On world forestry day, I recalled
Simon and Garfunkel song of the 70's:
I'd rather be a forest than a
street, Yes, I would, if I could, I surely would.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6d3yVq1Xtw
Yes, I too would. Though,
I do love streets, especially, the streets as they used to be in the 70s in our
Kerala - Indian suburbs and rural 'cities' - as the Malayalees of high ranges
would name them - Kadukka city, Kamaakshi city, Kuruvila city, Nirmala City,
Palappilla city, NR city ....
I don't mind being the streets
of Europe - cobbled, traffic less, clean, pedestrian friendly, giving a
good-feel of a bygone era, inviting with very many local delicacies intricately
displayed in the company of those crystal goblets to be filled with the aromatic
extracts of grapes! The usual delicatessen of those streets, however, would
definitely be anti-forest in effect, as they come about thanks to destruction
of large tracts of forests, with meat 'cultivated' on vast tracts of land, which,
otherwise would have been forests, or could have been agro-forests. So, I am
pulled by the attraction of meat, and the reality of destruction that does not
meet the eye of one who sits in the comfort of that street. In such cases,
ignorance is bliss!
Coming back to Kamaakshi and
Kadukka cities, which for us plains people of Kochi would have been Junctions
in those days, and of Alappuzha, would have been 'Padmaakshi kavala' or so,
where people could come, get their provisions, have a typical tea (light, slightly
sweet, with some milk added and beaten to foam @ a metre! To people like me,
who got used to the sweet, strong, milky tea of UP, insipid!), get all the
information of the locality, exchange pleasantries, and go back locally
connected; in some cases, inebriated...but all these, again, a man's domain,
and very little to do with women.
When it comes to forest from
the streets, it could be anyone's - especially for the forest dwellers, devoid
of those urban cities or those rural 'cities' and their paved or unpaved
streets - forest was for men and women. Breathing well, happy for food
that is obtained, not necessarily on time, as per a schedule of eating, but
still healthy, and sustaining oneself within those limited means, growing
strong, having very limited expectations to be disappointed or fall into
despair, or depression. The wildness that lets fit ones survive through
natural selection, while still not depriving beings of the merits and values of
coexistence! That is forest! And without any claim, sequestering
carbon emitted everywhere, and keeping those venomous spirits under check with
the verdant happy foliage covering the stress it bore without ever claiming
that or without ever knowing that.
I feel happy for the sparrow which
came to (lime) light some two decades back. In Malayalam, they were called 'angadi
kuruvikal'. Though not much of a bird enthusiast in those school
days, I did notice these birds; but when they came into the news with their
gradual disappearance, I recalled that we used to see them in the streets of
Ernakulam Angadi (market), and not much in our neighbourhoods. They used to
feed on grains that escaped the grain stores through the tiny cracks of their
jute sacks. It was reported that they began to disappear as the grains
had something that was detrimental to their reproduction - perhaps, pesticides. Was that
another silent spring? But the decrease was obvious, so thus began the
observance of Sparrow Day. And now I like that it is just preceding the
Forest Day.
Happy for the sparrows, for the
streets, for the forests and for me, we have also another 'holiday' now falling
on 20th of March, where people are reminded that they are, all said and done,
called to be happy! Now since most of the days they are just out in the
street, and away from the soothing natural forests, in the concrete forests, with tons
of carbon emitted every second, and with no forests to absorb it, they fall
prey to pessimism and depression very easily - so on the whole, human story
appears sad!? Hence, they are invited with the sparrows to be happy, in
spite of the odds. Now sparrows seem to be coming back. Is happiness coming back?
Is happiness like the sparrow - in spite of the fall of one, life continuing
unabated - as the boy bird hunter turned the arch ornithologist Salim Ali would
observe in his master-piece 'Fall of the Sparrow' (1986)?
Don't really know. The new
measurements of the manipulative humans devoid of and away from the forests and
condemned to be in the self-created destructive concrete forests, have managed
to measure 'happiness' and rank happiness, and proclaim Finland the happiest
place as per their norms. But willy-nilly, they also agree, happiness can also
be beyond these fantastic measurements, and thus Bhutan without any scope for
measurements, can also be considered a happy (the happiest) place!
Now today, as we celebrate
forests with possibilities for sparrows and humans, tigers and hares (by the
way, yesterday, in Keralam, in Seethathodu, Pathalil Somarajan was confused as
to be happy or sad, delighted or terrified. A tiger was literally caught
napping in the porch of his house. His normal (not neo-normal) instinct
let a cry out; and perhaps, the tiger was in no mood for confrontation, quickly
cleared the scene. He feels it to be a second birth!), huge rose wood, and flexy willow to co-exist, the desire to be a forest
for a city-single-room-dweller like me, is one romantic feel; whereas for a farmer, who
ekes out a living with a forest-friendly government breathing threats of
eviction all around, and with big cats and stray dogs finding greater
acceptance with the governments these very Somarajans have elected, and with uncertainty
regarding the bona fides of these beautiful fellow planeters, desire now
is to be a street than a forest! Can they be blamed? So, at least some exchange
could be thought of between the city foresters and the real foresters, at least
for a change!
But still couldn't agree with
someone more, if they have said, 'forest is a poem', and hence we could
celebrate the forest day as poetry day as well. Forest to me is indeed a
poetry. It is there to read and relish, but can one be in the poetry? I
wonder! Still my desire today is to make our streets as foresty as
possible, and more than that, to leave at least a patch of the planet thriving, verdant and forested for the posterity. I look forward to that. And
I salute the few who can be the heroes of the story of the 'man who planted
trees' (Jean Giono 1953) - It could be Jadev Payeng of Assam, or Kallen
Pokkudan of Malabar, or Abdul Kareem of Kasaragod, or Wangari Maathai of Kenya or it could still be me, who
is passionately after trees.
But I cannot resist thinking
why Simon and Garfunkel wanted to be a 'sparrow than a snail'. Naturally,
I feel the same way. What about the poor snail? Will the sparrow have a
face-to-face interview with the snail? Less likely. With African snails
now wreaking havoc with the forest (green) stubs in the blue-green Kochi, I have
less sympathy for the snails, and I would indeed be a sparrow than a
snail. In spite of my desire to be 'ahimsic', I was part of the
special squad dedicated daily evenings for the systematic annihilation of these
enemies of Indian Kerala forests, acknowledging brutal killings of thousands of
them, and even of having waged chemical warfare (salt solution) on them.
No regrets! They were indeed voracious eaters, and incorrigible multipliers.
And indeed, I was the 'hammer' that sometimes hit them as if they were the
nail.
Thanks to Simon and Garfunkel,
(in late 1970s, having borrowed the music of the Peruvian composer - Daniel
Alomia Robles 1913 - copy right controversies notwithstanding, filled the music
with these sweetly challenging English lyrics) who sum it up with an earthy touch
- I would rather feel the earth beneath my, Yes, I would, if I only could, I surely
would... Yes, indeed! The earth below our feet is quickly slipping away, and we
ought to convert our streets to forests to ensure that there is earth below our
feet. Now is the hour!
Tail end: But with our
students, today, in the desert school campus, we added to our patch of forest 1) Mulberry (Morus
alba)
2) Lemon (Citrus limon) 3) Shoe Flower (Hibiscus
rosa-sinensis) and 4) Miswak (Salvadora persica) - Tooth brush tree.
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