Sunday, April 4, 2010

Baarish...

Wednesday brought the first real shower of the season here in Hyderabad.



The sky had been dark and overcast for at least 3 days adding humidity to the soaring temperature. It was just getting to be unbearable.




Buddy and Ginger would refuse to come out of the air-conditioned room, savour ice-cream and even plain ice-cubes and march straight to the bath-room after their 3-times-a-day walks demanding to be bathed!





Makes me always think about the hundreds of our Indian Dogs on the street. The usual ‘families’ in our neighbourhood have disappeared! Have they shifted to more conducive locales, with better supply of food and steady source of drinking water? Are they even alive, able to trounce this heat?



But then, not many of us really care. We chop down magnificent century old trees to make way for concrete habitations as if we humans own this earth, an earth which has no place for any other animal!



The road leading to the hospital I work in was always a respite from the routine city roads till just a year back. Huge trees lined the road on either sides, pretty flowers bloomed in spring and dogs, humans, cattle and birds alike could be seen under them, taking a breather.

Of late, the landscape has been reduced to rubbles in the name of road widening. Hasn’t anybody ever heard of relocation of trees?






Forget re-location, how much does it cost to plant a few saplings as the new roads are being built? Is it necessary to build concrete foot-paths on either side of a highway? Who’s gonna WALK on a highway anyways?


 And as if that is not enough, they have gone and built a concrete footpath in the divider on that 6 lane highway! Can you get any dumber than this?






Breaks my heart, really.

No wonder Andhra Pradesh is the one of hottest states contributing to ‘Global Warming’ GENEROUSLY!!! Not to mention the draught and subsequent floods the state endured this year.



Coming home, this is the state of matters in our hospital. All greenery are rare now. This tiny little tree is struggling to survive till it is engulfed by the encroaching buildings.





And this poor little city squirrel!! Trying to adjust so hard to city life and food. For how long, I wonder!!









Definitely the Wednesday shower was a respite, even if it was for just a quarter of an hour.

Everyone complained it was short and not heavy enough. Yes, showers came earlier, were frequent and heavier till a year back. And yes, we didn’t need to buy water from the tankers last year because the underground water dried up.



Hey, I thought Al Gore said climate change is subtle and took ages to manifest.

And here I am talking in terms of a year?



If this is not scary, what else is?

 
 

5 comments:

Magali Vaz said...

You Hyderabdis are lucky (about the rain). We still have a long wait. It is really sad about the doggies :( But when I stop to think about stray dogs, I am forced to think of the homeless humans too.
The squirrel pics are beautiful, it can be very hard to get pictures of them. I had a pet squirrel once (long before I realized that keeping them as pets was illegal)It died :(
About the climate change thingy, I honestly think it's hot but still that's not all global warming, it's just that those two words are stuck in our head cause of Pachauri & Al Gore.

rivergardenstudio said...

Oh, how sad for the dogs, for the trees, and for you. You have made me appreciate our trees even more. Thank you for your comment on my blog. I wish you more rain, and planted trees. roxanne

Unknown said...

Yeah Mag,it was difficult.Clicking d squirrels i mean. i sneaked in on them from an open window on the 1st floor with a zoom lens and still somehow they could sense something! they kept fidgeting...like squirrels!!!

yeah again bout d global warming thing. but it is so disturbing the way the city landscape is being destroyed infront of our eyes. we have been here fr last 5 years and we have seen the change.

i feel so strongly for the dogs because everytime i see one hungry,thirsty dog on the street, i am reminded of my own babies Buddy and Ginger and my heart breaks :( :(

Unknown said...

U are welcome, Roxanne. Infact, i've finalised a page for my new creative blog but just haven't been able to go about working on it. Busy work days.

but i promise i'll let u know once i publish my 1st post there.

Restless Reader said...

Buddy and Ginger DEMAND to be bathed? Wow...lucky you... I would celebrate the day when Pluto "wants" to bathe, set aside demand to be bathed....

He's like a little bouncy ball when it comes to bathing. Jumps up and around, whines, barks, gives you evil eye, licks your feet...all in attempt to be let out of the bath... and once you do let him out post drying him...he jumps around every single wall and piece of furniture that he can see and scale, as to show his defiance.

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