Menace of Population explosion in India

Author- Manoj Kumar

Modern India is a country of billion plus people. Since Independence the population of India has almost trebled now and is set to cross the population of China in the coming decades. Even after so much of emphasis on the family planning, the growth in our population is still one of the sharpest in the world. India is a democracy and because of this, no stringent laws could be framed in order to check this rapid growth in population as China did where one couple can have only one child with only some relaxations like in case the first child is handicap or extremely feeble to survive. Due to the various political compulsions, no political party, national or regional dared to raise this issue, barring the one done at the time of emergency slapped by Iron lady Indira Gandhi when she was the prime minister of India. She paid the price of this by losing the general elections for the first time in the hands of the opposition.
Needless to say, almost eighty percent of problems related to poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, sky-rocketing price rise, regionalism, religious fundamentalism and corruption are as a result of the population explosion we see here in India. Resources are scarce and ever galloping population is absorbing them very rapidly leaving nothing for the future generations. Price rise is at such an extreme that people are not even able to get two ends meal. They are forced to remain empty or with half- filled stomach due to non-affordability of the food items. There are several people in the remote and under- developed areas in several districts of our country where people starve off every year due to uncertain behavior of the weathers and the dependency of the poor farmers on it for their cultivation and harvesting. Whatever growth Indian economy shows falls short in front of such a large populace be it rationing system for public distribution, be it employment guarantee schemes, be it senior citizen pension scheme be it housing schemes for the poor and unprivileged, be it electricity generation, or be it illiteracy eradication schemes!
More than one fourth of the population in Metropolitan Cities like Mumbai and Delhi sleeps on the roadside at nights. They don’t have even roof to take shelter to which they can say as their homes. Not only in villages, even in many small towns and big cities, there is a big crisis of the drinking water. For those who can afford, the packaged drinking water is available in plenty but for the poor availability of drinking water is a big problem, they are forced to drink the contaminated water of the ponds and rivers which carry serious health hazards for them. Health facilities are one of the poorest in India, though India boasts of having the most advance and modern medical facilities available with her. But those can be afforded hardly by some 5 % of the total population of India. Rest all are at the mercy of the government hospitals and health centers. These hospitals are over-burdened with the number of patients coming to them every day and thus the proper administration or care of the patients is an impossible task for them looking at the limited resources they have. The maternity and infant death is one of the highest in India due to this. Even after so much of development, because of poverty the rural people prefer to have the delivery of their babies at their home by untrained ladies leading to serious risks of infections and diseases.
Corruption is a major breed of this population growth. We all say that the system has been rusted till its root. Babus in the government do not work without taking bribe. They can’t move the files from one table to another without getting their palms greased. It’s true but under what compulsions do they do so, do we think on this? They have their large families and in order to feed them and give them the facilities those required to live as human beings, their paltry sum of per month salary fall way short of what they actually require. The education of their children, marriage of their daughters which demand lakhs of rupees not just for the traditional dowry system prevailing, but also in order to arrange these marriages to show off in front of the relatives and the neighbors. Perhaps all of us, the whole society are responsible for this curse.
Another facet of the population growth! Young boys are an easy prey of the anti-social elements who exploit them by using them as their agents to create panic and terror in exchange of few thousand of currency notes which these poor chaps in their childhood had always missed even for the simple things like to buy toys, balloons, sweets or ice-creams or to ride on a Jhula in a Mela. When their mother was sick, they could not buy her medicine and she kept on suffering with her pain or might even had succumbed. This has become one of the biggest threats for our country as hundreds of innocents are being killed this way and those actual culprits remain untraced and the agents employed by them become the victims. The law and order and the judicial systems have virtually become so corrupt that the general public has got no faith on these institutions.
This menace of population explosion is responsible for all the evils in our country… We desperately need an iron lady like Indira for firmer decisions to tackle all this.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Indian foreign policy : did we learn from mistakes in the past

Author - Manoj Kumar
There is an urgent need to renovate the Indian mindset how we look this world. The old hippocratic and dilapidated foreign policy need to be thrown out. We will have to realize that this world in which we are living has transformed a lot and we are way behind the people around the globe because of our inflexibility to change ourselves. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past we did. Like, we got our freedom at the cost of partition of the country, and the result of partition is that the other part treats us as number one enemy in the world, fought three wars with us directly. It is fighting a proxy war in the form of terrorism for last three decades, has taken lives of millions of people from both sides till date in this enmity. The thirst is getting stronger with each passing day. In fact it’s like a cancer that can never be cured.

