The Dwindling Lakes and the Floating Plants in Bangalore

Bangalore is a city of gardens, blessed with a salubrious weather ranging between 12 Degree Celsius in the winters and 32-35 Celsius in the summer months. This heavenly weather has been changing in recent years, with winters temperature not going below 15 Celsius and summer temperature shooting up to 39 Celsius. The air-conditioned city is changing fast into a deep furnace in the summer months, beating even the temperature in Chennai, a usually very hot city.

Bangalore does not have a river running around it as in the other cities in India, like Hyderabad or Chennai or Calcutta. It is a city of small lakes, hundreds of them, man-made, constructed during the 16^th century, when the city was built by its ruler, Kempe Gowda, by damming the natural valley system available in the topography, with the help of bunds, mud embankments.

In the rainy season, especially in the South-East monsoon, from June to October, the city gets 65% of its rainfall. The lakes fill in and the excess water spills downstream into the next lake in the cascading system of reservoirs. The undulating terrain of Bangalore, with its hills and valleys is well suited for such a system of lakes to be developed.

Unfortunately, urban development had taken its toll and the lakes disappeared speedily from the surface of the city. Many were converted into playgrounds, hockey stadium, football stadium, golf course, central market, residential colonies and lay outs. Some 600 and odd lakes came down to 280 in 1960s and then to 51 in 1985s and to only 17 good lakes in 2000.  

Of the lakes left, the major ones are Ulsoor lake, Sankey tank, Bellandur lake, Lalbagh lake, Hebbal lake and Madivala lake. Millions of rupees have been spent on Ulsoor lake, Lalbagh lake and Hebbal lake to make them presentable once again. Bellandur lake, being highly polluted, is sending forth froth, which spreads on to the surface of the nearby roads. Last week it hit the newspapers again as fire was seen to be coming from the centre of the lake!

And to come to Madivala lake, near my place, though money has been spent in rejuvenating it, storm water drain that carries sewage in it, is let loose into the lake and it breeds weeds and clogs the lake. The worst weed that grows at a phenomenal rate is the water hyacinth, called “Eichhornia Crassipes.” It is a native of Amazon basin in South America.

This pest seems to have been introduced to India, especially Calcutta by the British and it has spread to the Kerala and other places in the country, including Bangalore. It blocks the sunlight, starving oxygen to the other plants and fishes, killing them in the process. It makes boating impossible.  

Hyacinth is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant with leaves floating above the water surface, with bulbous stalks. It is an invasive plant, overpowering the local plants by its abundance. It is the fastest growing plant, adopting vegetative reproduction, by way of stolons or runners. It is supposed to grow two to five meters a day and double its population in two weeks.

No wonder, when I go for morning walks to the lake, the weed that is confined to one corner, in a week’s time engulfs almost the whole of the lake. Then one evening I had gone that side and I witnessed forest department officials battling with it armed with JCB (excavators) machines to scoop up the weed from the lake and deposit it on the banks in huge mounds.

Two JCBs were precariously positioned and a few men were down in the water, with water coming to their knees, pushing the floating weeds towards the JCB with some poles; another man in a boat was also pushing these weeds towards the machine with a pole and with the whole side surface of the boat.

In the disturbed waters, but sitting pretty on the leaves of water hyacinth were birds, hundreds of egrets, pecking on the fish; also, were the purple moor hens, busy hunting insects and small fishes; in between one can see the dull brown of the paddy birds, silently sitting and catching their prey. Occasionally a white throated kingfisher would fly past trying to swoop on a fish or two.

It is a battle. The forest officials were confident that they will be able to remove the weeds within another three months and then the monsoon will take over. When the rain comes, the floating weeds are swept off to the next lake and then to the next and so on and find their own grave. It is only when the summer comes and the water level is reduced, hyacinth takes over and profusely grows covering the whole surface of the lake.

