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I
was watching a report on BBC about the
devastating earthquake that has struck Kashmir.
The newspaper had a picture showing one hand of
a man protruding from beneath a broken thick
slab of reinforced concrete. It carried news
reports of around 30,000 people dead in Pakistan
and 600 in India, kids still trapped under
rubble etc. It is all very, very agonizing.
However, when I read about the reasons for this
natural disaster a painful irony emerged. In
Kashmir there is stress on the surface and there
stress below the surface albeit in opposite
directions. The fundamentalist elements have
been trying desperately to create distances
between the two countries often by killing
innocent people. If they had their way they
would have cut India off their country and let
it float away in the Indian Ocean. However,
nature wills otherwise. Nature is pushing India
closer and closer to Pakistan. The Indian plate
(the tectonic plate that has the Indian
subcontinent on top) is pushing into the
Eurasian plate (on which most of Pakistan is
situated). The pressure is so tremendous that
fault lines are present in and around the Indus
valley area. Perhaps this is nature’s way of
asking people to come closer or else…
Well ironies apart, in this hour of sorrow let
man see reason. We may create imaginary lines on
the surface, but Mother Earth beneath is the
same. Let us co-operate and remove the stresses
over which we have control. If we remove the
stresses that have plagued mankind for decades,
we will be far better equipped to fight the
forces over which we have no control.
Let us ask ourselves why are we bad with each
other when God is good towards us and then why
do we suddenly become good to each other when
God frowns? Man, being the self-proclaimed
supreme creation of God, is strikingly foolish.
In good times we use our brains to destroy each
other and then come a natural calamity we cling
to each other like drowning monkeys. It is this
irony that baffles me more. I have always
wondered why man is so foolishly short-sighted.
If someone desires an in-depth discussion to
create some understanding on this subject they
are welcome to contact meby clicking here.
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Comments: |
I agree with Rajesh Ji and here is
another irony in this story which
involves not just human being but
“life itself”. On this Sunday, UK
History channel was showing a
marvelous documentary series "The
Earth Story" presented by famous
biologist, Aubrey Manning. Even
though it was prescheduled but by
chance on BBC News 24 they were
showing consequences (Scenes from
earthquake in Pakistan) and UK
History was showing the reasons
behind them. On BBC News 24 they
were showing the suffering, and in
"The Earth Story", Aubrey Manning
was explaining why earthquakes are
necessary for life on earth. If
there had been no earthquake on
earth, then earth would not have
been able to sustain life. According
to him, it is earth's earthquakes
and reasons behind it, which makes
it apart from Mars or Venus. This
geological process, movement of
tectonic plates is unique to earth
among all planets in our solar
system and play a vital part in CO2
recycling process.
There is another irony of this long
process. Though it may sound bizarre
but this is the cost which our
mother earth demands the
contemporary life form to pay so
that it can sustain and help evolve
the next life form.
Two years back, when I visited
London Science Museum in Kensington,
I came to know that not only a
asteroid heating earth in Mexico (it
is still doubtful because of its
smaller scale of impact) but
effectively it was "Maha Bhukamp"
and "Pralayankari Jwalamukhi" in the
Indian Subcontinent which made those
giant dinosaurs extinct from earth
and subsequently paved the way for
evolution of human beings. Our
Himalayan Range is most volatile
place on earth, as this process of
Indian plate moving towards Eurasian
plate is still going on.
Next time when you get the chance to
visit the roof of the world, that is
Himalayan Mountain range, then do
look for fossils of sea creatures,
which are found in abundant at those
heights and then look at the great
Himalaya and its vastness, I am
sure, you will realize about the
power of forces which converted sea
into such a great range of
mountains.
Our Bihar, like many other things,
is very much taking the full frontal
effect of this process. Bihar is
very much part of this volatile
zone. Very recently there was
massive earthquake in Bihar in 1934
and then in 1988. - Raghu Yadav,
London - Oct. 11, 2005 |
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