellphones or wallets with them!! We now called up Umakant and he finally answered, he had to reach Pune by 7 so he had left us at 5 itself without telling anyone, the bloody dunderhead that he is. And so the missing 5 were accounted for.
While eating we were just recalling all the things that had happened, we had punctured tires, people having loose motions, people falling from waterfalls, breaking their teeth in the process, people vanishing, going missing, going out of contact, accidents, bikes running out of petrol, licenses being misplaced, being caught by police, plus all the riding in the cold, wet conditions that too on empty stomachs, and we all were in a pretty pensive mood thinking that such a hell lot had happened when Pranav said the one thing that shocked me to the core.
Today's date was 26/7/2009.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Regarding the 2 posts below.
The 2 posts below were written in the month of May 2009.
At a time when I did not have access to internet connection, which stretched for a long time. Thus now that i am back online here they go, to a place where the world can see them, where they rightly belong and not in my hard disk.
Enjoy!!
At a time when I did not have access to internet connection, which stretched for a long time. Thus now that i am back online here they go, to a place where the world can see them, where they rightly belong and not in my hard disk.
Enjoy!!
Who are we kidding anyways??
We live such insignificant lives on this planet. Life has been here for 3.2 billion years, there have been 5 mass extinctions already and multiple ice ages have come and gone. Still all we care is about is a good lifestyle for a life which lasts as long as a second.
We wreck whatever we set our hands on and we contaminate everything. We fear what our actions will do to this planet but we keep on doing the same things, we keep on acting the same way. Thats the kind of hypocrits we are. We are scared of the next katrina, the next tidal wave and the next earthquake. We have absolutely no regards for other species who share this planet with us, we have no regards for this planet either. So i say lets speed up this process, lets pollute, burn, plunder, kill, rape, poach as fast as we can and lets kill ourselves as early as we can. Cause if there is one species which i don't want to preserve, its us.
Life will go on. Please let us not kid ourselves here, we are NOT powerful enough to destroy this Earth. A nuclear holocaust will only kill us and cause some collateral damage, no big deal!!. Its not even gonna tickle earth. Earth has seen much much violent forces, of magnitude which cannot even be imagined by mankind. The kinds which have pockmarked the moon for ever. Please do not be afraid to pollute, the volcanoes pollute much more than we do in much smaller time period, only they are a bit rarer.
We were not here some time back and we are not gonna be here some time later. Evolution will never stop, and new species will populate this planet, after all evolution has all the time in this world. So it is ok to pollute, please feel free to feed toxic chemicals to the rivers and the seas. Before long YOU will be drinking it. Do not feel guilty, or scared for this planet. Do not pray for the well being of this planet. DO NOT try to "save this planet".
This planet was never in any danger.
Its WE who are in danger.
So feel scared for yourselves, pray to your god for your own well being. Try to save yourselves. Cause what you do is not gonna do any damn shit thing to Earth. Only to you.
We wreck whatever we set our hands on and we contaminate everything. We fear what our actions will do to this planet but we keep on doing the same things, we keep on acting the same way. Thats the kind of hypocrits we are. We are scared of the next katrina, the next tidal wave and the next earthquake. We have absolutely no regards for other species who share this planet with us, we have no regards for this planet either. So i say lets speed up this process, lets pollute, burn, plunder, kill, rape, poach as fast as we can and lets kill ourselves as early as we can. Cause if there is one species which i don't want to preserve, its us.
Life will go on. Please let us not kid ourselves here, we are NOT powerful enough to destroy this Earth. A nuclear holocaust will only kill us and cause some collateral damage, no big deal!!. Its not even gonna tickle earth. Earth has seen much much violent forces, of magnitude which cannot even be imagined by mankind. The kinds which have pockmarked the moon for ever. Please do not be afraid to pollute, the volcanoes pollute much more than we do in much smaller time period, only they are a bit rarer.
We were not here some time back and we are not gonna be here some time later. Evolution will never stop, and new species will populate this planet, after all evolution has all the time in this world. So it is ok to pollute, please feel free to feed toxic chemicals to the rivers and the seas. Before long YOU will be drinking it. Do not feel guilty, or scared for this planet. Do not pray for the well being of this planet. DO NOT try to "save this planet".
This planet was never in any danger.
Its WE who are in danger.
So feel scared for yourselves, pray to your god for your own well being. Try to save yourselves. Cause what you do is not gonna do any damn shit thing to Earth. Only to you.
Into the Wild
Its that time of the year again, exam time. Semester 2 is drawing to a close and we have 2 holidays in between the exams... next up is SBMM, 4 credits... perhaps thats why i watched a movie today, titled - Into the Wild.
Its about a guy who gives up civilization and retires into the wild at the age of 23.
Does it make any sense to simply give up civilization? To just leave the life you are living and go...?
Well the movie definitely makes sense to me. And i recommend this movie to all, and if u like it, please tell me. This might sound odd but thats' the way it is. Cause i think that maybe everyone might not like this movie.
Here's the story.
The movie starts with Christopher McCandeless starting his journey into the Alaskan wilderness at the start of winter. Definitely not the best of the time to move in. He finds a bus abandoned in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home, he spends the rest of his short life in that "magic" bus. The movie then flashbacks to his graduation day. His proud parents offer him a new car in place of his perfectly good Datson, he is anyways pissed off the material things in life. He donates his life savings to charity, burns the change, cuts all his identity cards, destroys his social security card and drives to the Arizona desert. Here he abandons his car, burns whatever money he had and walks away, from his old life, from the people he knew, from civilization and perhaps from hypocrisy, deceit, lies, society.