Till then it is an ongoing battle for the forest department against the profuse growth of the mighty floating weed, water hyacinth, equipped with JCBs and a few men with their bare feet and hands.

I wished them all the best and returned with a heavy heart, first to see the weed covering almost the whole of the lake, spoiling the waters and then to see the plight of the men in the waters struggling for hours on end for a small wage, pushing the weeds towards the machine.

A poor country, but fast developing into an urbanised country, with all the ills such a development would bring. Can we stop the development? No! 

Can we stop the misery of human beings caught in the rut? May be yes, if we raise our voices loud enough against such inhuman working conditions. 

Lets spread the awareness of such horrible and pitiable working conditions in this fast developing country. 

What Is Wrong With These Men?

I have been wondering over this question, because I see in pictures in newspapers and other media reports, men in Tamil Nadu politics, perpetually in an attitude of worship. Both hands folded in the front in an act of supplication, bent slightly forward from waist onwards, head bowed and eyes respectfully cast on the ground, as in an act of worship, around a woman!

I am perplexed and wonder what is wrong with these men in Tamil Nadu? Not that they are in this postures in front of their wives, who are also women. In their own houses and with their own women, these men are like lions. They roar, twist their moustaches with their fingers, and demand respect and service.

The oft heard remark in Tamil Nadu cultural settings, especially from the parents of the bridegroom is, ‘how can he cook at home? He is born a boy!’ The male species of human beings in Tamil Nadu are not supposed to cook! That is demeaning for a man to engage in, especially at home! It is the woman’s job! How can you expect a man to do that?

The other remark which men in Tamil Nadu are supremely famous for uttering, especially to their wives is, ‘I wear the pants in this house.” That is supposed to mean that the husband is the man of the house and the wife better recognise her subordinate role in the marriage and behave. Her place is strictly in the kitchen.

It is almost like the male lion in a pride, which will not hunt its food, for the females, the lionesses of the pride join and hunt, but the first morsel of the bite will have to go to the male! That is the beauty of a lion, male, who presides over the pride of females and bosses over them and has the best served to him on the platter. Same usually holds good for the men in Tamil Nadu.

So, what really happens in the political world, where the same men, who are lions in their respective homes, bend forward with folded hands in an act of supplication and worship to a woman in power?

Is it a remnant of Shakti worship, where goddess Shakti is feared and worshipped for her ferocity and power and her willingness to give boons to her devotees?

One somehow tried to justify in this manner and in other ways, the Tamil Nadu Members of Legislature (MLAs) doing this obeisance to the then Chief Minister Jayalalitha, respectfully called ‘Amma,’ ‘mother,’ by everyone. Alas, she is no more. After all, when she was alive, she was a power to reckon with.

But, in a minute, after Amma died, they started doing this obeisance to ‘Chinnamma!’ This ‘little amma,’ literal translation, aka Sashikala is no other than the one who served Amma during her political sojourn, loyally, almost like a servant. Now these MLAs switched gear and have started to worship this lady!  Really, what is wrong with these men?

Leave alone Chinnamma, now a new figurine has emerged, in Deepa, the niece of Jayalalitha, who has thrown her hat in the ring, as it were, and Paneerselvam, the present caretaker Chief Minister, and his coterie are seen in the oft seen attitude of worship around this girl, a mere straddling in political world! How do you explain this?

Is it money, power and position that makes these me bend backwards and forwards, and lie prostrate in an act of worship before these Ammas and Chinnammas? Are they so spineless and cowardly in front of power and authority? Or are they just greedy for the opportunity to make money under the protection of these goddesses and escape with their lives? What is it?

Money is a big attraction, I am sure. Politicians thrive on corrupt money and Jayalalitha was no exception. This has been proved by the Supreme court decision, which came in just a few days back indicting Jayalalitha and her coterie for having made illegal money during their regime. Fortunately for Jayalalitha, she is dead and managed to hoodwink even the Supreme Court of India!

