"It’s awful- Why did nobody see it
coming?" asked Queen Elizabeth, in an event at London School of
Economics, about the Subprime crisis of 2008. Same can be said about the water
crisis residents of the Shimla- The Queen of the Hills- are facing these days. For
the past two weeks, the city has confronted a specter: an unprecedented water
shortage, on a scale never heard off and never witnessed.
But the question is did someone see it coming; executive, bureaucrats, officials, nouveau rich, environmentalist, NGOs, political parties, civil societies, the revered anglophile of the city – and of course the ever burgeoning middle class of the city. Perhaps not, we all were engrossed in our own little world; busy in our own cocoon. We had a job to do, an election to be won, a protest to be made, a policy to be made (not to implemented), a sojourn to be had, an advert- Tagline: Come to The Salubrious Abode-to be published, a house to be built (home-stay perhaps, its profitable venture, tax fee as well) and of course, profit were to be made.
Meanwhile, our worthy Mayor had a conference to attend in China; ironically conference was on "Promotion of Tourism". Everyone had their priorities cut out. How parochial it will be to question our society for this fallout, after will we did what we are supposed to do: compete to survive. Indulge in fun and frolic, even if its at any cost nature, even though the approach may be apocalyptic. So what? One life, many dreams....
But the question is did someone see it coming; executive, bureaucrats, officials, nouveau rich, environmentalist, NGOs, political parties, civil societies, the revered anglophile of the city – and of course the ever burgeoning middle class of the city. Perhaps not, we all were engrossed in our own little world; busy in our own cocoon. We had a job to do, an election to be won, a protest to be made, a policy to be made (not to implemented), a sojourn to be had, an advert- Tagline: Come to The Salubrious Abode-to be published, a house to be built (home-stay perhaps, its profitable venture, tax fee as well) and of course, profit were to be made.
Meanwhile, our worthy Mayor had a conference to attend in China; ironically conference was on "Promotion of Tourism". Everyone had their priorities cut out. How parochial it will be to question our society for this fallout, after will we did what we are supposed to do: compete to survive. Indulge in fun and frolic, even if its at any cost nature, even though the approach may be apocalyptic. So what? One life, many dreams....
Our parsimony has transcended all limits;
we bedeviled the environment at every possible opportunity. The present
situation is Kafkaesque. Unequivocally.
Look what we have made our little world:
we don’t have drinking water for weeks, forget about water 24/7, in the capital
of the State. Is this the price we will have to pay to build a so called SMART CITY?
And remember, once Shimla was the summer capital of the British India. One can
imagine the plight of people residing in villages, close to 90% of the
state lives in villages. Specter is a man-made; we all have played our role and
performed our deeds, and we still are performing incessantly.
What can I say of the tourists who flocked to Shimla amid this crisis. Ruthless. When city was craving for water, they still found it appropriate to go ahead with their vacation. How unsympathetic and casual! Empathy, the word has been deleted from our culture. What about owners of the hotels in the city ? Well, its neoliberal world: business always gets the priority over life. Life can never win the race against business. Show must go on, life can wait for another day,another summer....
What can I say of the tourists who flocked to Shimla amid this crisis. Ruthless. When city was craving for water, they still found it appropriate to go ahead with their vacation. How unsympathetic and casual! Empathy, the word has been deleted from our culture. What about owners of the hotels in the city ? Well, its neoliberal world: business always gets the priority over life. Life can never win the race against business. Show must go on, life can wait for another day,another summer....
Shimla welcomes one with sky piercing pine
and cedar trees, cobalt blue sky, verdant valley views with bucolic setting.
The mixed aroma of pine and cedar in the air is reinvigorating, the mist shrouding the mountains in monsoon and then lifting the veil slowly is like masterpiece of a painter. Swiss Bavarian,
Gothic and Tudor Architect is reminiscent of the era gone by. The city has
witnessed Shimla Manifesto in 1838, conference in 1914 which resulted in
drawing of the McMahan line between India and China, Partition broached upon in
1947, the historic Shimla Agreement in 1972, and now the first city in India to
face such a sever water crisis. Shimla, the Queen of Hills, imperceptibly has grown
old, the allure it offered is somewhat subdued; Queen that withstood the ravages
of difficult time has finally given up. Queen is a reduced picture of terrible
beauty: jaded, exhausted and deracinated. Reckless urbanization, wanton
deforestation and unabated tourism took away its life; hubris of the imperial
era is left as a soul.
We consolidate our strength and improve
upon our weakness. We don’t exploit our strength to the extent that it becomes
our weakness, and very reason of our extinction. The approach we have adopted,
as a society, is apocalyptic. This will lead us to ecocide-and there is no
coming back. Water is elixir of life, raison
d’être of life on earth. Its a man made problem and will requires man made solutions. No divine intervention will be there. We, as a society, will have to restore the ecological balance pro bono publico. We can’t ignore the mayday sent out by the Queen. Hope someone is listening, for a change. Remember! "Hell has no fury like a woman scorned"- This one is a queen...
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