Very strange things have been happening in the recent past. I look up at the bleak dark sky through my window in the morning. The trees have lost their bloom. There are no joggers on the street. The roads look slippery. The air is still and then the wind rattles my window. The air is still again. I get out of bed, brush my teeth, bundle up in three layers, and walk down the termite-ridden wooden steps to take out the trash. I open the door cautiously expecting a surge of cold air and an immediate self retreat. I walk outside to warmth. Sunshine. The smell of spring but the sight of winter. The touch of summer but the sound of fall. Not entirely unexpected. It was sixty degrees fahrenheit today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Just like yesterday. And the day before. Tomorrow promises more of the same.
[Zoom out into a wide shot of the "city of brotherly love". Zoom out so we watch our cold blue earth from a distance. Pan camera across the globe, around it, until it rests on Northen India. Zoom in to the city of Delhi - the capital city, the metropolis of a zealous nation]
A baby wakes up to screams that scare him. So little, so fragile, but so very peaceful. Papa's been drinking again. But this time the screams are not of a mother facing an abusive wrath. The screams are of a mother who has lost her husband. An abusive husband but bound by religion and her newborn's needs, a necessary husband. He had been walking the streets after a daily shift at the shoe factory down the road. Walking with the bottle that kept him company on every night including this one. This night was special - he had his paycheck. He could pay a prostitute for what his wife would not give. Not because she did not want to. But because her body was in a torrid mess after nights of incessant beating. Sadly, the building is closed - severe weather alert. Zero degrees centigrade. Bah! These officials. With a single t-shirt clinging to his skinny body, he walks the frigid streets with his bottle. He shivers. Maybe a little rest before he walks a little further. His eyelids give up and hugging himself to keep warm, he lies down on the open road. Rest in peace while the cold breeze takes your life. Slowly. Just like you did your daughter's. A baby cries. A mother weeps. A nation carries on.
Unusual temperatures everywhere. I'm not a greenpeace liberal but I can see things are going wrong. And unless something is done soon, the earth will take what we have destroyed. And give back death..and eternal sleep.
©Govind Mohan – http://govindmika.blogspot.com. All rights reserved.