The same cannot be said about Chinnamma, who along with her two other partners, has been interned in the Bangalore jail just last evening. Is it for this corrupt money and the power that comes along with it, that the men, MLAs in Tamil Nadu, are prostrating before the powers that be?

Sashikala has cleverly cornered all the property and money of the dead Jayalalitha and is in charge of the party money. No wonder these men are falling at her feet now.

Position of authority as a Minister in the cabinet or even a Chairman of a Board, and State Public Sector Units, means power and means to milk the perennial cow, the State budget meant for schemes. Proximity to the Leader, the Chief Minister, means an MLA or a party worker can land in one of these lucrative posts and make money and enjoy all the perks associated with the post.

Is it for this these men sell of their dignity and self-respect and lick the dust in front of these Ammas? What a sad scenario for Tamil Nadu. Not that it is any better in the other parts of the country, but still it is not this bad.

One does remember the pressure brought on Sonia Gandhi to become the President of National Congress after the assassination of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi. Main reason, she held the keys to the party funds and also carried the legacy of the dynasty established by Indira Gandhi. All that the others have to do is to just stay in the shadow of this legacy and milk the cow and enjoy the loot.

I am hoping that one day this scenario will change and people all over India will not just be pleased with the crumbs these politicians throw under their table and really elect some honest and worthy leaders as their political representatives and behave with dignity required of a human being, both inside their homes and outside in the political arena.  

God bless Tamil Nadu and God bless India! 

"Water, Water, Everywhere!"

This time, I think I got it right. Like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner I shouted but with glee, ‘water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink!’ I was standing mesmerized at Dhanuskodi, viewing the vast swathe of low tide, which brought in the sea waters of Bay of Bengal to my feet.

Dhanuskodi is a ghost town. It was wiped away completely in an immense cyclone that hit the area in December 1964. Bay of Bengal, the sea that laps on the eastern border of India and Indian ocean that covers the southern side of the country, which derives its name from the country India, meet at this point in Dhanuskodi. It lies in Pamban island connected to Mandapam in the main land by Pamban bridge. Dhanuskodi is the last point of land in India as it tapers towards the island Sri Lanka, which takes shape from that point.

Traditions have that Rama, an ancient king of India from the north, the hero of Ramayana, an epic poem of ancient India, came in hot pursuit of Ravana, who had kidnapped his wife, Seetha and held her captive in the Sri Lankan island. His friends built a bridge at Dhanuskodi for his troops to cross over to Sri Lanka.

                                                            

                                                               

                                                                People taking a dip in the ocean, Rameswaram                                                                  temple

Rameswaram, the town that lies in Pamban island, is one of the four most important pilgrimage centres for the Hindus, the others being Badrinath in the north, Puri in the East, Dwaraka in the West. This cultural unity defined the country India, though it was never a unified country under a single ruler until the time of the British. The closest geographically to today’s India was under Aurangzeb, the last powerful king of the Mughal Empire.

My interest in the place was not definitely religious. But that didn’t deter my companion taking a wistful plunge in the sea and observing all the rituals connected with it, including 22 buckets of water poured over her head as theerthams and emerging completely satisfied like a cat that has got its stomach full with good milk!

I was fascinated by the story of the cyclone that hit Dhanuskodi. A low pressure that built near Andaman and Nicobar Islands in Andaman sea, east of Tamil Nadu in India, on 18^th December 1964, developed into a cyclone of mammoth proportions. By 23^rd December it developed into a hurricane with a wind velocity of 240 km/h (150 mph) and struck the then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) near Mannar, causing extensive damage and loss of life of over 2000 people.  

On the Indian side Pamban island bore the brunt. Dhanuskodi lay almost at the tip of the island on Indian side as it tapers towards Sri Lanka and on the other side it was Mannar of Ceylon. Dhanuskodi was completely submerged under the deluge. Huge tidal waves of 25 feet (7.6 meters) washed away everything that was standing in the place.