When India needed to make herself stronger, we were busy in infighting. Without judging our abilities and strength, we just took the position of non-align movement not going to any side of then bipolar world of which one side was led by the USA and another by USSR. At relatively minor dispute with China on the border issue, we declared that we would not move an inch to settle the issue. We saw a brutal battle with Chinese only to meekly surrender thousands of square kilometers to them. This was the reward of our non-alignment.

But the truth is that we never learn from our mistakes, we repeat the same mistakes again and again. Our foreign policy has remained a big failure for long. Smaller countries like Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, all in Asia and number of countries in Europe and America are way ahead us in per capita Income, infrastructure development and Human Development Index. Earlier they were as poor as Indians. But, today they have prospered despite all odds; Mind it they are small countries with little resources at their hands as compared to ours. They could do so only because of their sheer determination to achieve what they wanted. They made a liberalized and hassle free environment for the industries and offered number of sops for the investors around the world to invest in their countries.

These countries became major hub of production and distribution for big multinational companies resulting in all around peace and prosperity in those parts of the world. If the stomach is full and people are satisfactorily employed, it’s but natural that there would be peace in that country. This is what happened in these countries. We should take their example and learn from them to build our future.

We still hesitate to welcome foreign investments. We will have to understand the today’s reality that Nuclear might is not the greatest might for which we are desperately running. Today’s might is peace and prosperity. Once we will have multinationals making India as hub for their productions, all the powerful nations of the world will have their stake here, and then they would automatically give a cover to us as they will never want their billions of dollars of investments to be lost due to a war.

For Indians they have proved their worth outside the country, they will do here also if the opportunities arrive and proper nurturing of the talent is done. Being a billion plus population, reeling under the severe unemployment crisis, it would be a boon for them. Ultimately who will get benefitted with it, the poor and the middle class!

Nine out of ten heads of Indian operations run by these multinationals are Indians. There is a negligible presence of the foreigners in their workforce here. What else we need to prove better than these examples! We are prospering on their investments. We need to be realistic enough and change our foreign policy looking at our own interest, current and the future both.

Our interest is there to extend our hands of friendship with the powerful nations. The old rhetoric to India- China Bhai Bhai, Indian Irani culture ties for centuries and closer ties with Islamic countries, is always going to give us pains. Need of the hour is to look beyond this and to adopt a new policy and strategy to make India stronger in the eyes of those countries who have always wished us to remain weaker.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Urban life style : We need some change

