This one is a religious sermon.
Death is dancing through this land. Walking hand in hand with cleansing rain, to cleanse away the pain. The Earth is reeling under the weight of a hundred million billion souls mewing and crying and screaming and kicking. But the Mountains do not fret. They do not worry that they are infested by scores of humans. Humans who journey out here in this delicate environment in the hundreds and thousands to crowd these narrow walkways in an effort to be closer to Shiva. Who huddle together like so much cattle and pretend to be brave. Hoping to walk in the footsteps of their God.
Not knowing that Shiva always came alone.
He did not need the support of the rest of his broken race at his back to talk to Mountains. He did not need to beg the Gods for deliverance. Did not need the constant reassurance of an imagined deity to keep himself whole. But we do. And so we crowd to the shrines stacking up like sardines choking the valleys with our filth and cast off plastics. We suck up the thin air breathing it all in, and the land echoes with calls of Shiva and Bhole. While the devotees pile refuse upon nature in metric tonnes all in the name of protecting our thin mask of civilization.
Mountain's are fickle Gods at best, and Monsoons even more prone to changing their minds. How many years have we enjoyed grace and protection while our leaders bungled through their lives? How many years did we manage to get through without a serious mishap. It has to be the grace of Shiva that protected us for so long. It certainly cannot be due to any preventive measures taken by the government, there were none. We enjoyed our period of peace and prosperity only to have our leaders turn it into a time of oppression. And now our peace has ended. The Mountains and the Monsoon have seen us squander the grace that was given to us. They have seen us spit in the eye of the very Gods we worship. And now they will not tolerate our intrusions anymore.
"Begone"
Roared the voice, though the mountain only whispered. With a gentle shrug twenty thousand devotees were stranded without anywhere to go. We call it a landslide and talk about how enough trees were not planted. Talk of how the laws were not followed. The Government ducks and hides under its desk and mumbles incoherently about "Nature's wrath". Nature's Wrath? This is nature's love song. We wont be able to take Nature's wrath. This is a blessing. A warning. Maybe the last warning, maybe a few more are to come. But it is a warning never the less. A wise man once said
"Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self"
Its time we realized that we cannot keep treating our land as personal backyard. We cant keep developing anything and everything that comes to our mind, or follow the whims of any big industry that fills our wallet. We need to start treating Nature with the respect she deserves. We need to start following the environmental laws put in place specifically prevent mishaps like this to the letter and beyond. And we need to open our eyes and see. See how the political parties, those we have entrusted to lead us through this crisis are even now bickering among themselves as to who is to blame. As long as they can find someone to blame to satisfy us. Like a pack of hungry wolves circling its wounded prey, snapping and biting at each other as they decide who gets the king's portion and who gets to sleep hungry. They have cut us up into religions, castes, creeds, regions. They have divided us up over the years all in the promise that we need to be afraid of this big bad world and they will protect us when the time is right. They will guide us when the time comes, We will need them when the time is upon us.
Now the time has come, and they are not up to the task. Too weak, too corrupt, too incompetent to even realize the depth of their mistakes. Now the time has come and our politicians respond by even now embracing their inner corrupt Indian. With Netas putting pressure on rescue workers to rescue their own kin first, with stories of them filling up refugee camps and distributing food in return for promises of vote. Wake up and smell the shit that is raining down on us all. Wake up to realize that we never really needed them at all. That our imagined differences are exactly that, imagined. That it is they who need us. Need us to vote them in power again. So that they can continue the loot and plunder unchecked. Its time to wake up and take charge of our destiny, before it seriously is too late.
Our leaders have failed us. And now Shiva's grace has ended. We are in the final stages of the game and both die just came up with ones.
Snake eyes all the way.
Death is dancing through this land. Walking hand in hand with cleansing rain, to cleanse away the pain. The Earth is reeling under the weight of a hundred million billion souls mewing and crying and screaming and kicking. But the Mountains do not fret. They do not worry that they are infested by scores of humans. Humans who journey out here in this delicate environment in the hundreds and thousands to crowd these narrow walkways in an effort to be closer to Shiva. Who huddle together like so much cattle and pretend to be brave. Hoping to walk in the footsteps of their God.
Not knowing that Shiva always came alone.
He did not need the support of the rest of his broken race at his back to talk to Mountains. He did not need to beg the Gods for deliverance. Did not need the constant reassurance of an imagined deity to keep himself whole. But we do. And so we crowd to the shrines stacking up like sardines choking the valleys with our filth and cast off plastics. We suck up the thin air breathing it all in, and the land echoes with calls of Shiva and Bhole. While the devotees pile refuse upon nature in metric tonnes all in the name of protecting our thin mask of civilization.
Mountain's are fickle Gods at best, and Monsoons even more prone to changing their minds. How many years have we enjoyed grace and protection while our leaders bungled through their lives? How many years did we manage to get through without a serious mishap. It has to be the grace of Shiva that protected us for so long. It certainly cannot be due to any preventive measures taken by the government, there were none. We enjoyed our period of peace and prosperity only to have our leaders turn it into a time of oppression. And now our peace has ended. The Mountains and the Monsoon have seen us squander the grace that was given to us. They have seen us spit in the eye of the very Gods we worship. And now they will not tolerate our intrusions anymore.
"Begone"
Roared the voice, though the mountain only whispered. With a gentle shrug twenty thousand devotees were stranded without anywhere to go. We call it a landslide and talk about how enough trees were not planted. Talk of how the laws were not followed. The Government ducks and hides under its desk and mumbles incoherently about "Nature's wrath". Nature's Wrath? This is nature's love song. We wont be able to take Nature's wrath. This is a blessing. A warning. Maybe the last warning, maybe a few more are to come. But it is a warning never the less. A wise man once said
"Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self"
Its time we realized that we cannot keep treating our land as personal backyard. We cant keep developing anything and everything that comes to our mind, or follow the whims of any big industry that fills our wallet. We need to start treating Nature with the respect she deserves. We need to start following the environmental laws put in place specifically prevent mishaps like this to the letter and beyond. And we need to open our eyes and see. See how the political parties, those we have entrusted to lead us through this crisis are even now bickering among themselves as to who is to blame. As long as they can find someone to blame to satisfy us. Like a pack of hungry wolves circling its wounded prey, snapping and biting at each other as they decide who gets the king's portion and who gets to sleep hungry. They have cut us up into religions, castes, creeds, regions. They have divided us up over the years all in the promise that we need to be afraid of this big bad world and they will protect us when the time is right. They will guide us when the time comes, We will need them when the time is upon us.
Now the time has come, and they are not up to the task. Too weak, too corrupt, too incompetent to even realize the depth of their mistakes. Now the time has come and our politicians respond by even now embracing their inner corrupt Indian. With Netas putting pressure on rescue workers to rescue their own kin first, with stories of them filling up refugee camps and distributing food in return for promises of vote. Wake up and smell the shit that is raining down on us all. Wake up to realize that we never really needed them at all. That our imagined differences are exactly that, imagined. That it is they who need us. Need us to vote them in power again. So that they can continue the loot and plunder unchecked. Its time to wake up and take charge of our destiny, before it seriously is too late.
Our leaders have failed us. And now Shiva's grace has ended. We are in the final stages of the game and both die just came up with ones.
Snake eyes all the way.
