One of the sweetest moments of our life is home coming experience. Wherever one may be, his home and her native land and neighbourhood is closest to her heart, however ugly or dirty the home and native town may be, it remains perched in the green land of our memory, forever lovely and refreshing.
On this subject, I posted a comment on one of the posts in Arunachal Diary. I am re-producing it down below because I felt so nostalgic about it when I read it again this morning.
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Cho, you have captured the basic essence of Ziro life in a concise and lucid manner. It still gives me goose bumps as we start to ascend the hills from Yazali. As one drives through hairpin bends, cool breeze is felt smooching your cheeks and gently weaving through your hair as if mother is running her loving fingers through hair while we are asleep in her bossom. One can smell the pine trees and feel freshness of mountain air coursing down your lungs.
But this magical scenery lasts till one reaches Ziro town proper. As soon as one enters Hapoli town one starts his life on a war footing, as you have to negotiate with numerous pot holes, dirty drains, spilled sewages,unplanned and ugly houses littering the lovely landscape, pigs, cows dogs and numerous four legged animals fighting with you for teir right to way. Town itself is no better than any slum. I wish we could do something to tidy up this dirt.Whenever I come over to Ziro, I spend most of my time in tending my bamboo and pine groves and little forest areas that my father owns. I feel better being outside among the fields and trees rather than Ziro town itself.
The thoughtless deforestation is the sad part of modern Ziro. Forest conservation in Apatani society was one of age old social wisdom of Apatanis which they have lost to the greed for quick money. Lets hope the cast away wisdom is picked up by younger generations.Ziro has a beautiful landscape and if its growth is planned properly and strict regulations for construction of new buildings are imlpemented, may be it will attract decent number of tourists. But whatever is to be done has to be done with urgency, otherwise it will be too late and the place will be littered with ugly scene of concrete jungle.
7 comments:
Solid concern - a concern I have been sharing with anybody lending me an ear. It is time some people with vision come together, formulate a sustainable management plan for Ziro and force it to be implemented - whatever the whims of the policy makers or wills of the politicians.
Hi Kanno !
I can understand your concern and your desperation. I also try to bring it out in any forum or gathering that I get chance to interact. Its true, people with vision and concern for Ziro needs to band together to instill civic sense and sense of responsibility, towards society and place in tune with time.
With due respect to politicians and policy makers, who have their own compulsions with respect to their profession, we may excuse them and take the responsibility on our shoulders who are guided by their conscience rather than material or professional compulsions.
Well, now the question is how to effect our concern into actions which will bear fruits. We can start suggesting manners by which we can transform Ziro into a place of our vision. These are few thoughts (at Philosophical level) which I suggest will help to provide an environment conducive to implement sustainable development of Ziro.
1. Charity begins at home. We can start by living our own life as we want others to live by. I remember when I was growing up as a boy, I saw my uncle Dr. Dani Duri sweep our lengo(surroundings ) and cleaning chocked drainage whenever he used to come on vacation from his College. And when there was a topic of broadening internal village roads, myself and Dr. Duri's family voluntarily built our house around two metere away from the edge of the road before everyone else did. I Think these acts have salutory effects on the young minds.
2. We have too many apatani social organisations which starts with lofty ideals only to vanish from the scene even without a whimper. So, we need to look beyond such organisations as vehicle of social transformation.
3. We dont want so called intellectuals who come with grand ideas as to how to preserve our language and culture, who draw up great designs and programmes for such a cause, but who in his private life gives damn to such cause, who will not care to speak in apatani language to his own wife or children, though he might take pains to teach apatani to maids working in his house.
We want people who understands the importance of English and other such language which will equip our youngsters to face challenges of life wherever on earth he wants to go, but also teach the importance of our own culture and heritage, of language and customs that are unique to our own people.
4. A committee of people who are bound by their common moral responsibility rather than the sets of rules written with golden inks only to sharpen their skill in breaking it in the best possible manner for personal aggrandizements.
5. We need such a group of people who will live in truth with all its personal miseries than in hypocrisy with all its attendant luxuries. ( Truth may not need to be miserable all the time, nor hypocrisy a sure sign of prosperity.)
6. Such people of understanding and maturity who understands and bears with shortcomings of our fellow brothers, whose weaknesses are only humane like each of us.
7. Such perceptive mind to understand that we are people with shortcomings in many spheres of our life only to be compensated with such good qualities in other aspects of our life. So, of hypocrite intellectuals I talked about doesnt mean I dont have admiration on other aspects of their life in which God has blessed them bountiful. Nor does it rule out my own hypocrisy of which, I am sure must be more visible to others as compared to my own take of myself.
So, such perceptive mind to mine the good things from each one of us and help in subduing the darker side of each of us is needed.
8. A group of people who need not be steeped in intellectualism, but who, in the commonest term understands that society consists of people who constitute it. Its good and evil comes from within society and not from without. Since it is the conscience of the of people who populate the society that shapes society as such, it is imperative upon us to build on our conscience and atittude.
9. A group of people who believe in working on the nature of conscience, for conscience left to itself is like a fair lady with easy heart who gives way to every man who are blessed with some words of flattery or it( Conscience) will turn into a heart of men who with absolute faith in absolute power of money and muscle will give a dime for the values of humanity.
Populate a society with people who have conscience of sincerity and honesty, people with positive attitude, people who respect law and authority but are not serve servient and have the mind and courage to inquire into goodness of its acts, you will have a prosperous and contented society.
10. Having built such society ( Oh it is too lofty a claim), I rather say having provided a social environment where peoples conscience are tuned to understand, that, well being of himself and society are dependent on each other, .. towards the understanding that our individual life and society's life are symbiotic in nature, and can not exist in isolation, we may perhaps be able to implement such policy which will bring happines, prosperity and modes of its sustainance to the society.
11. Before I depart from this philosphical level, let me make it clear that such attitude and conscience can not be enforced by any kind of legislation or rules.
It will have to be imbibed as a part of life style, and this can be done best if elders and senior members of society practice it. It will have to be lived and bequeted as a tradition
I shall work on suggestions for taking practical steps towards sustainable development plan some time later.
Sulu, let us keep our thoughts flowing. They precede dreams which are needed to initiate any action.
A good issue is addressed here...
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