It gives me jitters!

Sometimes I feel ashamed to be called a human being. ‘Humanity’- The word which we have coined to mention a unique quality possessed by human beings meaning kindness and benevolence is in question now. We already feel on the top of the world to have conquered most of it. We haven’t left any ecosystem untouched. Man has long started marching towards the most uninhabited continent Antarctica. His quest for conquest hasn’t ended yet and started racing towards other planets too. In his serious and thoughtless journey, he trampled down lots of creatures that shared the same ecosystem as his and many others in his neighboring ecosystems. Not to mention endless list of organisms he has included in the ambit of his diet, he hasn’t failed to influence even the magnificent creatures that are symbol of might and majesty. What number of ways has he taken to, to threaten their very sustenance! Eating, hunting, pleasure-watching, circus keeping, and what not? Polluting their habitats has become the latest trend to torture them to death. Seizure of forest lands for industrial purposes, conquest of aerial space through fuzzy cell phones signals, and immeasurable quantities of plastic that is being dumped into the oceans that has become choking for the marine animals leading to death. He destroyed their peaceful living in every possible way.

I quit the very thought of visiting The Tiger Temple of Thailand which I always dreamt of going to, with the recent dreadful news about the barbarous treatment they undergo to be presented as a tourist attraction.

The countless number of dolphins that washed the shore in Tamil Nadu, Japan, Peru and Brazil in recent times could explain the serious emergency the marine habitats are in due to man’s laxity.

The ‘Little Tiger’ dish that’s popular in Vietnam is shaking the cat owners for all the reasons predictable.

And today a baby dolphin was ruthlessly killed in Argentina for mere cynical pleasure of wanting to click a selfie with it!!! frown emoticon
And, we are THE Human beings! The merciful, humane, generous and the kind creatures protecting the world!

What's all the fuss about growing intolerance in India?

I feel so confused when I read something that says “Growing intolerance in India” What is the growing intolerance in country all about?Is it about the suspicious murder of veteran Kannada writer MM Kalburgi? Is it about the ‘Award Wapsi’ which was started all the way by Sahitya Akademi award winner of 1986, Nayanatara Sehgal? Is it about the man in Dadri who supposedly ate beef being killed by an unidentified mob? Is it about the other writers, film makers, historians, scientists and artistes that joined the “Award return” club? Is it about the minority killings? Is it the silence of our Prime Minister over these attacks? Is it about the “Durga Puja” ban in West Bengal? Or is it about the recent attack by ISIS in France? What is it?
Though it’s no less than heart wrenching that a person could be killed for having his own ideology, isn’t it equally disrespectful to return the award of honor bestowed on them? Nayanatara Sehgal being the niece of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, can we rule out the possibilities of her protest being completely apolitical? Why then a lot of other people follow that path? Every person may have had their own personal motives for that. It might be their film promotion, book release, or to become known, gain popularity etc. Didn’t any untoward incident happen in the Congress era? Did our former prime minister speak a word? Did Mr. Modi speak a word on the “Durga Puja” ban prevalent in West Bengal past 3 years? What’s wrong if he didn’t speak on these issues? A killing is a killing. What’s majority and minority in it? Aren’t we aware of honor killings happening in many remote parts of our country every single day? Aren’t we aware of dalits who are treated in the most horrible ways by the so called village headmen? Aren’t we aware of the khap panchayats delivering the cruelest of judgments?
All these happen every single day across the country whether we accept it to be true or not. There’s nothing to do with religion here. There’s certainly nothing about majority, minority, men, women here. No religion preaches evil. Crime has no religion. It’s just the people. And there's no intolerance!!
We, as Indians have been harmoniously coexisting with one another on the same land since centuries. We may profess different religions, belong to various economic groups, speak different languages, and may have lots of diversities among ourselves. But a single thing that has kept us all united is being “Indian”.
If we start dividing ourselves on the lines of religion, region, caste, majority, minority, race, sex etc, it would not be any less than a disaster. Since we all don’t have anything in common, apart from “Being Indian”!