Japan Tsunami & Earth quake – A postscript

The state of affairs of Japan today haunts me day in and day out. More than half the population in the affected areas must have vanished in fraction of seconds. What does the transformation from first world to third world in two days teach us?

Why God has chosen this fate to the Japanese People. Have they done anything wrong? Was their destiny or Karma is the cause of this. If this is the result of Karma, what is the meaning of Life? Is there any Guru or Mystic out there to explain this in simple words without using Vedic jugglery?

Statistics about Japan is very impressive. A major economic power, and world's third-largest economy It is a developed country with very high living standards. Japan has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world and the third lowest infant mortality rate if we do not consider such earthquakes and tsunami.

In spite of all this today reports say thousand of people spent days without food, water and electricity, they stand in queue for hours to get drinking water! They are failing terrifically to contain nuclear leakage and a becoming a big threat to the neighboring countries also. A good example of technology developed by human being is running out of their control.

What lessons do we need to learn from this?

We have exploited this planet endlessly. We constructed sky scrapers on river and sea beds. Our comfortable life and longing for energy forced us to make nuclear power plants without any accepted wisdom. We dig deep into the earth to drain more and more liquid gold.

Instead of embracing the world human beings are trying to conquer it by all means. Science and technology has become a means to use everything in the planet for the benefit of humans and not for the benefit of the planet where we dwell. We think this world is only for the use of human beings. Every creature in this world has a right to live not only the humans. We conveniently forget this.

Human greed is increasing day by day. Money has become everything in life. We started believing that economic prosperity is everything. This Tsunami swept away all the economic prosperity within second.

Human population is increasing in double fold. AS per UN human population will touch 9.6 billion by 2030, is it possible for our planet to address this kind of human population’s aspirations? Are there enough resources in this planet to accommodate such a massive population explosion? Is there any meaning in talking about ecology and land conservations without controlling human population?

I remember the Malthusian theory of population I studied in senior secondary school. I am now strained to believe that Malthusian theory is coming true and nature is reacting to human senselessness in a cruel manner.

I am scared to believe that we are heading towards more and more natural disasters and rage in the coming years.

A Tribute to RAJI

She joined with me when I was 27 years old.

We travelled together for 15 years and then she decided to part ways and chose the road to eternity.

When I look back, fifteen years just passed like 15 days, too short a journey together. We laughed and cried together, We looked through the window panes and enjoyed the prospect. We took a nap on each other’s shoulders when exhausted. She showed me beautiful dreams and often made me realize the facts of life. It was indeed a journey to remember till the end of my time.

“ I am scared, I want you to be with me henceforth”. She told me one mid February after noon in 2002. I was working in a Japanese multinational Company in Bangalore then and she was in my home town. That was a lucrative job but I felt if she wants me with her nothing else should bother me. I resigned my job and went to her.

Cancer was spreading its arms slowly, but she used to smile at me as if nothing happened. She was in pain, but she did not show that pain. Occasionally she whispered, “don’t worry, I will be with you”. I realized the meaning of that only after her departure.

I stayed with her on and off in the hospital for eight months. The hospital room has become our world. Sometimes she talked a lot, about children and about her childhood. And then for days together we did not talk much. She was in her own world, perhaps she was going through a rewind of her life. She talked about her old friends from Zakir Husain College Delhi. Her study vacation to Mussoorie.

I learned that silence is also a beautiful way of communication. Her eyes spoke to me more intensely than words. Those were the moments I re discovered her.

Of late she has developed intense pain and one night she complained to me for the first time. She said “ I cannot tolerate this pain” I realized my helplessness. I could not do anything. I just hold her hands, and she said “I am going”.

We will have to start morphine now, Dr Mohan told me, “we want to help her to have a peaceful death, that’s all what we can do now”. Come what may I did not want her to suffer pain.
Death and dying started haunting me while she laid in a state of un consciousness, her eyes closed without suffering any pain. I started smelling the smell of death.

On one Wednesday evening she took a different route and continued her ultimate journey. I need to complete my rest of the journey alone. Children will be there with me for some more time and then it is a lonely journey.

Once in hospital bed she told me “ don’t worry I will be with you” and that always echoed inside me and every time I needed I felt the presence.

One of my friend sent Mary Elizabeth Frye’s poem to console me and I truly believe she is out there just a call away.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there ……. I do not sleep…
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn’s rain
Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am the dew flecked grass at dawn
Where tranquil oceans meet the land
I am the foot print in the sand
To guide you through the weary day
I am still there…. I will always stay

When you wake up to mornings hush
I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circles
I am the stars that shine at night
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there …… I do not die…..