So much time has passed by, since we last met. I could never have imagined that there will come such a time when we will not see each other for months and years. Honestly, I knew that there would be such a time. We both knew but we never thought about it. At the very least, I can speak for myself because I am not sure about you.

Now that I think about it, a question seldom pops-up in my mind. Did I really know you? In fact, did we ever really know each other? It felt like we did but may be that was just a mirage. We hardly knew each other. I had a version of you in my mind. Maybe that was also you but not in your entirety. The same goes for how you saw me. What could have been the reason? Was it our over-confidence that made us belief that I have seen the ‘real-you in you’ and you have seen the ‘real-me in me’? Was it the shallowness of our relation or was it the very truth about the human nature that it is very dynamic and no one can be 100% of their real-selves before anyone? I do agree to the last fact, but still our knowledge about each other was shallower by any standards. I don’t know the reason precisely and frankly, neither do I want to stroll in the meadow of these irrelevant questions, for what use will it be of? What has been done is already in the past and what’s left is regret (or not?). The more you think about it, the more you could feel the shallowness of our bond which at least I thought was deep enough to last long. I don’t feel sad either, there is just some kind of unsaid regret within me. The regret of ever meeting you in the first place, then the regret of letting you be all by yourselves perhaps when you needed me the most. Also the regret of not bidding a proper farewell when it was the last chance for us to meet and bid our last good byes. However, we did not know at that time that we would never be meeting again. It was all a matter of chance that it turned out to be our last time together, which we both missed. Honestly, I don’t even remember when was the last time we met and hung out with each other. There are several memories of me hanging out with you, but I cannot remember the very last meeting we had. I cannot point to any moment in the maze of my memory with a sigh and call it the last time we met each other. Is it meant to be good? I am not sure, though. As for the last time we met, would the conditions have been different if we would have known that this is going to be our very last moment together? I am not sure about it either!

However, I can vividly recall the day when I was leaving. Though I was never meant to leave for good, in the first place, but still I did wait for you to come and see me and wish me the best for the endeavor I was going to have. However, you didn’t even call, let alone coming to see me off. But as usual, I understood! ( Actually this is the thing I hate about the version of me which you knew and I tried to be.)

I had a lot of time to think about all this in the past and the only thing I could conclude decisively is that we hardly knew each other. Maybe I was wrong to think that the very version of you that is in my mind is the real-you and maybe you were wrong to be over-confident to think that you have already gauged me in my entirety. We will never know why our bond was so shallow. Time has already taken its turn and may be it was because of the shallowness of our bond that it could not face the test of the time.

Now, we sit in two different corners of the world, completely ignorant of each other’s condition. Time is really something! Isn’t it? We may, at times, think about each other, or may be not. We may never get to meet each other, ever again. I am not sure about any of this but I am indeed sure about one thing- that I will always remember this past, as a lesson and as a refuge. The very version of you that I have in my mind, is still very much alive and it knows the real-depths of me and it will always be alive. At times, we come across some people and situations which teach us a lot. Those lessons should never be forgotten. I do realize the fact that I may never have the kind of bond we had, with anyone else and it, indeed, has its own merit and demerit. Merit being I would not like to have such pretentious and shallow bond with anybody but if fate played out well, I may get a chance to have something worthwhile, and the demerit being, I don’t really want to have anything to do with anyone now. I am done for good.

As for the question of getting to meet each other again, I would like to look forward to it. I am really curious to see how things will unfold then. However, the possibility of it ever happening is itself very distant, me seeing you face to face again, and that is why I would not like to keep my hopes high. Lastly, the question with which all this trail of thoughts began in the first place is in itself very absurd and embarrassing and no matter how hard I try I could never get an answer to it, for it is the very nature of the future to unfold in the most unprecedented way possible. We only have the capacity to be a mere sight-seer who can do nothing but see the fate unfolding. This entire trail of thoughts have brought be back to square one, to the very same question of which I don’t know the answer, or maybe I don’t want to know the answer because I am not even sure in what way I would like to see the future unfold- will we ever meet again? Will we……?

