Eye witness to the massacre of a barbarous tyrant!

As I rode a mile, my eyes started to itch. I could not open my eyes. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I rode my vehicle. I so wish I did not have to. Two reckless riders surpassed me. My rage was out of control. I secretly hoped to run over them and kill them. Everyone was in a great hurry like only their time mattered. I saw a huge smoke in the air, perspired heavily due to the heat and felt the choke as I noticed the exhaust from all vehicles raising high in the sky. I so wished to be a hit man taking down a couple of those maniacs on the road and our politicians who are responsible for this pathetic state of our cool city, namma Bengaluru.

I have been living in Bangalore for 16 years now. Year after year the temperature has increased. I had once seen that cool Bangalore. It was still catching up with urbanization but plenty of trees in all developed areas. In my school days I always wondered how amazing it would be if India were developed. I regret to have wished so. It is becoming unlivable year after year! Yes, I saw the assassination of this beautiful place in the name of development; probably I am not the only eyewitness. Right now, it is a mass murder of 1+ crore people, suffering day in and day out. I am one of the victim!

So many encroached lakes in the name of urbanization, creation of Golf clubs, cricket stadium, what not ! Due to lack of planning government is unable to handle the traffic problem. Their solution: destroy the remaining green patch and make wider roads. We do not want that golf club which is exclusively used by some filthy rich guy who lives in luxury condos and probably does not even care for the crisis of a common man! We do not want luxury. Just give us what is rightfully ours. Green, pollution free and a fit place to live. According to me wheel was the worst invention ever. Had it not been there, humans would have continued to hunt and led a life like the rest million creatures in the world. And that is what I call equality!

It's not just politician's fault. The so called common man isn't so innocent. Do any of us do anything useful to prevent this from happening? By words, yeah everyone loves to say millions. The power of speech is not just used but abused. All we have is a list of blame thrown towards a bunch of illiterate monkeys who are destroying the map of Bangalore. Ignorance is bliss. We all want to use everything that we have. Keep that TV, Wi-Fi, computer everything ON, even when not in use. Why? Because of the affordability and so called rights!

I lived in Marathahalli for a few months and I realized how pathetic the living condition is. A million water tankers ply every night. Kudos to more air pollution. And from where the water is supplied? You better not know the source if you live there. Last time I checked, water harvesting is made compulsory but this place is oblivious of the rules. Do builders educate individual house owners to get it constructed? No. Lack of morality to support the right things. Would instead ask the owner to save money and not get it constructed. Rain water harvesting/ ground harvesting is made compulsory in Chennai and few places in India. The result has been wonderful. In Bangalore where there is water deficit no one cares to implement anything necessary.

Rise in temperature - Need AC or fan - Need more electricity - Need more rainfall - What do we do? Nothing

Rise in temperature - Need more drinking water - What do we do? Nothing.

Some of the effective solution which government can work on:

1. To control pollution and solve the traffic problem, just promote public transport. In order for this to work, block all major roads connecting tech parks in the peak hours exclusively for buses. Just a simple time table! It would not even take 2 hours for commuting from one end another. Everyone would love to take public buses as it reduces stress and in fact faster than anyone could ever think.

2. Rejuvenate some of those lakes. In this aspect so many filthy rich so called NGOs can contribute and get it done. But they won't!

3. Plant trees. I cannot put enough stress on this.

People survived when government was not there. Why are we waiting for government to do anything? We can make progress by doing simple changes in our living which will not only enrich our life but solve this pathetic problem

1. Switch off all your lights, TV, fan when not in use. You may think the save is small. If every individual does it, the impact is much bigger than you know.

2. Encourage outdoor healthy activities every evening such as yoga and walking. By this you are not only becoming healthy but also avoiding your family from watching saas-bahu serials. Conserve electricity.

3. Please plant trees/ saplings. Have a mini garden in your balcony or a show plant in your house. If you do not know what kind of plants would suit, please ping me. I would be extremely happy to help you setup a mini garden of your own. Will make sure you have everything you need! 

 4. No one wants you to be unclean but you can definitely minimize your water and tissue usage. There are hundreds of articles on how effectively you can utilize water. Please read them.You can refer to http://eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FMBSblpcrc

5. Last but not the least, encourage others to do so. Will the world change in a day? Probably no. It took more than 100 years to claim our nation which was rightfully ours. People did their part and patience paid off. It's time to do our bit.

With great power comes great responsibility. It is not limited to Spiderman. If you are not aware, YOU are already powerful. Whether you become Spiderman / Cat woman/ Batman or Joker/Green Goblin is all in your hands. We have already destroyed this world. It’s time to wear our cape and fly for the rescue.

P.S: I am running a no-plastic drive in my colony to encourage more sustainable solutions replacing plastic. We need more volunteers as we just a bunch of enthusiasts who have decided to start changing things little by little. On behalf of the team, requesting you to join. If you are interested please contact me. Let us start our journey of making this world a better place to live because this world is our only house and world’s problem is our problem too.

Inner Peace!

Back with another philosophical punch. I have also added some maths and critical reasoning  :P 

There is one trait that is common in every person who is unhappy i.e; the inability to stay focused on the aims and dreams that we have set for ourself. We have intelligence to create an autonomous vehicle and send it to mars but do not have the intellect to control ourselves. Main culprit of our unhappiness.

One of my colleague told me a little story a few weeks back. Quite a meaningful story. There is a land completely filled with green grass except a patch of land which is barren. A goat is tied to a pole using a rope. The pole is at the center of the barren patch. Let's do some math now. Technically the farthest points a goat can reach is twice the length of the rope ( Okay, I know a part of the rope is used to tie it around the goat and the pole. So my calculation of rope length is incorrect. Congratulate your brain on figuring that out :P). Say A and B are those points. The goat can go around in a circle. Below is the representation of the situation.

                                         

Now we can infer a few facts from the given premise.( Yeah, I am trying to sound like a geek )

1. No matter how much grass is there on the ground, our goat's reach is always within the circle. Unless you change the length of the rope, move the pole etc..
2. Although the goat's control is very limited, the goat can still control within the limits as to where, when and how much to graze. 

Our goat could be any one these : 

1. Wishful goat: would think it would have been happy if it were placed on the greener side.

2. A happy goat: would compare itself to a goat which is on a barren field. 

3. A peaceful goat: would not compare itself to anything but live in that moment and see how best it can fulfill it's aim. In this case, it's aim is to eat the grass, survive and breed. 

Summary : No matter how much grass, shelter and luxury the goat is given, it's aim will never change. Although providing comfort can make it's life easier. Giving all the comfort and taking away the one thing that is essential to it's survival will not make it any better. In our life even if we earn loads of money, we need people who would love us and have enriched experiences. 

We are one of these goats. We all think of all the great things that we cannot have, curse the limitations that we are presented with and the harshness of the situation we go through. Funnily all are unrelated to we ever want. Our definitions of problems are self created. If you curse of not having something then ask yourself if it is a requirement for your life. If yes, then take responsible actions to achieve it. I can bring in some inference from Gita and drag this article. Will save it for another time. Probably a sequel - Inner peace II :P .

Moral: By putting your mind focused on YOUR goal (yes, your's, not your best friend's or that ideal person's) you will become a peaceful goat and situations will stop affecting your thinking ! 

NOTE: I do not mean to say being happy is a bad thing. Being happy is only temporary as it is situation dependent. Situations change, our own goals change. Our mind should be powerful enough to sail through the situation.