Turning heavens into hell

               When our forefathers coined the concept of yatras, what they didn’t foresee was the alteration of the real motive -- to bridge the gap between man and nature and bring them closer to its latent beauty. Man did go closer to the nature, but only to spoil it’s magnificent beauty.

    There are three major annual yatras namely Vaishno Devi, Amarnath and Machail. These attract a lot of followers. Since its takes a lot of time to reach the destination, there is an arrangement of food and drinks which is referred as ‘langar’. This is organised both at the formal as well as an informal level. Then arises the big problem!! Any guess? Yes. its disposing the waste generated.

Classifying the waste generated, we can categorise it in two groups,
    Solid Waste: Due to absence of proper disposal system, waste is dumped in the open. Because of low temperature and at high altitude the decomposition process is relatively low and all the waste, including food material and plastics keep accumulating. Many a times Amarnath Shivlingam isn’t visible as it is submerged in the sea of plastic bags of parshaad. Even the pious Baanganga is not spared. The devotees have polluted by dumping waste materials resulting it in becoming quite an eyesore.

    Liquid Waste: Just like solid waste, there is no proper disposal of liquid waste also. People are forced to use open spaces and water bodies flowing by as toilets. Even though in Amarnath shrine, efforts have been made to recycle the liquid waste but the story isn’t the same everywhere. There is discoloration of the water bodies and pollution level have increased at an alarming level.
Defeating the real motive, humans have spoilt the pious and sacred religious destinations through reckless activities and irresponsible attitude.
The government as well as disciples should not contribute in destroying the natural beauty of these sacred places. Eco-friendly dumping options like compost pits and treatment plants should be in place and plastics in the form of bottles and tetra packs should be completely banned. In addition to this, recycling plants should be set up.

Looks like humans have forgotten that the earth does not belong to us. Instead, we belong to the earth. Gods will not descend from heavens to clean up the mess we have created. We only have to transform the hell into heaven again.

A random thought..

No! not sometimes but most of the times we tend to take our mothers for granted...

No matter what, we know that she will sacrifice her own beauty sleep to ensure that we aren't late for the day.

Even if she isn't well, she would still make meal of our choice irrespective of the time and difficulty factor.

She would call us again and again to ensure that we have taken our food and instead of asking her the same, we play the trump card of being busy!

Try hiding a secret from her and through your fishy smile plus her super 'mother-instincts' she will exactly know what is cooking in your life!

She would sense that somewhere something is wrong even when we try our best to put up the all-is-well mask. Still we would pretend of being more smart than her.

The day she is seriously unwell or we are away from her, we realize her importance.We realize that we are actually a robot without battery minus her.

Ignored scenic beauty of the winter capital

People of Jammu have time and again leveled allegations against the State government of Jammu & Kashmir for being biased. This is irrespective of the political background of the government at the helm of affairs. Similarly, when it comes to tourism, Jammu has lagged behind. This is not due to absence of enough tourist attractions but due to the fact that it has never been given importance.

The argument that Jammu & Kashmir government has failed to boost tourism in the region is evident from the fact that there isn’t even mention of some of its picturesque destinations on the official tourism website. Political games are considered the culprit behind this bias. Kashmir has always been an agenda for the politicians for their own selfish reasons and Jammu has taken a backseat in almost every aspect. They have ignored beauty that lies beyond the Valley.

Places like Mantalai and Shudh Mahadev are potential tourist hot spots, but they lie unexplored in the interior parts of Jammu region. Both the places have religious significance and are extremely beautiful and closer to the nature. But due to negligence on part of the government and failure to develop them, they remain an untapped resource. Not many tourists are seen there even in the peak seasons.

On one hand, government has developed infrastructure in Kashmir which is marred by terrorist activities, while on the other it has failed to upgrade even the existing infrastructure in comparatively peaceful Jammu region. The tourists are unaware about various destinations in Jammu. Hotels, transportation facilities aren’t provided to them which hamper their travelling expedition.  The government should give equal opportunities to both the capitals to grow and expand which would benefit the state’s economy as a whole.

More Patience?

Salman Khurshid while answering a question said, "I think much as we feel upset and concerned and hurt by what is happening on the border and the LoC, I think we have to show some perseverance, some patience and some fortitude to ensure that we don't play into the hands of the forces that want to create trouble"

Dear External Affairs Minister of India,

"Some patience...Some fortitude!"

Exactly I totally agree with you! Nothing on this earth should stall India Pakistan's peace process. I mean how does it even affect the country?

How does it matter if jawaans are ambushed and killed while saving your nation?

How does it matter if an eight year old loses her father because his crime was that he was taking an early morning walk?

How does it matter if people on your border are continuously under a threat?

How does it BLOODY matter to you when you just have to sit around the table and exchange pleasantries and your defence personnel and citizens fight every day for survival!

 Yes, save your diplomatic alter ego just to please the nation that even your President acknowledges is the CULPRIT!

When will you realize that you haven't been elected to give foremost chance to your neighbour and ignore your immediate family!!!

Quote for the day

A quote in Hindi to remove the number i don't like...

             k mushkil dil ke armaan azmaati hain....

            svapan ke parde nigahon se hatati hain....

                  hoslaa mat haar gir ke ohh musaafir....

                       k thokre insaan ko chalna sikhati hain...

With that thought in heart and mind...it's night!

Journey so far..

9:30----2:00 

Lazy mornings... forceful post-mortem of newspapers ... classroom lunch sessions ... mid-time 'fauji special' chai breaks ... boring communication lectures ... gossip session..

And the clock strikes 2:00

With "Yes .. All of you all..."  arrives, The Daily time :0Long faces ... accelerated thoughts ... awkward eye contacts ... fishy smiles .... unexpected (yes, it’s a decent word!) combinations ...  the super fast minute hand ... and the constant reminder about the deadline.

...In short, my two months at IIMC. 

What a journey it has been up till now! Amazing ... Not just highs but some 'gorge'ous lows too. Lessons learnt here have outnumbered those learnt during graduation. Such a pleasure it has been. 

And still there is so much to learn! Well isn't it all about the cyclical process of learning, unlearning and  relearning!!

                   

Gully Cricket

In the present world when everything has developed,cricket too followed the trail. It has metamorphosed, adopted many new forms but 'gully cricket' always remains a hit amongst the youth. 

Even if cricket progressed to become a systematically organised game, still somewhere the real roots of the game lie in gully cricket. Almost all well established cricketers have visited these lanes in their life. History is witness to this fact that the real cricketers are born in the ‘gullies’.

Gully cricket is all about virtual wickets, rubber balls, light bats, flexible overs and limited space. But due to factors like urbanisation and infrastructure expansion, gully cricket, which was synonymous to small cities like Jammu has taken a back seat. 

The lovely rejuvenating game is slowly loosing its worth in the fast-paced world.

While talking to a few cricket enthusiast, I tried to find out the reasons behind the downward trend in the sport. Though people claim cricket as their passion, but blame time and pressure from work as the roadblocks. For students, there is immense pressure from parents and competition in the peer group. They have less time. Due to unavailability of space and save time and energy, they have switched to online gaming.A college student feels that parents non-supportive attitude is also a hindrance for youngsters to indulge in gully cricket. Parents usually brand it as waste of time.

Due to such factors, the followers of the game have commenced a downhill journey. According to me, gully cricket is also part of our heritage. We should balance it in our daily schedule.