When the sky talks

When we were children, our parents used to point at the sky and said, " Look at that bright little star. It's your grandmother. She passed away long ago and became a star. Now she's smiling at you from the sky." Our tiny minds became overwhelmed with strange emotions. Sometimes they told us that the scars in the moon are nothing but a deer strolling down a big Holy basil or Tulsi plant. In Assamese-  " তুলসীৰ তলে তলে মৃগ পহু চৰে !" The big and glorious sky was always standing beside us during our childhood, bewildering us every now and then.

When I was a teenager, I made friendship with the sky. I don't recall exactly now how many nights passed by counting the bright little stars and talking my heart out to a strange friend who always listened quietly, with whom I could share everything. It really felt awesome to spend the night beneath the open sky, laying in the green grass, inhaling the raw smell of the land.

Gradually, I discovered that the sky also has emotion. The vermillion coloured sky of an autumn evening smiles like a dream girl spreading its beauty everywhere. The blue sky looks so peaceful that whenever I feel down, I look upwards. "Peace is just above your heads!", the sky whispers. Have you ever noticed the rainbow across the rain drops splashing at your window glasses? Don't you feel like singing or dancing to the tune of the rain drops? I simply stare at the sky whenever lightning flashes across it. It just says, "Look how beautiful I am! Don't you think so?" The sky looks like an old man just before darkness prevails. But it springs up the very next day with new colours and new emotions.

Life is a bit hectic now. I don't get much time to see my old friend as I did in the yesteryears. But I believe that it has sprinkled lots of flavours into my life and it will continue to do so...as a good old friend!!

The Society to which I belong and the God

Human beings are social animals. That makes them different from other animals. But there are some unique characteristics and behaviours that are common to both human beings and other animals. One of those traits is to fight for survival. Animals either fight themselves or depend on others to survive. Human beings also fight. But there lies a conspicuous difference between these two types of survival methods.

For other animals, survival means food which they acquire from nature. It is as simple as that. Human beings basically need three things to survive- food, shelter and clothes. If we go down the history of human evolution, everyone will agree to the fact that there was no vast difference in the survival strategies between human beings and other animals in the past. Human beings too depended directly on nature for their survival. But the wheel of advancement pull human beings apart from other animals slowly and steadily. In todays world, there is one powerful driving force on which human beings depend for their survival. Some consider it as the God. You can acquire whatever inanimate or animate things you want if you have the God with you. It is called Money !!

If you have money you are the boss. At least that is the general doctrine in todays society. People will fall at your feet and flatter you like anything until they pull something out of you and get their motives accomplished. Humanity, kindness everything crumble in front of this God. This is the society I live in and I despise it from the bottom of my heart.

The greed for money is ruining our society from the core. I work in a place where I often see teenagers leaving studies even before finishing high schools. Their parents are too busy thinking about money. The psyche of their children also get forged in that manner. They also start to hanker after money at an early age. We lose so many things at this juncture. We lose morality, good ideology, humanity, probably some potential leaders of the society and lots of things. That is how downgrade of the society begins.

There were time when human beings survived without money, just like other animals. Why money was invented then? The answer is quite obvious. It is to make our lives easy. Wikipedia says that Money is any object or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a particular country or socio-economic context. Let me make it simpler. I need something for my survival which another person is having. Similarly that person needs something which I have. So what do we do? We exchange it. There comes the idea of money. Many things were used as medium of exchange or so called money in the past, such as, livestock and sacks of cereal grains that were themselves useful directly. Later cowry shells, beads, and then coins made from precious metals were used to exchange for more useful commodities. Money thus played a big role in our survival and making our life easy.

Money was the invention of the typical human mind. From the above discussion it can be conceived that money itself is not so devastating as it appears to be. As a matter of fact, it makes our lives quite easier than it was at the time of Adam and Eve. But it is our too much greed for money that  is taking its toll on us. Even mother Nature has not survived from the consequences of the rampage that is going on among human beings regarding money, the God! As we all know, everything has a good and a bad effect. It entirely depends on us which way we choose to go. Unfortunately, the human society is heading the wrong way. It will ultimately lead to complete destruction and extinction of the human society if we do not think for the precise measure at this very moment. The cure for this disease is nothing but to control the power bestowed upon us by the God. Let our future generations see a peaceful society where money is no more a Devil or God, but only a good friend.