A passenger train carrying 110 people and 5 railway staff got completely washed away, killing all the passengers. The train was coming from the mainland through Pamban station to Dhanuskodi station. The time was 11 pm and the train was just minutes away from reaching Dhanuskodi station. Huge tidal waves hit the train and it was seen no more. Today all that is left of the train are some twisted metal of the train tract, a witness to that gory night of disaster.  

The Pamban bridge that was connecting Pamban island with the mainland at Mandapam on the east coast of Tamil Nadu got washed away as well. The bridge was rebuilt only in 2012.

Dhanuskodi was declared by the Government of India as a place unfit for human habitation. I was reminded of some of the Old Testament towns, which were destroyed in war and prophesied that they will never again be inhabited by people. One such place was Jericho. Many of the towns mentioned in the Old Testament still stand, but not Jericho. It is a dead city. So also Dhanuskodi.

We travelled in minibuses to the ghost town and these buses full of people were winding their paths in and around the low tide area, over puddles of sea water left behind by the tide, with twists and some dangerous turns. I was reminded of the Jeep Safari on the sandy deserts of Dubai, where the drivers took their vehicles over the sand mounds and would suddenly sweep down giving the passengers a thrill or fear depending on the person concerned.

The sea itself looks so calm and quiet and innocent. It is nicknamed as the ‘lady sea,’ especially during such low tide. The present day Dhanuskodi looks deserted, except for some 20 odd families, living there in shacks, selling pebbles and shells and some ‘nimbu pani’ (lemonade).

The best was the lemonade was made with water drawn from a well simply dug in the ground close to the shop and sweet water to drink in a place surrounded by sea water. Amazing! 

                                                                The well!

Remnants of a church is seen, so also a water tank and the post office–cum– railway station. A school lies in shambles. A once thriving town has been reduced to an uninhabitable place.

However, all hopes are not lost. A new road is almost complete, connecting Dhanuskodi with Rameswaram. This is being constructed at a cost of Rs. 5 crores financed by the central government. After almost 50 years, once more the town will be connected to civilisation.

It might be built again, you never know.

Hope, after all, is the beacon of life!

Pain and the Universe

One certainty in an uncertain world, they say, is death. Witnessing sickness, suffering, old age and death, was what drove the young prince Siddhartha to renounce the world, sit under a Bodhi tree and eventually get enlightenment. The one sure thing in the world is suffering and the associated pain.

Hinduism teaches that people are suffering because of the sinful deeds they had committed in the previous births. That is the karma theory. These deeds or karma must be paid by an individual by taking another birth, by suffering that is due to him or her and working to overcome it out by doing good deeds, according to the strata of society in which he is born and placed in the present birth. That is Varnashrama Dharma and it led to Hindu Caste system.

Gods and goddesses of Hinduism are considered above suffering and pain, because it is held that being gods, they are above sin and karma theory. It applies only to the human beings. Hindu philosophers warn humans that they should not see the lives of gods, sinful or not, and copy it, because then karma will catch up with them and not the gods!

Under the Advaita philosophy of Hinduism, that is propagated in the West by popular Swamis, god is morally neutral and is above good and bad. God is Paramatma, the Supreme Soul, which is an effulgent, blissful state, which is the goal for human beings to achieve.

Atma, the soul of every individual human being, will at the end, after having paid the price for all its accumulated bad karma over thousands of births, by suffering and doing good deeds, gets released from the world and the cycle of birth and death, merges with the supreme Soul. This is the mukti, the final release, which a Hindu would look forward to in life.

God, for a Hindu, is Ananda, blissfulness, and above good and bad, untouched by sorrow and suffering, which afflicts the human beings.

Buddha, who broke away from the caste system of Hinduism, kept the concept of karma and payment through suffering by individual human beings. He taught that suffering itself is caused by desire and attachment to material things in the world and hence desire for these things should be shunned.

