A TINY SPECK

A tiny speck

Quite a heap of things have unfolded in the early months of 2020- not to speak of the clusters of death occurring by the hour across the globe. For once, all prattlers of political hues stand overwhelmed by the sheer ‘Magnum Opus” kind of chain events following in quick and unabated sequence. Yes, a little known speck named virus is raging through –outraging the dignity of life –especially of humans. If the question is flung – What did humans do to deserve this? The answer is another quip “What humans have not done?  to the life per se on the planet? If ‘retaliation’ is a LOGICAL reply, then what we witness around is just a polite pointer -painful though, reminding us of action and reaction or cause and effect.

 Look at the swift pace with which continents , political corridors of global power , military might, Economic edifices have all  been gobbled up to a grinding halt, leaving no time or space to gather wits.   All that the man-kind could do was to level charges against Nations by choicest expressions, well articulated to absolve of self from the prospect of guilt in a sheer act of ‘calming’ their own millions lest, should suffer the domestic label of inaction.  Just as humans hastily interfere with Nature to take over geographic space, Corona virus abruptly stormed into continents, societies, homes and humans –all in one stroke. The much professed biotechnology has not been given time to respond –the very same way we disturb every other life to suit our needs.  All our assumed wisdom has been shown its place with no escape whatsoever from this tiny dot.  On the contrary, some of our brethren displayed idiocy – defying protocols of adhering to safety. A SOCIETY WOULD SUFFER MORE BY IDIOTS, THAN BENEFIT BY INTELLECTUALS.   Nature’s tool is tiny but grinds too well escaping all our radars to intercept.  It is a frontal challenge with no single answer or ‘quick fix’ remedy.   Any dispassionate assessment would inescapably fix guilt on humans who destroyed Nature for every progress of theirs  in the name of modernization and even chose to drive away Natives and aborigines to colonize large chunks of land which enjoyed ‘vantage status’ to suit the needs of surveillance.  Power drills to excavate fossil oil from sea bed ruining the neighbor- hood, mining for metals- using massive earth movers, leaving behind mountains of debris choking the ecosystems      [besides dislodging varied life forms that were natural constituents in their frameworks] , nuclear stations  [potent volcanoes – ticking to go off any time]  with  no machinery or mechanism to ‘contain’ the fallout have been avidly pursued with no remorse. 

A sense of greed and urgency pervaded human action in an attempt to establish facilities, irrespective of the size of the work undertaken. My observation is- we ignored every other aspect of nature , such as earth’s composition, the life resources for varied life forms ‘settled’ there; they were hastily unsettled by reorganizing the basic landform, its natural members and such other ‘established’ components, displaying arrogant supremacy on the sheer strength of tools, prioritizing human need. Never did humans bestow attention on to ‘how to rehabilitate the dislodged’; they were discarded to fend themselves – in a hush. Nature had already come in place well before Humans became components. Stated plainly, we humans are the last [junior most] entries on the planet. But we, on the assumed strength of our intellect keep trying to subjugate everything into submission. Despite countless trips across space, seeing the tiny ball earth from distant space, we failed to recognize the even more insignificant dimensions of ours. We keep ignoring the orderly routines of planets and galaxies obeying Nature. We are the lone species to disrupt settings by abrupt and massive onslaught, in every domain- land, sea and space. Abusing all resources, generating massive scales of pollution have been our way of functioning till recently. Nature has been tolerant of our arrogance and reminding us of her ‘taking note’ of our misdeeds. 

We refuse to learn polite lessons but fear only death. How often we have been served warnings in the last year or two? Look at the number of climatic catastrophes let loose on continents one after the other. Even recently, we heard of typhoons, quakes and incessant rains across Indian states, massive forest fires of Amazon, setting at naught life in the social sense of the term. Precious little has been done to restore balance to keep the globe in its near native form. In the larger ambit of things that would ultimately emerge after a natural ‘tapering off’ phase of the virus, the same agencies would throw their sale counters –open for trade in arms, cosmetics, preserved food, fuel, acquisition of labour- physical /intellectual in exchange for material or know-how in the name of mutual co-operation, shelving the virus and its thought in safe chest – artificially shaking hands in display of warmth. 

All trade options hinted or hidden here have driven selfish agenda to the point of disastrous retaliation from Nature, in a massive blow; it  has set at rest any claims of human  supremacy by wealth, technology, communication , military power, sophisticated weaponry,  styles of living and such extravaganza, which chose to distance themselves from  the operative principles of  natural coexistence.. When hit by retaliation from nature, we have no cover to hide behind. 

The virus is perhaps the final reminder for us to keep off  Nature’s arrangement. Have we ever bothered to understand the safe ways of life adopted by old tribes and aborigines? Instead, we look down upon them as ‘primitive’. We certainly are ‘developed’ but not ‘evolved’ to co-exist with nature.   Time we respected Nature’s orderliness, disbanding our ego signifying the dignity of human life.      Pardon if I sound unrealistic.    

     Prof .   K.RAMAN      [done on    1 April-2020]