Author- Manoj Kumar
Today we are living in an environment full of pollution and health hazards. We are living under tremendous work pressure. We are taking contaminated food which is unhealthy and junk which makes us disease prone much before the age which earlier used to be. The diseases which used to catch older people say after the age of 45 have started taking even the kids in its hold. Number of new diseases has cropped up in the recent past due to the complex life style and changing food habits.
Urban people are living a life style which is highly unhygienic, they wake up late in the morning, do not get time for exercise and morning walk. Get ready for the office in a hurry and after reaching office remain sitting in the chair most of the time. They don’t have a fixed time for taking lunch and time to time snacks that our body requires. There is no time to return home because of the workloads. When they reach home after 9 pm, they get indulge into TV Programs or their electronic gadgets. They sleep late at night. Some people have a habit of late night parties, alcohols etc. that also poses a great risk to their health. The work pressure has sneaked into the bedrooms of the executives. With the laptops and palmtops, they can be seen working at the odd nights. This has made their family life ruined. People have no time for their spouses and children. The warmth of the relation is getting weird this way. The growing children who need their parents for guidance at this level, do not find them available at home, as when their parents come to home in the nights, they happen to be sleeping. And, in the morning when they wake up, the parents happen to be in hurry to go to their offices, and children to rush to their schools. They are left in the guidance of the servants. With both the spouses working, the household earning has increased. The parents are exchanging their time for their children with the money, so whenever their children complain about the time they want to spend with their parents, they shut their mouth by giving them more money than what they actually require. They spend this money lavishly and knowingly or unknowingly get prey to wrong habits like gambling, taking alcohol and drugs, watching porn movies, visiting pubs, bars and discotheque. They can be easily seen in the discotheques of the cities on the weekdays after their schools hours shaking their hips with their partners. The parents do not object as many of them believe these are the part of the western lifestyle. The teenagers are getting more violent now a days, because of these negative impacts they are having in their lives.
Obesity is a big problem in the urban India as there is no control on the food habits. They eat more but don’t go for workouts. As a result at least 40 % children of the new generation are suffering with this problem of obesity in India. Obesity leads to many diseases like diabetes, heart disease and all in early stage of life to these children. Besides in urban India the puberty age in boys and girls has also come down from an earlier around 14 in them to now 9 or 10 years as a result of high calorie food and the access to the obscenity and adult contents screened by almost all the TV channels, contemporary music videos and movies. This is reflected in our society in terms of the teenage sex, pregnancy and their abortions. Because of the lack of sex education and vulnerability of their tender minds, they are falling prey to various sexually transmitted diseases and AIDs which are traced only when they reach their advance stages as they either themselves do not know about those or fear to share those things with their parents.
The need of the hour is to make our life styles simple and live our lives in a natural way. We need to work out in the morning. We should take any sort of exercise like morning walk, jogging, running, aerobics, dancing, working out in gyms, doing yoga etc. Half n hour of work out daily recharges our body for the full day of work. We should take our lunch, dinner, and snacks in time with right balance of calories and nutrients required for our bodies. We need to keep the level of stress to our minds at the minimum level. We need to share our life with our near and dear ones, so that we could have some time to laugh and get de-stressed. We should give ample time to our family, spouses and children, so that they remain in our guidance and not fall prey to the polluted environment and lifestyle.
Be conscious toward your health and peace of mind! Make your children aware of the health hazards and inspire them to work out in daily routine and have a close eye on their daily life, educate them about the issues related to their growing up and be friendly with them. Always remain prepared to answer their complex set of questions naturally coming to their innocent but vulnerable mind!
And finally, Say no to Alcohol! Say no to Smoking! Say no to Drugs! Say no to Violence!

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Do it now otherwise it would be too late: A short inspiring story

Author - Manoj Kumar

I read this short inspiring story in The Times of India some time back. The writer was living in Tanzania at that time. She had a Tanzanian maid at her house that used to do the household works there and went back to her home after doing her job in the evening. Tanzania is a poor country and the maids were easily available for the Asian community living there. As they were working for them for last several decades so they were familiar with the Indian ways of life and were also able to prepare Indian dishes. The maid at the author’s home was so poor that she used to wear same pair of cloth every day. And that too was torn and tattered. She wanted to give her the old cloths available at home but she hesitated that whether she would accept those as they were Indian dresses and Tanzanians used to wear different kind of dresses. One day her maid came to work and at the time when she had to leave for her home after finishing her work, the rain started heavily. But still she went in the rains in her torn and tattered cloth. The author at that time also wished to stop her and to give her some rain coat or umbrella, but perhaps she did not make that extra effort then. For the next few days, she did not come for work. Then the author talked to some of the other maids in the locality and got to know that she was ill. Her heart called her to meet her maid while recalling how her maid wet herself in the rain that day and so she fell ill. But, because of her works and other engagements, she could not go to the hospital to meet her. In another two three days, the news came to the author that she had expired. The author was shocked by the event that due to her inactivity and lack of extra effort and will, her maid expired and this event is haunting her for last several years. She remembers a few lines which she used to utter after the prayers of her school every day in her childhood days. The lines are
If you have a kind word to say, say it now
If you have something to give, give it now
If you can make someone glad or another less sad
Do it now… do it now… do it now..
If you have trust to bestow, show it now
If you have friendship to give, give it now
If there is pain you can ease or someone you can please do it now… do it now… do it now… !!!