The root cause of suffering, according to Buddha, is desire. On annihilating that desire, one can attain peace and tranquillity and be above the world of suffering and sickness. To achieve this impossible feat, he laid before his followers, the Golden Middle path and that of the life of a monk, without any attachment to the worldly things.

Islam does not believe in karma theory. One God Allah, though merciful, is a taskmaster. One must engage in many rituals, five times of worship or namaz, Friday worship at the Mosque, practice charity, go on pilgrimage to Haj, and show obedience to Hadiths, the traditions of the prophet; all are emphasised for being a good Muslim.

Allah is the final judge and he will admit a Muslim into heavens, based on his/her good deeds and obedience to the rules and regulations laid down in the Quran and the Hadiths. However, one can never be sure of one’s place in heaven, for it is left to the Judge, Allah.

Under Islam also there is no question of Allah suffering any pain, for he is the God and above all these sufferings, which afflict only human beings. It will not touch the almighty God, Allah.

So, the question is, can God undergo suffering? Does He know what pain is? Does He go through the emotional turmoil that we go through? Does He know what it is to lose a loved one to death? Disease and death and suffering, do these human afflictions touch God? Is He sensitive to these? These are some of the questions that arise in my mind as I meditate on these matters.

Christianity deals with these questions differently. God is looked upon as a Father, a personal God, who cares for His creatures, especially human beings, men and women, whom He created in His own image and entrusted the governance of the world He created in their hands.

God is Almighty and definitely above sickness and death and disease; otherwise He will not be a God. But, God of a Christian, is a God of emotions and feelings and He expressed His pleasure or displeasure through His devoted followers. For example, when God saw that wickedness had increased on earth and that every intent of the thought of men was evil, He regretted that He made man. Genesis 6:5.

Jesus Christ, the explicit revelation of God Himself in human form, was a man of emotions, when he lived on earth. He cried at the death of his friend Lazarus. John 11:33,35. He got angry, when he saw money lenders and other traders made the Temple of God, the ‘house of prayer,’ into a place of business, ‘den of robbers.’ Luke 19:46.

He knew what it is to be hungry, experienced thirst, and was tempted by circumstances and the Devil in all the ways as we are being tempted today. Jesus knew what it is to suffer want and deprivation and face desertion by his own disciples.

Jesus himself, personally went through suffering and death at the hands of his distractors, the Jewish religious authorities of that time. He was whipped, and his lacerated body was nailed to a cross. He died on the cross, suffering the agony of crucifixion under Roman governors.

God, a Christian would say, knows suffering and pain. God the Father had to see His Beloved Son, being crucified. It must have pained His heart. Still that was His plan, to sacrifice His Son, to pay the price for the sins of human beings. He removed the suffering of mankind, through the suffering of His own Son.

Anyone who believed that Jesus Christ died for his or her own sins, regretted and repented the sins committed, would be saved, said a loving God. John 3:16. That was the path of salvation for human beings He had provided in His Son. No one need to carry his or her sins and try to work it out by doing good deeds any longer. Jesus has done that job of paying the penalty for sin. All that one needs is to believe in Jesus. Hebrews 10:9,10, 12.

That is not the end of the story. The dead Jesus rose again on the third day! Resurrection gave humanity a hope, a hope beyond the grave or cremation. A hope that we will also rise alive at the end of the Age, and inherit eternal life, if only we had believed in Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14.

What a hope! And this hope comes out of suffering and death and seemingly destruction. But Jesus Christ conquered it all. No more pain and sickness or sin and death, but eternal life, through Jesus Christ. God Himself will wipe away all our tears. Revelation 21:4.  

A God who knows suffering and permitted that suffering to redeem the world of sinners with bad karmas, paying the price Himself, taking the burden on Himself, and extending eternal life to all who believe in Him, would be the real God.

Happy are those who trust in Him, for they will inherit eternal life.