Antidisestablishmentarianism

 Antidisestablishmentarianism. A word that means to oppose disestablishment. And to disestablish something means to end its establishment. So basically its the opposition to change something that was already there but is now to be removed. Still confused?

Let me explain antidisestablishmentarianism in an Indian context. India is a nation full of contrary ideologies. Where every thought and idea is equally opposed followed by another group opposing the opposers, the chain goes on and on. When some law or idea or new culture is being established we oppose the establishment. Later when due to too much opposition the law/idea/culture is being disestablished we oppose the disestablishment as well, giving rise to... antidisestablishmentarianism!

Whether it is was the age old heinous practice of sati or the still prevalent dowry system, whether its alcohol consumption or dance bars, we oppose, oppose and oppose. A nation that loves to create ruckus without trying to achieve a common goal for the good of the masses. We enjoy antidisestablishmentarianism even if we don't know the word!

The Electricity-less Superpower

India is a land of diversity and a land of promises. We are a fast growing economy and soon to be world superpowers. India is a force to reckon with and the world better not take us lightly. We will ascend the power ladder and sit on the top soon… or will we?

The recent power grid failure in the north and then the east has really made a mess of the things, people have been caused a lot of inconvenience, and the officials are left wide eyed in surprise unable to deal with it effectively. Amid all the chaos and confusion, we forgot that the world is watching us. A recent story on Time World reads as below:

 

The new power failure affected people across 13 states — more than the entire population of the European Union. They raised concerns about India’s outdated infrastructure and its insatiable appetite for energy that the government has been unable to meet.

 

I am not here to trash my country, nor do I seek to preach views and opinions on how this debacle could have been avoided or handled. All I want to do is voice my shame and sadness to have encountered such a post, that mocks my country. I also wish we weren’t making tall claims on being the next superpowers when we don’t even have a system to overcome our own power crisis. The Time World post ends with:

 

But any connection to the grid remains a luxury for many. One-third of India’s households do not even have electricity to power a light bulb, according to last year’s census.

 

If you heard a cracking sound, that is just my heart breaking… Do you feel bad too when you come across such news pieces?

Is India truly free?

I know it’s been a long time since the Republic Day and Independence Day is far away. But I did want to post this on a regular non-teaming-with-patriotic-sentiments day.

I boarded a bus to go to my college one day, it was mostly empty (an unusual thing), and so I chose a comfortable window seat, looking out the window. A few stops later a woman boarded the bus, with a child in her arms, inspite of many empty seats to choose from, she sat beside me. I gave her a smile and resumed my gazing out of the window exercise.

She opened the conversation after a few idle minutes. Asked me where I was going, in return told me the place she was headed to, she asked what I studied, in what year I was and so on. We chatted genially asking a few more general questions to and fro and then she dropped the bomb on me.

“You are a Patel?”

I told her I wasn’t; she was mildly surprised, told me I looked like one. Moments later she asked me again, “So what caste do you belong to?” With respect and the same genial manner I told her that I was a Christian.

She put her baby on her shoulder, grabbed her bag, and without a word got up from my seat and went to sit on another far away seat at the back of the bus. I was numbed with shock. Unable to believe what had happened. After a while I collected my thoughts, chose not to take it too personally and began gazing out of the window again!

The incident shook me to the core. The India about which I studied in a Social Studies class and the India I met in real life where stark opposites of each other.

The Guide

I walked down the streets of this new city, looking for a guide. I found one too, he was the best guide around everyone said. And so we embarked on our journey to explore the city.

The guide knew every nook and corner of the city. And for a while I just settled and followed his instructions. But after a while, things changed.

"Ma'am, we need to take a left, there is a beautiful lake some 5 km from here.", said he. "No, I think I'll take the right turn, it seems much more interesting than the left one!", said I. And soon after a bit of arguments and disagreements, I began guiding the guide.

It was good in the beginning, I got to see beautiful sites and vistas, but soon my directions took me to uncharted lands and filth and despair. And I began to whine and complain, accusing my guide to have led me into this dismal city.

He listened silently to all my complains, and said finally, "Ma'am, you would not have landed here, if you'd have taken my directions in the first place. I am the guide madam, its not the other way round".

Are we doing the same thing with God, giving Him a set of instructions to work on while we bid our time trying to find what we want in life, or do we get the Ultimate Guide to take the steering and lead the way.......

The Pitcher Plant of India

A pitcher plant is a carnivores plant that 'eats' flies, insects and insect larvae to get nutrition. Insectivores or carnivores plants are actually fascinating, they look like normal plants, with roots, stems and lovely flowers; but when you see them in action, you see a wonderful mechanism provided by nature to them to become accomplished hunters. It is indeed marvelous to see a plant capture a fly and then digest it leaving just a husk behind.

Now that you are familiar with the category the pitcher plant belongs to, let us become a little more specific about this particular genus. The pitcher plant is called so because it has a pitcher like  cupped form of leaves with a lid. In this 'pitcher' these plants capture their prey. These plants belong to the nepenthes genus.

During my stay in the village of Meghalaya, we went to this power plant which is situated up in the Khasi Hills. Here I saw a peculiar sort of a plant every where among the hills.





 


The locals told me it was the Tiew rakot plant, found here in abundance; but when the power plant engineer told me it was the pitcher plant, and was an endangered species I couldn't believe my eyes and my ears! I remember asking him,'The pitcher plant? The one that eats flies and insects?'. The answer I got was affirmative, and the feeling I got was that I was a part of one of the Discovery Channel shows!


I could not believe my stroke of luck to find an endangered carnivores plant in the hills of India. But there were more surprises in store for me. Do you see a pitcher like growth in the above image? With a closed lid?
Well that is the food bowl of the plant. All the insects, flies, larvae are caught in that pitcher shaped organ and then digested in it. Gross, isn't it?


So, here I am amid the scenic beauty of the Khasi Hills, still trying to digest the fact that I am here among the abundant growth of pitcher plants, when I see my lovely local friends jumping up and down the hilly slopes there hands full of the pitchers of the plant.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw them opening the pitcher and drinking its contents as if it were the elixir of life. It took a lot of self control not to throw up to see them drinking from the fly digesting innards of a plant. What I found out later was that this 'water' trapped in the pitchers was of medicinal value and could cure stomach and kidney problems. They asked me to sample one, but for me the idea was still too gross, I just did not have that sort of guts to taste that fluid. Yuck! Anyways to try and convince my friends not to offer me this drink, without hurting their feelings was a tough job. But eventually they stopped forcing me.

They filled the rest in a bottle and after that I remained thirsty till we reached back to the village, eyeing each bottle of water offered to me suspiciously. I do believe them, it must be having some undiscovered medicinal value. But for me I was satisfied to carry a specimen of the plant to take back home. Later, at home I did a bit of research and found that it was the only pitcher plant India has and goes by the botanical name of Nepenthes khasiana. 

It is a marvelous plant, the wonders of Creator reflecting in its uniqueness. All I hope and pray is that it should not become an extinct species. Discovery Channel, here I come!