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Heed call of your heart: a very interesting tale of an IIT Topper

Author - Manoj Kumar

I read a very good article in The Times of India some time back. The writer is at the topmost post of a big multinational company. He was an IITian who passed some 10 Years back from IIT, Kharagpur in Computer Engineering. Recently he visited Belur Math where he met his batch mate who happened to be his next room neighbor sharing the same hostel when they were studying in IIT. His friend was then the Second ranker in the JEE, the board which selects the students for the IITs. He was the topper and the Gold medalist in Computer Science Department, IIT Kharagpur when he finally passed out. He was offered admissions to many of the top Universities in the world, but he decided to do his M.Tech from IIT, Kanpur itself. After that the author of this article had very little contact with him.

They met for the first time after that big gap at the Belur Math, a center of Ramkrishna Mission. At the lunch they had a chat where the writer could know about his friend’s life after passing out of the IIT, Kanpur. His friend told him that he is actively associated with RamKrishna Mishan and working for the welfare of the impoverished and downtrodden people. He gives computer training run by the trust to the children who cannot afford the same. He has devoted his life in the service of poor and under-privileged. According to the author, from the very beginning when they were in IIT, his friend was very much devoted to RamKrishna Paramhans and Vivekanand. In the four years during his B.E. he simply worn white Payjama and Kurta that showed his simplicity even though he was such a genius that he could crack toughest of the problems within seconds and even professors kept on wondering about his abilities. According to his friend, not just the corporate world wants the genius people, they are required in social sectors also and that is why he has chosen this field in his life. He has vowed to always remain unmarried and put his whole life in the service of humanity. His name is revered in and around Belur Math and is called as Maharaj. Author says he is greatly moved after meeting his friend, in fact the job satisfaction he is having there is unparallel. One can earn millions of dollars a year, but cannot match the job satisfaction that he is having in his life.

The gist of the story is that we should always heed to the call of our heart. We shouldn’t go along the rat race of this artificial world of money and glamour. Money and glamour has no end to it, you wish one, and another comes to your mind the day you fulfill that. We never satisfy our soul in this rat race to achieve more and more and more….. At the end of the life, we find ourselves at the same position where we had started, a close fist having nothing in our hand. We can’t carry with us those wealth and money which we earned lifelong. We came here empty handed and we will have to leave this world empty handed. So, it’s good to do something for the others specially the poor and the under-privileged so that even after the death someone would keep you alive in his memories.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Is ours a real democracy?

Author - Manoj Kumar
Are we really mature enough to be called the largest democracy of the world? Democracy sounds good for such a large country, right! But are the representatives today who come to the parliament after being elected by us really governing our country efficiently? Before coming on to this question, I would like to throw lights in the manner these representatives are being elected. One who gets most number of votes in his or her constituency is declared won whether he gets only 15% or even lower of the total votes cast. This means even if 85 % of the people or more reject him or her as being their representative still he or she becomes our representative. The single largest party or the combine who win the elections happen to garner hardly 12 – 20 % of the total number of votes cast. We can imagine how we are being governed by those who have been rejected by the majority. On the other hand, the constitution of the parliament is such that one constituency has number of voters in just a few thousands, and another in Lakhs. No consistency in the manner, constituencies have been delimited. Further, for any government job there is an upper age limit, after which he or she is thought to be less efficient to accomplish his or her duties in proper manner. But, for fighting elections, there is no upper age limit. As a result more than three forth of our parliamentarians are above 50 and more than two third above 60. Further, for all kinds of jobs in India, there are certain educational qualifications on the basis of which he or she is selected. But to perform the heads of all these jobs in the ministry, there is no qualification required for the politicians to fight the elections. As a result many of the parliamentarians are not even having the basic education, and most of them are not even graduates. So, this is our democracy where before being elected the leaders go door to door to ask for votes for them. But once elected, expecting them to be visible to you is a distant dream, you cannot even dare to meet them as they are now holding the most powerful positions with a number of body guards having latest weaponries in their hands for their security and a series of cars to follow them. From which ever road they pass, the traffic comes to a stand still for hours. Barring a few, most of them get elected no doubt spending crores of Rupees either from their own pockets or from their party’s fund looting the poor public, and then their sole motto remains to multiply their investments made earlier in the form of expenditure made during their election campaigns. And, come next elections, the same shameless politicians come again door to door asking for our votes. And we happily mix our voices with theirs as “ JINDABAD JINDABAD!”

