Monsoon Madness

 Every year it happens. There are two masks to it. The title must have clarified what I am talking about. Let us talk of these two masks. Behind the first one lie the comparatively well-off citizens. They live in rather posh societies right by the riverside. 

Do not they know the dangers of flooding when their gated society is right next to the flood line of the river bed? Who allows the construction of such buildings? Who is to blame? The corrupt unconcerned officials in the system and/or the educated, unconcerned citizens/buyers who wake up to their rights only during the monsoon? Do not these citizens have any responsibilities to Mother Nature at least? Where would the monsoon waters, regular or excessive, go if the rivers are not allowed any breathing space at all? Whole cities are entirely carpeted with cement roads with inadequate drainage and river beds are encroached upon with hi-fi societies. Where does the monsoon water flow in to?

Like the 'adventure and selfie freaks' who are up to all sorts of stunts for a reel and an adrenaline high, but want the systemic help in the hour of crisis, are not the apartment buyers also very much responsible for the havoc every monsoon causes?

Now let us look at the other mask. Your WhatsApp must be flooding with cuuuute and oh-so-politically-correct messages about how you should help the swatch sweepers because their bastis are flooded. Why do not these melting hearts, before the monsoon, take upon themselves the politically correct and socially very much necessary duty of gathering all the basti-wallahs and cleaning up the nullahs whose centuries-old beds are encroached by the ghettoes? Why conveniently hide behind the governance duties of the system? Why do not such 'aware' and concerned/caring citizens constructively advise their support staff of all sorts not to build juggies in to the river/nullah beds? Why do not these melting hearts conduct sit-in's and/or protests before the monsoon for cleaning up of nullahs whose banks are marauded to the brim?

The heavy rains are  not completely under human control, though human beings ARE responsible for the climate change, too. Where can the excess (or even regular) monsoon waters in the catchment areas of dams, necessary for human consumption yet again, go if downstream water beds are encroached every which way? 

The politically correct responses are absolutely partial, moreover. They would blast, and rightly so, the roads and constructions work in the Himalayas. Ask them about the more than hundred years old mud-n-mortar Mullaperiyar dam which is a ticking water bomb. All of them would go absolutely, and conveniently, deaf-n-dumb because it is politically correct to blast only a certain political party! Incidentally, I wrote to Ravish Kumar for a video on this issue. No response at all. Not a single video has happened on this theme, at least not according to my limited knowledge.

Human hypocrisies  and selfishness-es of all sorts are the real and only cause behind the annual monsoon madness! It happened last year, nay decade, it has happened this year, it will continue to happen next year because Mother Nature, typically like kind parents, however furious, continues to forgive!

Pratima@Equally are responsible for the 'curious' (in all senses of the term) annual monsoon madness, the system and the citizens!