Australia is currently facing one of the biggest forest fires in its history. From September 2019, the forests of the land of Kangaroos have been burning. The forest fires have largely affected the Australian state of New South Wales. The continuous rise in temperature & the prolonged drought in the state have forced the government to declare a state of emergency in December 2019. As of 14^th January 2020, these blazing infernos have charred around 18.6 million hectares of forest land and had claimed 29 lives. Over 2900 homes have been destroyed and over half a million animals have been burnt alive or choked to death. Besides the ravaging affect it had on the flora & fauna of the island nation, the fires have also degraded the quality of air in the country. The smoke & soot from the burning infernos have had a serious blow on the air quality index at several places. A plume of smoke has even crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires.

Many celebrities & countries across the world have lent their helping hands to the people of Australia. Some foreign governments have expressed their intention of helping the Australian government with manpower or with donations. This unfortunate event has showcased the spirit of universal solidarity but more pertinent are the lesson that the world, especially India could learn from Australia, so that such a colossal destruction of flora & fauna could be avoided in the future. Many countries share the same climatic and geo-political scenarios with Australia which includes similarity of terrain & of the general political attitude towards environment. In 2019, India witnessed two conflicting scenarios. On one side, the drought-afflicted locals of Chennai were praying for some rainfall while Mumbai was reeling under a deluge. Long ago, these disparities were considered to be caused by nature’s vagaries, but science has now shown that human induced climate change is the cause behind such disparities. Human actions have been credited for making the world warmer, disrupting rainfall patterns and increasing the frequency of extreme events.

It is high time now for us to accept that climate change is a reality now & it needs to be acknowledged. Worldwide, fire seasons are getting longer & more damaging. World is becoming hotter & drier and rainfall is decreasing. In 2019, the Australian temperature was 1.5° C higher than the long run average. We cannot forget the California fires of 2018 which claimed 80 lives and caused the evacuation of a part of the city of Los Angeles. India is no better in its record. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the temperature in India has risen by 0.6° C over the last century. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, around 2400 Indians lost their lives to extreme weather events in 2018-19. Yet the issue of climate change is the elephant in the room which nobody talks about. Climate change is hardly the issue in our election campaigns. We could spare our attention to Pakistan during our election debates but not to the perils of climate change & what policy a particular party holds in that regard. As a matter of fact, no political party in India has an ardent desire to address the issue of climate change. This is rather disappointing when we see elections in some other countries being won by several political parties solely on their stance on climate change. We need to stop relegating the issue of climate change as an issue of secondary importance.

As fires get worse, the old ways to address & contain them become obsolete. Australia’s fire-fighting services & strategies are one of the best in the world yet they proved to be inadequate to protect the nature & wildlife from the blazing woods. The enforcement of fire safety regulations in India is quite a challenge in itself. Non-compliant construction & a gross overlook of the fire safety standards & measure are rampant in India. Whenever an incident of fire takes place, the media could be seen reporting the absence of fire-extinguishers & other basic safety equipments. How can we forget the fire in a coaching institute in Surat (Gujarat) which claimed the lives of about 20 innocent children? Indian fire safety services need a complete overhaul and the regulations concerning land-use & safety requirements need strict enforcement. It is rightly said that prevention is better than cure. Attention is also required to explore scientific measures and structures that could resist flames and to recognize areas not suitable for a particular human use.

Climate change not only affects the nature but it also affects the economy of a country. A very recent example could be the Australian inferno itself which has caused a severe blow to the Australian markets and has left its mark on the global economy as well. The timber plantations have been destroyed and tourists were scarce. The supply of various other agrarian & diary products has been negatively hit. The final nail in the coffin has been the debt on the insurance sector of the country. Insurance claims have reached the mark of 375 million Australian dollars. Similarly, the California fires have cost their insurance firms $24 billion. Now such firms are unwilling to underwrite homes in dangerous places. It has now become clear that if the government or residents will not act, the financial markets will surely do. Indian economy is already going through tough times, having faced a slump in its GDP growth rate. At this juncture, it will not be able to bear the burden of huge debt which could be another blow to the economy. Today, India needs the awareness among its citizens & their acknowledgement of the perils of climate change. Climate change should be an agenda in our elections and the politicians who fail to deal with climate change disasters must find their credibility going up in smoke. The world needs to be quick in learning the lessons from the Australian disaster & to act on it so that we could protect our planet & our own existence in the future.