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

The curse of untouchability in our social structure

Author - Manoj Kumar
Today I would discuss a very sensitive topic ‘Untouchability’. This is a very common word used till seventies and to some extent till eighties. The curse of untouchability is rooted in the system in which India has evolved so far. Though post-independence India is still just 60 Years old, relatively a younger state, people are still fighting with this menace. Government may shout at different forums against this curse, they may pass so many bills against this. But it is never going to end. The reason is quite simple, on the one side it wants the divide of upper and lower to be abolished, and on the other, there are so many reservations and all being given on different issues like religion, caste, language etc. Moreover, Politicians fight the elections not on the core issues, but diverting their electorate from those issues and persuading them emotionally on the issues related to the caste, religion, sects, regions etc. and try to divide them to create their vote banks. They don’t even hesitate to take full advantage of any riots or terror happening in any part of the country. Some time back when Gujarat was made the target of terror, a very responsible leader from the principal opposition party blamed the Central Government for that, saying it was intentionally carried out by them to divert the attention of the people from the issue of bribe given to the MPs to win the confidence vote and to survive the UPA government.

Think for a while... why should we squarely blame our politicians and the political parties for all this? Are they solely responsible for what is happening in our country? We must introspect ourselves. Don’t we suffer from the same psyche? It all emanates from us. We first think about ourselves, then about others. And why do we discriminate among the people like he is Sardar, he is Bengali, he is Bihari, he is Jaat, he is south Indian… ! Alas, we could have called each other at least Indians if not humans, but it happens only when it happens to be a Republic Day or an Independence Day. One who is rich, he hates the poor, that poor without whom he can’t walk even a mile. One who is poor, he hates the rich, because he is having all the amenities that he cannot enjoy. But here is a contradiction, poor hates rich but he himself wants to be rich. And, once he becomes rich, he again hates his fellow poor men. What a cycle, that never ends!

Well today, everybody speaks against the current system but when it comes to apply on himself, he can never sacrifice even an inch for others. When you criticize someone there would be many to listen to you, but when you express your constructive views, you will hardly have any takers. To laugh at others is the easiest thing we know in our society, but to laugh at ourselves, at our own mistakes, our own fault is very difficult. We should always realize that for the pleasure of a moment we can laugh at others, but in a similar situation when others laugh at us, how much it pinches. Never hate a person. Never let others get hurt because of you. Respect others and others will respect you. Never let a friendship get ruined unless it is impossible to patch up. Even if it is his fault, don’t let your ego come in between you and him. Remember it is very easy to lose a friend, but it is very hard to find one.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

My passion for old music

Author - Manoj Kumar
I am thankful to all the readers who read my previous post. Today I wish to write something about my passion for music. I wonder for the taste that the new generation has got when it comes to music though I belong to the same genre. I remember and can sing at least forty or fifty complete songs or may be even more, mostly from old movies. I mean the songs of the time when I was not even born, may be then my father was still a child or a teenager.  Still I find melody in them with lesser content of musical instruments and mixes, and more of flawless voice emanating directly from the soul of those great singers.  Those songs were so lyrical, the words the poetic expression that those have, today I fail to find that lyrical touch in the songs which get overshadowed by musical beats. 

