[Bitter harvest ]

There has been a colossal tragedy in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. Over a thousand dead and still counting. And one can’t even accurately assess the magnitude of the destruction of properties and livestock. The fury of nature knew no bounds and the catastrophe has indeed been of Biblical proportions. You can’t but be saddened by the scale of this human suffering. But why do I have a kind of mixed emotions about the whole thing? Why do terms like ‘just deserts’ and ‘they had it coming’ doing summersault in my head?  Disasters at the pilgrimage sites in this country is not a new phenomenon in fact, it has become the norm rather than exception. This latest catastrophe could be attributed to the wrath of nature but the man has done his utmost to contribute in equal measure to this terrible tragedy.  It is a very fragile ecosystem in the foothills of not only the Himalayas but almost all the biodiversity hotspots where these religious sites and shrines are located. The nature has managed to achieve a very delicate balance over there. But in this day and age of the mammon, everything is an opportunity to mint money and what we are witnessing is that a lot of unscrupulous elements in cahoots with builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus have wreaked havoc at these places by attracting ever larger number of people when in actual fact these so called holy places are just not meant to be visited by such a huge throng of people no matter what. That is where the ever increasing religiosity in our society comes into the picture. Year after year, the throng of people visiting these places is getting humongous which has had a terrible cost on the fragile ecology and limited infrastructure along these sensitive zones, but the greed of some people knows no bounds. Lots of guest houses have been constructed right up to the river banks in the shallow waters and when these were buffeted by heavy flooding due to swollen rivers, they collapsed like house of cards resulting in so many losses of lives.

The larger point I would like raise is this growing craze of the Indian middle classes to visit ever exotic religious places in such a huge and unmanageable numbers that would stretch the resources of any place never mind these fragile and delicate zones like the foothills of the Himalayas.  I have very little idea where my latent rage trying to aim at, but I’m frankly appalled at the ever increasing religiosity among a growing section of the middle classes. It would be all worthwhile if this religion thing had helped the people becoming more compassionate and ethical in conducting themselves in the real world, but unfortunately the reverse is the case. What these millions gathering at such places denotes is a kind of unbridled consumption in the Gods market; every pilgrimage site has become a religious super market where you would like to flaunt your ability to consume in ever greater numbers at the wares on offer. I mean how smug they are in their certitude about their place in the larger scheme of things, these people who wouldn’t bother to give alms to a beggar or a leper, would go to any extent to strike a bargain in the divine marketplace. When something goes wrong, like this recent calamity for instance, they would blame the same Gods with whom they had come to bargain in the first place! Ultimately, you have to accept that your blind faith may give you momentary respite from your pain but what about suffering? There is no getting away from it for pain is external but suffering is internal. Whether you do good or you do evil, suffering will always be your reward and there is no escaping the punishment. So why bother the Gods  needlessly.