It was a late winter evening. The mercury was dropping low & there was an air of uncanny silence on the streets. The usual confusions & commotions of the streets were marred by the chilly evening that could easily send a shiver down the spine. Low murmurings from the nearby houses could be heard amidst the gloomy silence. The lead sky enveloped the entire town. The only sound that could be heard on the street amidst the abominable silence was that of my foot-steps. As I was striding fast towards my home, my eyes caught the sight of a park on one side of the street. It was the same park in which I, as a child, used to spend hours playing with my friends. Those good old days were really splendid. The revival of the sweet memories of my childhood forced me to cool my heels in that park & I just went inside & sat on a bench. The serene & calm environment of the park was exactly what I needed after burning the candle at both the ends, this entire day.

Just as I was pondering over the entire day & wondering about how on this earth would I be able to finish the loads of pending assignments piled on my table, I could feel a cool breeze blowing past my head. Instinctively, I threw my gaze in the direction of the wind & my eyes caught sight of something. From the far end of the street, the glimpse of a strange shadow caught my attention. As the shadow approached my proximity, it revealed itself to be a boy in his late teens. There was something unwonted about that boy. As he was staggering across the street, his pale cadaverous face & the slouch body could be seen in the dim light of a nearby lamp-post. His mind, like a ragamuffin, was trudging in its own world of thoughts. He seemed to have had no conscious of how long he has been striding on that street. The boy didn’t seem to be a vagrant at the usual sight. His demeanor was quite modest. His queer absorption in his own silence made me really curious. He came near me & sat on the same bench in the park on which hitherto I was the only living creature sitting in that chilly evening. He looked at me, perhaps with an aim to break that chilly silence but something choked him. Probably he wished to speak his heart out, that’s the best I could gauge by looking at his face. I was cock sure that there was something for him to speak, something to share but at the same time something held him back. This dilemma held him in between the devil & the deep-sea. I could easily read his face at that time & I am saying this not because I am blowing away my own trumpet, but because his silence spoke much more than his words would ever speak. After making his best efforts, he finally condescended to whatever held him from speaking out his heart. He dropped his head back in the ambiguity of his thoughts. Sitting beside him, I could not control my urge to sneak in to his mind, so I decided to break the ice.

“It has been really a chilly evening, don’t you think so?” I quipped in a soft voice.

My first attempt went unnoticed. It was not a big thing because I understood it very well that I don’t have the gift of the gab. Perhaps my question would have sounded too silly to him to answer. We were just strangers after all and one could easily say that by that time, he was not at all in the mood of having any kind of conversation. Still I made a second attempt.

“Hey pal!” I murmured like an old comrade. My perseverance answered me this time. He lifted his eyes and threw a gaze up on me. I could easily understand what he was trying to communicate non-verbally. Perhaps my little attempt has disturbed his voyage in the ocean of his queer thoughts & I understood that my words of concern meant no more than a piece of jargon to him. There was a sea change in his attitude over that short period of time. The guy, who seemed to have a lot of things to speak, was almost like a hermit who just wished to be left alone in his own ambiguity, undisturbed. He stood up all of a sudden and staggered away from me.

