-By Kalpana-
As I live.. in and out of my daily routine, lost in my needs, wants, responsibilities, fulfilment, achievement of small, big, mundane, leisure tasks, healthy, wealthy and wiser tasks, basking in my strides of progress.
Some where a day dawns in the life of a deer. Grazing, trotting, drinking from a stream, it strays towards the concrete road encroaching the jungle. Its abode. Its boundaries. Oblivious she approaches the concrete parting. Overlooks the iron fence. Pushes her head through entangling itself. With no hope for a rescue. She awaits with pain and helplessness.
I, walk out, my usual routine.. checking the fence around my house, checking for breaks, to repair it to keep the animals straying in my abode.
The day dawns. I open my packages, cut open the strings, remove the ordered crockery, throw away the binding string. Walk in with joy, at my new dining set.
Somewhere a day dawns. An owl flies in lands on the ground. On the carelessly thrown long plastic string. It lands on it fair and square. Only as it opens its wings to soar back to the sky. It couldn’t take off. At each attempt the string entangled in its feathers biting into it rendering it flapping helpless and doomed, with pain and despair in its eyes.
Somewhere a day dawns. The sea rumbles and roars. Its foamy waters crashes on the beach. The fishes, whales, sharks, dolphins swim joyfully, playfully looking to fill their hunger. Tending to their little ones, born and unborn. Doing those mundane, leisure tasks.
Till a chugging 2000 tonne ship spills oil accidentally, killing, destroying colonies of life.
I proudly wait for the fuel for my vehicle, to drive down the mall, to cinemas, hotels and long drives.
Today, was a special day. My family and I were out on a drive. A drive to a destination. We slurped our cokes and threw our straws amid laughter and gaiety at the break we had endeavoured.
A tortoise stomps, exploring its world, searching for food to fill its basic needs. It unfortunately picks the straw. It pierced its mouth. It lays numbly in pain.
Today, Amazon, Myntra, brands and random household stuff, fashion, needs and necessities came in hoards. I, joyfully unpacked, collected the vast amount of plastic discarded it and closed the door on my spick and span home.
The plastic found its way into river, sea, where marine life went about their routine. Some got caught, some got choked, some nibbled at it. Their day was a routine day. A routine day of catastrophe caused by man’s pleasures.
The cow munched on, the crow pecked on, the birds flew on into the netted balconies, glassed windows, falling with a thud, struggling violently to get free.. We move on.. smiling, stylish, satisfied, proud, content, smug, buoyant, delighted self appreciative at the progress, indifferent to the regress, death to the other inhabitants of our beautiful earth
-By Kalpana-
The Writers Room 