Peace and Sustainability: August 2013

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Rain...Rain...Come Again!

A drop of rain- dropped,

Dropped on my dry palm,

Splashed! It went on my palm,

Crystal drops, so cherishing,

I felt the chilliness, the joy,

Go up through my veins and into…

I looked outside, Drip…drip drip,

I see you, I feel you,

You treat souls, you are there,

You make life revive.

I look- look yonder,

Saw grasses greener than before,

Farther, I saw kids splashing away,

In the puddles you created,

I saw colour, colours of umbrellas,

Colours in the rainbow,

I saw people rushing-looking for shade,

I sight drops- a thousand drops.

I assume, you have power,

Power to revitalize, oh I believe.

You possess the potential,

To rejuvenate the dry parched one

Beautiful flowers welcome you,

Birds bath in your puddles,

Children are happy to play with you,

You are indeed welcome,

We celebrate your crystal drops.

And yet, some frown to see you,

But I rejoice to have you.

~Inspired by Ruskin Bond

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Snake’s Fate or Our Faith?

Let's save our beautiful reptiles before we have killed all!

The belief that killing a snake is not a sin should be taken out of our minds. Most of the killing is occurring due to vague beliefs. In Bhutan, certain stereotyped beliefs foster the inhumane deed of killing the poisonous yet important reptiles. Some beliefs like: 1. A snake while coming out of it dwelling prays to meet a man so that it can be killed by the man. 2.Snakes never die and it is a curse for them to live. So killing the snakes will accumulate merit and help the reptile to be reborn. 3. Snakes are of two types; one with blood and one without blood and killing the one without blood is not a sin. These factors escalate the disappearance of snakes.

It is simple common sense...the snake has a soul like any other living beings and the taking of any soul is always a sin. Some compare snakes with danger but we mustn't forget that they all do it in self defense. Take for instance, if some kind of danger comes towards you, will you not defend yourself? And we must also know that animals and human share the common planet. ...so we must learn to live together in harmony. We simply coexist! The reptiles are also an important part of our ecosystem and disturbing the ecosystem is always a threat.

Sometimes, we should accept the law of nature. The snake is designed in its form by nature for various reasons. And also, when a deer is killed by a leopard, we click our tongue in pity but the obvious thing is that the scene is simply the way of nature. So the snake has poison because nature designed her so.

This pity reptile was unlucky to be seen by the inhumane people. The killers forgot their human instincts and exhibited brutal animal behavior. The snake met its end today…maybe due to its fate or our faith!

Butterflies and Flowers in Bhutan

I have very limited knowledge on butterflies and flowers and I can name very few of them. But, I really admire their elegance and beauty. Flowers blooming with butterflies hovering above them are always a treat to the eyes. I love to photograph butterflies and flowers though I am not a pro-photographer, All the photos in this post are from my personal collections.There are also some photos of moths in this post.

N.B: I am not sure of the names of most flowers, moths, butterflies that are present in this post. I have numbers assigned to each photo, please help me to get the names. You can do this kind deed through a comment or an email if you are generous.