Aasraa by #Sandeep #Silas ‘deep’

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…contd.

Shelter 

She has started liking me thus immeasurable

Without a reason she comes to meet me everyday

Neither she is afraid of gossips or being discovered

She has become captive of my eloquence and verse

How can I say to her all those couplets before the world

Those I have written to narrate to her in privacy

Slowly-slowly her footsteps are now moving ahead

She remembers all things sans reason and meaning

Tomorrow she will come again like the morning breeze

The gardener waits like the desire of a blossoming rose

 

Aasraa by Sandeep Silas ‘deep’ in Ranai-e-Khayal (2012)

Translated Book in English available on Amazon Kindle:

https://www.amazon.in/BEAUTIFUL-THOUGHTS-Sandeep-Silas-ebook/dp/B0080RNI7C

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS by [Silas, Sandeep]

For original Hindi version of Ranai-e-Khayal please contact me

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Wandering in wonderland, published in The Hindu

At Vallorbe, Sandeep Silas digs deep into his imagination to make sense of the city of caves

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NATURE’S ART WORK The limestone caves constitute a grotto complex where stones take amazing shapes. Here are two examples: The left one looks like the mount of wisdom and the right one comes close to a symbol of pilgrimage.Photos: Sandeep Silas

Sometimes, Nature leaves you in complete wonderment. We as humans have been blessed by creative intelligence, and we like giving shape and form to thoughts and ideas. Face to face with the creations of Nature, we find only one answer to the questions that arise in the mind about the identity of their creator. It is the Creator, Himself, whose identity is known from His awesome works seen all over.

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Such was the feeling that gripped my mind at Vallorbe, a city of caves with unusual rock formations, columns and edges. Call them simply – they are stalactites and stalagmites, but look closely, they are humans in stone.

Vallorbe has existed for thousands of years. It nestles along the banks of the Rive Orbe. The region is called the Lake Geneva Region. In the heart of the Swiss Jura near the cliffs of Mont d’Or and Dent de Vaulion mountains, exists this wonderful world of waterfalls, valleys, coloured stones and an underground river. The Limestone Caves constitute a grotto complex that is fascinating and has created a colourful exhibition of 250 minerals, popularly called “The Fairie’s Treasure Trove”. It is said that ten million years ago Switzerland was an ocean. Lime got deposited at Vallorbe. The River Orbe found for itself a subterranean bed in these limestone deposits.

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A mixture of intrigue and Nature’s heritage was discovered in 1961 and opened to the public in 1974. Vallorbe is located on the Swiss French border and just one hour’s drive from Geneva. Vallorbe is not a destination like we are used to – with roads, markets, museums, forts and places and confectionary marts. It is a museum of Nature instead.

Rest in peace

Hidden inside a deep forest, a stream misleads you to believe that there can be nothing more to life than the peace of a jungle. A huge mountain with a tunnel opening also doesn’t let you expect much. Till you reach inside and run like ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is cold inside and a jacket seemed comfortable. On entrance is a pool of water, far down amidst the rocks, which appeared like a pan of shining mercury. A long tunnel leads to a room from where begins this journey into mystic imagination. The best part about this visit is to see and find shapes in stones and give them an identity from your own cultural bank in the mind. Every person looks at them differently and understands uniquely. For the Christian, some formations may appear like a Cross or the Disciples at Supper; for the Hindu, the Pandavas at one place and hundreds of Shivlingams all over.

The Kailash Mansarovar here and Vishnu Kund over there. For the poet, it is the ‘Wasteland’ here and ‘the chimes’ yonder. For the painter, it is a battle formation here, the placid lakeside beyond the rock, and the ‘Triad’ in the distance. Everyone is at ease. Each one is at peace at Les Grottes de Vallorbe.

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I climbed up to find and discover interesting cold shapes exuding warmth from the character they had assumed. I was conscious that what I saw was here only this moment, not the next. Some snow would melt altering the shape, some vapour would condense giving birth to another form and so this natural cycle goes on and on. Timelessness, I thought.

The caves and walls are lit by sensor operated lights, so that it is not dark all the time. You stand before a cave and the lights are turned on, enough for an image to get imprinted upon the minds’ eye. One sharp edged ice shape looked like the Sword of Damocles to me. Another, a wave of the wind, yet another the swift glide of a serpent. Then one was definitely a beehive. It had hundreds of perfect bee dwellings at the bottom surface and then it rose up like a temple bell, securely fastened to the roof.

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The walls were moist and drips of water had left small pools on the ground. It was 10 degree Celsius inside the cave world. This was a perfect peaceful miniature world of mountains, valleys, lakes and peopled by snowmen and snowwomen. No blood can be spilt in this world as all movement has been frozen by time – the snow people those live here, grow and fade away by temperature variations, with much life gone by at the same fixed location.

I climb down a few steps into another area. There the cave is like a bedroom cave, a cosy and safe sleeping room. Some stalagmites are curiously shaped like the male organ and are a boast of life. Now, another looks like the ‘bell of heaven’ with thousands of thread like strings. Moving out of this maze of shapes and forms was not a pleasant thought, but all life drama has to come to an end on a note of climax. This was reserved for the end. I hear the gushing sound of water. Deep down from an opening, a stream emerges at great speed, creating foam balls in its movement. The elongated pear shaped pool it merges with, never ceases to amaze. This is actually the underground River Orbe.

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The exit opening pushed me back into the world of definite shapes. Back inside Vallorbe it was imagination at its best. Here it is imagination coloured by learning, a definite perspective, more ruled by what is commonly understood.

Curiosity, once quenched, gives over to memory, to let the seen and felt, be retained in vaults and summoned to image at the drop of a thought! Vallorbe is a wonderland and you will find it more amusing when you visit as by then some more vapour would have taken a form!