When I was some ten-eleven years old, people used to say that the foot tapping music, and disco beats would kill the taste for the old and classical songs, our new generation would forget them at all. They won’t even know who were Rafi and Kishore?  but I am happy that even after around twenty years passed since then, the popularity of old songs has not faded to that extent. And the listeners, viewers, Singers and Music composers are still there from all age groups who love old songs. Many popular TV Channels have done wonders by starting reality shows based on songs and dance, which have promoted old songs like never before. When I see a young girl or a boy of just 10 or 12 years singing a song of Md. Rafi, Kishore or Lata impeccably, my heart gets filled with immense joy.  Listening old songs in the voice of others is another rejuvenating experience. Such is the charm of these old songs. The FM channels just like the old Vividh Bharti, are also very much responsible for re-affirming old songs in the minds of our kids.

Yesterday when I saw the repeat telecast of Filmfare Awards in which Khaiyaam Sahab was being facilitated for his contribution to the Indian film industry as one of the top Music composers, there were tears in the eyes of almost all big names sitting over there.  Today’s top actors, be it Shahrukh, Salmaan, Akshay or Rhitik and today’s top singers be it Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Udit Narayan, almost all of them are fond of these old musicians and singers. Most of today's top singers have learnt from those singers immensely by singing their songs initially, before they became successful playback singers. In fact they often admit it publicly.  We can hope that old songs even those from B&W era would remain alive for another Century at least.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे। 

Second Opinion - Why to kill cattle for our food?

Author - Manoj Kumar
I have written many times in the past and shared that with my close friends and colleagues but probably writing a blog for the first time in the hope that readers would appreciate my efforts. I find the concept of blogging really cool. We can reach to any number of people through this electronic media and share our ideas and thoughts with others.  It may also create mass awareness and also gives us the opportunity to bring the people on same platform where there may be constructive debates on topics among the readers. Yes I believe writing is the biggest media that can make people think and change their existing perceptions towards the things. The same thing that I see from my eyes may be entirely different in others' eyes, but once we come to a common platform and exchange our views on that, we can know about certain new features of that thing which we never thought earlier that way. So certainly it widens our circumference of thoughts and liberates us from many hitches or bottlenecks that we might have earlier in our minds.

Let me share a very beautiful thought from one of my friends who practices Islam. I was with him for almost four years, initially three years together in a college as a student and then one year as a colleague in another college as Faculty members. We used to differ a lot on many points and often we used to debate and quarrel on them.  Sometimes we got angry with each other to the extent that we used to have no communication for few days. But we used to come back on talking terms once again despite those issues remaining unresolved and knowing it very well that we still differed and have not given in our sides. However we used to listen to each other very carefully and sometimes even I liked his ideas a lot I must say, though I might not have conveyed it many times to him.

Let me now come on the main issue that I wanted to discuss. Once we were debating on the issue of killing the innocent cattle for the sake of our food. I said this was very cruel and inhumane. We are incessantly doing it like the primitives who were having no other options because at that time they were just in the beginning of evolution and were hardly much different than the other animals of their time. They did not know the art of cultivating crops and were not so wise enough. They were not even social.  But now when we can feed ourselves with the agricultural foods obviously I am referring to the vegetarian food available in plenty , then why to kill those innocent cattle? I think many of the readers must agree with my point. My friend listened to me carefully and started his answers that made me quiet and unanswered.

According to him when we talk about the life, life is there inside the plants also. They also have to take birth and die one day. They also breathe, they also make their own food, they also use to grow like a baby and become a tree like a young adult. Just like animals they also are having their reproductive systems. They also require a nurturing environment like the fertile soil, rains, water, Sunlight and birds or flies for the sake of their fertilization. Listening to all this my mind started thinking about the sound of the leaves of the trees on a night when winds blow heavily; some times it sounds so melodious like somebody is singing or playing some musical instrument. I then started comparing the petals of the leaves of some of the flower plants that exactly matches with the skins and texture of the butterflies. Then I started thinking about the roses that not only gives us the feeling of freshness, softness and fragrance but also have thorns in the branches on which the flowers are laden and probably those are to protect the flowers from outsiders.