“How can anybody be so rude?” I asked myself. However I reminded myself that it would be better to abstain from making any conjecture about a person you know nothing about. This unusual & strange meeting with a stranger made me lose track of the time & I just looked at my watch to know how late it has been since I was sitting there. It showed 8 O’clock & the air was colder than before. The load of my college-assignments at my table took a toll at me and I thought it would be better if I make it fast to my home. Just as I stood up and took some steps in my direction, I realized that I had stepped on something. It appeared to be a book at the first sight. I stooped low & picked it up. Just as I opened it I realized that it was not just a book, a diary in fact. It was not there when I first came in the park this evening. Perhaps it belonged to that strange guy who might have dropped it there. Lost in his own thoughts, he would not have even realized it. I cannot decipher anything else written on it, just some initials which were calligraphed in beautiful italic style. It read A S. I went near the lamp-post in an attempt to read the name on it. “This diary belongs to Aniket Sinha”, it read. This was perhaps the name of that strange boy. It even had an address at its bottom. “B-9, Arjun Nagar”, it was. I thought I should go & return it at that address but recalled that it would take me quite a long time on foot to reach there & back. Anyway Arjun Nagar is on the way to my college, so I decided that I would return it tomorrow when I will be heading home from my college. Having reached the conclusion, I headed home in a hurry.

It was only after walking through a small distance when I heard the sound of footsteps other than mine, trying to dissimulate in the rustling of the leaves. Suddenly the graveyard silence was broken. I heard a voice calling out ‘Excuse me!’ I turned back in exasperation & found the same boy standing right behind me. “I think you have got something which belongs to me” he quipped. I, at once, looked at my hand which held that book. “Oh! Yeah! I just found it lying on the pavements in the park. Sorry!” I said at once. By now, he has fixed his sight back on the ground. I handed him the book. “I cannot afford to lose this diary now” he murmured, while gazing at the book. His voice had clear signs of nostalgia. His thoughts brought a strange & uncanny silence between us. The silence grew more & more awkward as we both kept mum and it started to get on my nerves, so I threw him another question in a jiffy.

“Where do you live Aniket?” I asked.

The discomfiture that this question brought to him was quite discernible. He raised his head at once. Now he was looking straight into my eyes. “I am not Aniket” he answered, “I am Nishkarsh. Aniket was my friend.”

“Oh! Sorry. I just read the name Aniket on that diary, so I thought it must be you.” I told him. Surprisingly, this time he answered me instantly. He said, “This diary belongs to my friend.” As he spoke about his friend, there was a tinge of anguish on his face which he could not hide, despite his deliberate efforts. So I thought to change the topic. I asked him, “Where do you live?” He answered, “Sheetal Nagar, near Holi Maidan.” “Oh! That’s on my way. Would you mind if I accompany you in your walk?” I asked him, hoping for a positive response. He gave his assent and we both started our small journey.

While we were on our way, I thought to take a leap into the dark and ask him about his friend. Perhaps this question could answer my urge to know more about him. I asked him, “You both must have been really good friends, I mean then only he would have given his diary to you to read.” His uneasiness grew further at this question. By now, I was chiding myself for having asked such a question that is no less than a fatal arrow to the man who seems to be already in the blues. With a long face, he answered it.

“I wish I would have realized what you just said but perhaps it’s too late now. He was a guy with all the qualities of head & heart. A person on whom I counted on, each time I had any problem, a person who used to be at my beck & call, each time I needed him, a person who would throw his own problem to the winds to stand beside me in my sorrows, a person who would never let me lose hope even when he himself used to be skeptical of anything.  He kept the wolves away from my door; he cared for me like an elder brother and expected neither acknowledgement nor anything else. But what did I do, I have always been so callous and indifferent towards him. Whenever we used to sit with our other friends, his presence meant nothing to me as I used to be so much absorbed in my chit-chats with other friends which were more enthralling for me. In fact whenever he needed an ear to hear his problems & worries, I didn’t lend mine. My indifference didn’t make any difference. He would ignore everything each day and start afresh. If I would have been at his place and he would have taken mine, I would have left him far behind but he never did. He was so tenacious when it came to keeping our friendship alive. He never left my side through my thick & thin & I used to leave him alone most of the time. Now that he is gone, I really reprehend myself for what I have done.”

“So finally his perseverance yielded and he has left you behind.” I chuckled.