He assumes the new name of Alexander Supertramp. Along the way he meets up new people, 2 "Rubber Tramps", works for a farmer as an combine, elevator operator, spends a few days with an old man living alone. His way leads north, to Alaska and he rows kayaks, walks the plains and freeloads on freight trains and takes rides. No money. He is a voracious reader, and reads Tolstoy etc., Dr Zhivago is one of his favourites.
He always hated the sick, hypocritic codes of the society. He lived his life on the lines of his own codes, he measured other people by them, most failed. But the one person he trusts and respects is his Sister, who narrates the movie. He discovers that his mom is not the legally wedded wife of his father. This makes him and his sister bastard children.
But he is not running away from lies and deceit. He is leaving them behind.
He writes and quotes: "Mans' spirit is made by the experiences he has", "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape", "The simple beauty is just too good to pass up", "A man can only truly become one with himself when he is all alone with nature, with just his hands and his head" . Once he kills a moose for food but is unable to preserve the meat. He labels this event as the "biggest tragedy of my life". In the end he wants to return back to civilization, to his defunct family, but is trapped in the wild because of the weather. He runs out of food and has to eat edible plants, he by mistake eats a poisonous plant which paralyzes his digestive system. He dies of starvation. "everything must be called by its true name", he dies not Alex but Chris. "Happiness is real only if shared".
Things are not what they seem. Sometimes i feel totally lonely when i am with my friends and the hostel is crawling with a 100 guys. You can be totally lonely when in a crowd. Being alone does not mean being lonely. Its like you are best hidden when out in the open. Today i was all alone in my room and the hostel was almost deserted, and i was looking into the woods behind my room and the shadow of the tree was shimmering on the ground like light shimmers on water. It felt really good just listening. Once i was at 12500 feet atop on Gulmarg, all alone with not a souls in sight, and boy could i see far!! Loneliness can strike anytime, it is a weird thing.
A man who has to hide cannot leave the society. He hides but in the society. Only that man leaves who has nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. Seems like Alex was that kinda man.
Sometimes difficult questions need to be asked, and moving "into the wild" seems to be the only answer.
Its about a guy who gives up civilization and retires into the wild at the age of 23.
Does it make any sense to simply give up civilization? To just leave the life you are living and go...?
Well the movie definitely makes sense to me. And i recommend this movie to all, and if u like it, please tell me. This might sound odd but thats' the way it is. Cause i think that maybe everyone might not like this movie.
Here's the story.
The movie starts with Christopher McCandeless starting his journey into the Alaskan wilderness at the start of winter. Definitely not the best of the time to move in. He finds a bus abandoned in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home, he spends the rest of his short life in that "magic" bus. The movie then flashbacks to his graduation day. His proud parents offer him a new car in place of his perfectly good Datson, he is anyways pissed off the material things in life. He donates his life savings to charity, burns the change, cuts all his identity cards, destroys his social security card and drives to the Arizona desert. Here he abandons his car, burns whatever money he had and walks away, from his old life, from the people he knew, from civilization and perhaps from hypocrisy, deceit, lies, society.
He assumes the new name of Alexander Supertramp. Along the way he meets up new people, 2 "Rubber Tramps", works for a farmer as an combine, elevator operator, spends a few days with an old man living alone. His way leads north, to Alaska and he rows kayaks, walks the plains and freeloads on freight trains and takes rides. No money. He is a voracious reader, and reads Tolstoy etc., Dr Zhivago is one of his favourites.
He always hated the sick, hypocritic codes of the society. He lived his life on the lines of his own codes, he measured other people by them, most failed. But the one person he trusts and respects is his Sister, who narrates the movie. He discovers that his mom is not the legally wedded wife of his father. This makes him and his sister bastard children.
But he is not running away from lies and deceit. He is leaving them behind.
He writes and quotes: "Mans' spirit is made by the experiences he has", "It should not be denied that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape", "The simple beauty is just too good to pass up", "A man can only truly become one with himself when he is all alone with nature, with just his hands and his head" . Once he kills a moose for food but is unable to preserve the meat. He labels this event as the "biggest tragedy of my life". In the end he wants to return back to civilization, to his defunct family, but is trapped in the wild because of the weather. He runs out of food and has to eat edible plants, he by mistake eats a poisonous plant which paralyzes his digestive system. He dies of starvation. "everything must be called by its true name", he dies not Alex but Chris. "Happiness is real only if shared".
Things are not what they seem. Sometimes i feel totally lonely when i am with my friends and the hostel is crawling with a 100 guys. You can be totally lonely when in a crowd. Being alone does not mean being lonely. Its like you are best hidden when out in the open. Today i was all alone in my room and the hostel was almost deserted, and i was looking into the woods behind my room and the shadow of the tree was shimmering on the ground like light shimmers on water. It felt really good just listening. Once i was at 12500 feet atop on Gulmarg, all alone with not a souls in sight, and boy could i see far!! Loneliness can strike anytime, it is a weird thing.
A man who has to hide cannot leave the society. He hides but in the society. Only that man leaves who has nothing to hide and nothing to hide from. Seems like Alex was that kinda man.
Sometimes difficult questions need to be asked, and moving "into the wild" seems to be the only answer.
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