At New
Delhi people are really gasping for breath. It is almost like living in a gas
chamber (though none of us have any prior experience of it). In spite of this
fact, Delhiites seems to be least bothered. Either we are used to it or we have
surrendered to the inevitable faith. The government bodies or respective
authorities don’t give us any confidence. Interestingly, few weeks back Prime
Minister of the country attended the World Climate conference and while
addressing the representatives from other countries announced that by 2070
India will reach net-zero. He claimed to have taken many steps to control
pollution which will have far reaching results. It is not a surprise that this
irony of assuming the role of world savior while our own capital city is
choking, is not lost on the citizens because , it seems ,they have long back
ceased to believe what politicians, even if it is the Prime Minister of the
country, promise. This is not the first time we are facing such an abysmal
condition. It is a hazard by which we
are living for the last many years. Every part of the Governments machinery pretends
to be deeply involved in finding solution for this seriously deteriorating
situation. Experts make comments and provide advice; scientists talk of
innovative methods to tackle this menace; Courts pass diktats and threaten to
take severe actions; bureaucrats blame each other; while political parties are
busy in the game of passing the buck. While all these dramas are enacted the
situation has gone from worse to unlivable.
That is when I read in the news that the situation has improved suddenly.
I was curious to know who wove the magic wand. Then I realised that it is the strong
wind that has facilitated in sweeping away the dangerous particles hovering
above us. It has helped the situation to improve to a great extend giving us
lot of respite. With all those scientific discoveries we made, it was the
natural wind who came as a savior. While we human being condescend about its
supreme ability to control the planet Earth and even beyond, it is the nature that
repeatedly comes to our rescue. Still, for all those wounds the super human
inflict upon the world, the nature has to always take the brunt. In spite of
all those abuses, every time nature intervenes, like the loving mother. I have
added one more line to my prayer- let there be wind always in my city!
“The
impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou,
O uncontrollable!...
As thus
with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me
as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon
the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy
weight of hours has chain’d and bow’d
One too
like thee; tameless, and swift, and proud”
Ode To west
Wind- P.B.Shelley