He gave me a nostalgic smile and said, “He could never do that even in his wildest dreams. I know him. No matter how good or bad of a friend I ever turn out to be, he will never leave the person he called his ‘best friend’. Such people are really rare. Somehow I got my hands laid on this old diary. Now that I have read it, I realize what I have done. I could have reciprocated his friendship but I never did. I could have been with him all the time, but I just made him feel unwanted each time. My behavior has had a grave impact on him. His faith on friendship has been benumbed. Yet he didn’t say a word, just confided everything in his diary. Lately, he started enjoying his solitude rather than the human company and now I hold myself responsible for it. Even after all of this, he didn’t want to leave without meeting me for the last time.” He lowered his head as he said these last words.

“It means you have met him before he left the town. I am sure you would have made up for everything you now regret for.” I took a sigh of relief.

But he was not happy. “I wish I could have got the chance to do what you said”, he said, “You know what the last thing he did was? He saved me from a fatal accident and that idiot person met my doom.” A tear rolled down his eyes as he recalled it. “Even at the hospital, he didn’t breathe his last breath until he met me, one last time.” Now I can realize what he meant when he said that Aniket ‘was’ his friend.

By this time, we found ourselves in front of his door and he left me to tread on my remaining path alone. I was just wondering how a person can be so selfless. Aniket never received the same acceptance as a friend as he gave it to Nishkarsh. His selfless efforts were never acknowledged yet he never complained. He just did what was ought to be done, made his mark & left the stage. As for Nishkarsh, what is the use of repenting over his follies now, when you cannot change anything? I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even realize that I have reached my door. Today, as I jot down this incident, I really wish Aniket could have got something better in return.  I recall the words of Mother Teresa who once said, “Loneliness & the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” Aniket gave so much to others and yet remained poor. I don’t know much of their story but I really wish I would have got a friend like Aniket. Lately, that late winter evening has baffled me with some unanswered questions. Could Aniket have met a better end? Didn’t his story deserve a way better ending? These questions are subjective, their answers vary from person to person and I do realize it. Having found my own answers to these questions, I sign off.

Sound of Silence

Far far from the realm of peace,

Just lend an ear to the ailing planet’s screech;

What now has it turned out to be?

From the beautiful planet that we got in heredity?

Such a magnificent beauty our planet had,

The seven seas & the lush green land,

The myriad of species & the verdant woods,

The rivers, the lakes & the sea-shore sand.

But now the silence is lost.

Have we been so callous to know its cost?

Panic & mayhem is all I see

In the land which was once the home of serenity.

We have served ourselves to death in a tray,

The spite of despondence & the inhuman dearth,

Have divided us by narrow religious & lingual walls.

Wars with gases, wars with nukes & wars with fire,

Colossal destruction is what we seem to desire;

But what else would these wars get us in turn,

Besides a victory with no survivors.

Only this war is not our foe,

 it’s a tale of doom & death that we started long time ago,

 Our reckless development has blotted our nature,

 It is a mishap that would leave alive no creature.

 Perhaps the sound of silence may help us to retrospect,

 To mend our follies & learn to respect

the nature & its diversity;

It’s only in the silence that we realise what we commit.

Let us all stand still for a moment,

And not move our arms so much

Let us see the silence prevail,

And this may make the violence derail.

I know the idea is quite quixotic,

But that moment would be so exotic

To see the bounds of language & religion shatter,

And the time when the ‘self’ over ‘others’ would not matter.

If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving,

Then we would not have been in a dilemma of never understanding ourselves,

Then we would not have been so selfish to think only about ourselves,

Then we would not have been wreathing a flowery band for our own graves.

Break O’ break open till it breaks the town,

 Let the walls of lingual fanaticism shatter down,

 Let the narrow narcissism taste vanquish

& let humanity transcend voracity & avarice.

A moment of pause & a moment of silence is all I hail,

To let the sound of silence prevail,

Humanity, peace & brotherhood shall be ushered,

By this sound of silence upon this earth.