You might have seen in many of the old trees, their branches or shoots create beautiful scenic view in the shape of a bird, or snake or any other animal. Some times it also looks like some Shiv Linga or like an idol of a God or a Goddess and people use to worship them. We have often seen people worshiping these trees using sindoor, red thread, dhupbattis etc.

Well yes plants have their life. We have also studied it in the Plant Biology or Botany. My friend’s point was right. Then he started describing about the Ecology system. Everything in this world is controlled by the nature in its own way. It does a balancing act. If tigers are there, then to feed them are the deer.  Similarly If the snakes are there, then to feed them  are the frogs and the rats. If the whales are there, then to feed them are the fishes. We have studied in Ecology, the primary and secondary producers and consumers. And we find that because of the human interference the balance of whole ecological system is being drastically disturbed resulting in unfavourable climatic changes in different parts of the world, extinction of various species of the animals, plants, birds and small organisms. Why Cheetas have become extinct from our country? The reasons are not one but many, like incessant poaching as a result of human greed of money, due to encroachment of jungles and making that available for human settlement as a result of heavy burden coming out of the unbridled population growth, and for other development purposes.  The list is very wide.

Now I am very sure that the way these jungles are shrinking on such a fast pace, the days are not away when our biggest animal on land ‘Jumbo’ will be one in the list of extinct animals. Such a big animal and the vegetarian one, what a wonder! These Jumbo's food entirely depends on the plants and trees shoots. But how would they be able to feed themselves when plants and trees are not there, the jungles are not there? Think about this for a while. They use to travel hundreds of miles every year from one place to another, one jungle to another and some times one nation to another in herds for favourable climate during different seasons and for breeding. They have made their own corridors and they prefer to travel through those lanes only. But the humans have become so insensible and cruel that despite knowing these things very well, some are excavating mines blasting dynamites in their way, they have made roads and human settlements there.  So next time when these herd come forget their way and strays into these human settlements and then under panic are killed by us labeling them mad ones. Well this is bad and my heart cries for this. I think these should immediately be stopped. Development looks nice only till you preserve your beautiful environment. Being human does not mean that all other living beings are having no importance for us.

Well, I went on to describe my views on the issue at length and breadth. Let me come back to my friend's views once again. My friend told me that if cattle are left to reproduce and grow without our interference their number would be in plenty and everywhere we would see them only. On the roads, in our house, in the ponds, in the streets may be in our offices, well joking. But he was not wrong. We humans produce only one or seldom two at a time that too after nine months of gestation. But these cattle produce many may be five six at a time. Their gestation period may be even shorter. We have control by means of contraceptives but they don’t. His point is valid, isn’t it? So what to do! See the kind of problem we are facing with stray dogs. What we do to them is, we catch them and make them sterile so that they cannot produce further child. Still we fail to do so efficiently because they outweigh our efforts. In some of the zoos I have read in the newspapers, they are not able to feed the deer because they have grown in plenty. There is no further space to keep them in their embankments or further create new embankments for them to live. Those are also made sterile by vasectomy. But how can we do it with all the animals? Wait and think about this. Is this possible for us? Nature has created these cattle to feed the wild animals but the fact that the wild animals are not there like before, and they themselves are on the verge of extinction, it is the humans that can control their growth so that the balance could be maintained.

Let me tell you explicitly that I am fully against any kind of violence or killing of cattle and animals but that time I was left unanswered by my friends arguments.  What’s your take on this? Write me your comments. I would read all of you and appreciate.

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मित्रों यदि मेरा यह पोस्ट आपके दिल को जरा भी छू कर गुजरा हो तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आप मेरे इस प्रयास को लाइक दे कर मुझे और भी अच्छा लिखने की प्रेरणा, स्नेह और आशीर्वाद देंगे। आप अगर मुझे मेरे फेसबुक प्रोफाइल पर फॉलो करते हैं तो आपको मेरे शेयर किये सारे पोस्ट्स आपके नोटिफिकेशन्स में मिलते रहेंगे।