Fine-ally

I remember this movie name called ‘Everybody says I am fine’. Really an apt and generic title which could be taken sarcastically once one looks into it in a humorous way. Either everybody is actually fine, thus say so or perhaps everybody is bogged down by the ways of the world that they have to eventually say..i am fine. When one tries to intrigue further into this small term, it gives a multi dimensional aspect of life to it.

In todays context, perhaps, when asked..how are you…. everyone might just end up saying ‘ I am fine-d????’. well, that’s the way the local , state or national authorities want to treat people….not in a fine manner but a fine-d manner. Fining people have been an order of the day to actually ‘extract’ the way they should live. Such ‘fine’ tuning is penetrating into the lives of people like a slow poison. Fine for wrong parking, fine for wasting water, fine for not wearing helmets, fine for not wearing seat belts, fine for not segregating garbage, the list goes on???? The issue is not about the local authorities fining people, but lies in the people itself, where one has to question the moralities of the people for the government to implement such fines. An alarming rise in the road accidents due to improper riding, not wearing safety gears results in the possible implementation of fines.

‘Precaution is better than cure’ is the age old adage, which should be followed unanimously rather than creating situations where people have to act under the con-fines of the authorities. Such fines drain down in the ‘ever thirsty’ pockets of the government officials. So not creating situations where we can quench these pockets is the ultimate solution. Moreover, looking at it from the authorities’ point of view, the negligence of people to law has made the strict use of this tool as the ultimate weapon.

Indian system actually being so lenient, that one can easily escape through the law by depositing these fines, thus re-fining the malpractices. People too have become smarter when they know that they can easily flee from a certain situation by just paying such fines.

So its on the individual to look at it as a tool for change in attitude or as a cushion to getaway from things. 

So the continuum in the people’s attitude towards the law and the disrespect can result in everyone saying about each other …he is my ‘fine’-‘ally’

 

Green

The colour of the decade / century rather??, one must say. These days, everyone around is talking about it. Green cities, green buildings, green cars, green fuel, green what not.

But ‘green’ means not just giving a colour green to the external façade. It has much more deeper and diverse meaning rather just the type facial connotation.

What one is trying to achieve by ‘green awareness’ is hygienic living, respecting the nature for its immense contribution and volunteering personally for spreading the actual essence of living.

As far as greening the buildings is concerned, one is talking about making individual building sustainable. The concept of vertical farming is well thought of and should be encouraged if one has to survive in the age of global warming. The mere mention of buildings producing basic needs of people like fruits, vegetables is astonishing. But such an edge in the technology also makes a bigger hole in the pocket. It is not within the reach of a common man to dream of such a building to own for himself. This is where the government should step in and subsidize such technological achievements. When one is talking about making creative cities, initiatives like these should be encouraged to make cities more creatively meaningful. One such initiative by the government authorities is to encourage harnessing the solar power,wind power, thermal power.

But what todays cities really need is not just plain initiatives, it needs visions for the entire city or for a neighbourhood. Subsidizing green initiatives in a neighbourhood could be taken up as flagship ventures.

Theories like urban agriculture, green urban design should come to the fore.

Moreover, the greenification of the attitudes holds more importance than the interfacial façade. Maximizing what the mother nature has to offer in all aspects of life holds the key in finding solutions for our day to day existence.

Questioning, realizing and implementing green ways of living is the ultimate solution. Small changes in day to day living can prove to be of greater help to the society at large. Showing proper way to the wastes, minimizing the use of electricity, installing devices like cfl, green lighting, use of organic materials, nature loving materials could be some of the initiatives in installing a green attitude amongst individuals.

Even if we were able to produce zero pollution vehicles, we’d still need to maintain the infrastructure of roads, bridges, and energy distribution. Just concrete production alone generates as much as 10 percent of all greenhouse gas.

An attitudinal change of spooling a car amongst fellow friends rather than a single accommodation is a voluntary decision which when followed in mass could bring in a substantial change. 

Let all of us sing….Dil haara (green) re

Rang de!!! Let’s paint the city green!!!

See tee zzzzzz

Cities are a melting pot they say...i ask of wht? Of the people? Of the cultures? 

They have become a melting pot of emotions, of peoples faith,of people's believes. Many people come to the urban or metro cities with high aspirations leaving their loved ones back home just to earn a 'city bread'? Does this bread taste as sweet as what is made at home? Man does not live by the bread alone. People who already live in the cities have been subjected to harsh realities of life and eventually realize their emotions getting melted in the pot.

I like a line from a song from one of the hindi movies....the song goes...'Sone ki rahon mein sone ki jagah nahin'....when one looks at the double sided meaning of the same line one can understand how difficult it is for a beginner to establish himself/ herself in the city. The same 'sone ki raah' attracts the rural junta into the 'dreamy' world of cities. Cities are the future of India no doubt, but this future has to have a vision, a plan. Not many cities in India have a defined planned growth, leading to what is called as an urban sprawl. 

No one wants to be in a traffic jam, in a suffocated crowd, in a long queues to get there...Ultimately these long lines of people lead them nowhere….There has to be a system to maintain and streamline all of these. The problem arises with the system itself. ‘C-is-teem’ed with healthy malpractices which are a regular and are performed as some kind of ritual to the ultimate ‘deity’ to bless us …..for wht….a bloody sign, a mark of consent??? 

I would like to mention a brilliant graphic explaining the condition of the citizen in almost all the cities with the way the ‘c-is-teem’ (read system) strips people.  

 If you drop a frog into a saucepan of a very hot boiling water, it will desperately try to pop out. Once you put the same frog in a warm water, and gradually and slowly increase the heat provided to it, the same frog will try to adjust and eventually adjust to the ‘changes’ happening all around him. Each one of us can easily identify with such frog where we ‘daraoo’fy ourselves into this rising heat of the ‘torch bearers’ of the system. 

We are knowingly hiberanting to the whole issue and thus hampering the development of our  see tee zzzzzzzz.