Vallorbe is located on the Swiss-French border and just one hour’s drive from Geneva

(Published on December 26, 2011)

Link:

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/wandering-in-wonderland/article2748081.ece

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In the heart of the mountains by Sandeep Silas, published in The Hindu

In the heart of the mountains by Sandeep Silas

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Man has been building in statuesque, grandiose and ornate architectural styles since the time stone was quarried and bricks fired. Imagination, force of will, ornamentation and sheer celebration is visible in what he has built the world over! And, that is what I saw in the Blue Mountains, 110 km. from Sydney.

As I sped towards the Blue Mountains, the whole atmosphere changed and Nature started speaking in hushed tones. The road wound its way up through dreamy villages wrapped in slumber. At Glenbrook came the gateway, and Wentworth Falls was pretty. Charles Darwin, who laboured to unravel the mystery of the origin of species, once stayed here, and a walk commemorates this association.

The village of Leura romanticises candles and clothing. In October, Cherry blossoms line the streets of Leura, and gardens are filled with butterflies sipping nectar. We halted at bohemian Katoomba, and I particularly remember the sloping drive through the village. Homes are old fashioned and the boutiques bright. The post office, the bank and the church remind you of temporal and spiritual connections.

ABORGINAL LEGEND

Gavin, my chauffeur, mentioned the Three Sisters. I presumed he was recounting a fable, bringing back to life the days of the Aborigines. Till, I I realised the Three Sisters is a prominent feature of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area, which celebrates Nature.

There is an Aborginal legend associated with the three sisters The beautiful sisters, Meenhi, Weemala and Gunnedoo, daughters of the Katoomba tribe’s witch doctor, fell madly in love with three brothers of the Nepean tribe. Ancestral law forbade marriage outside the tribe. The brave warrior-brothers engaged in battle for the maidens. The witch doctor turned his daughters to stone using his magic stick, intending to restore them to life after the fight. But, he was killed in battle and his magic stick could not be found. They say the Lyrebird instinctively scratches the earth even today, searching for the magic stick.

The Blue Mountains, belonging to the Narrabeen Group of layers, have evolved over hundreds of millions of years. The Three Sisters were once seven sisters. Four have been lost to the Valley, the weather and Time!

I saw a wooden signboard; ‘The Three Sisters’, and took the path. At a view point, I was amazed at the vastness of the range and the Leura Forest in the valley. The forest reverberated with birdcall. Inching further, I was face-to-face with a mountaintop, the edges of which were jagged — victims of wind erosion.

A bench in a cavity of the cliff invited me to solitude. Touching the cliff, I wondered where the ‘Three Sisters’ were located. All lookouts were blocked by the heavy mist. Disappointed, I rose and took to what they call ‘The Giant Staircase’, which takes you deep down to the forest.

I trudged back to the starting point, I followed some visitors to Echo Point to share a glimpse of what they saw — the three lovelorn sisters, captives of fate, stood a little to my left in storybook silence. For a brief moment, the majestic sun illuminated their dormant sensuousness.

And, to think that all this while, I had actually sat and brooded on the waist curve of one of the three!

(Published in The Hindu May 2, 2010)

Link:

http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/in-the-heart-of-the-mountains/article419085.ece

Keywords: Blue MountainsThree Sisters

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STRATEGY: to create a NATIONAL PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY

NATIONAL PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY

NEW ORIGINAL IDEA & CONCEPT NOTE © SANDEEP SILAS

Date: August 20, 2016

BACKGROUNDER & JUSTIFICATION

It is the August of 2016 today!

On Sunday 9th August 2009, the Times of India had carried a full page Special Report titled:

TAKE A GOOD LOOK

THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME YOU SEE A TIGER

END OF THE TALE?

  • 1,300 AND GOING DOWN
  • 7 Reserves on alert
  • 0 tigers in Panna
  • 35 tigers disappeared from Sariska

Not much has happened since then to save the tiger except setting up of an expert group, which deliberated and recommended, but tigers keep on disappearing.

What we need is a practical approach to the issue, a workable proposition and an institutional framework that works!

Project Tiger was started by late Smt. Indira Gandhi, then Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, as her vision to save the tiger and also to promote Wildlife Tourism.

Tigers totally disappeared again in Panna after Sariska, which was a most alarming fact. Last time the news filtered in about Sariska, the then Hon’ble Prime Minister had publicly expressed concern over the vanishing tigers from National Parks. The Government reacted by constituting a Task Force. The Task Force came up with certain recommendations but, tigers still keep vanishing.

 The exact number of tigers as per the last tiger census was 3,500 but this is done by the ‘pug mark method’ and the real number probably would be anybody’s guess. The letter of the then Chief Minister of Rajasthan to the then Hon’ble Prime Minister in case of Sariska was indicative of the lack of will at the State level to save the magnificent Indian tiger from the menace of poachers and manage the National Parks to promote Wildlife Tourism. Similar is the case in other States.

The State Government’s reply, as the Press had then reported, was routine and non-committal. The situation in other National Parks of the country is also disturbing. Often the tourists, especially foreign visitors, go back disappointed after having heard so much of the famous Indian Tiger, spent so much money in planning logistic arrangements, hotel arrangements and fee to visit the park. Most of the times, the forest guards who accompany the group in an open jeep inside the park show visitors only the pugmarks of the tiger. Such disappointments are having their toll on visitors and thereby resulting in loss of tourism earnings and that expenditure which is done locally by the tourists and goes to small hotels/ restaurants/operators/shops/guides etc.

LEGAL POSITION

Forests are on the Concurrent List (Item 17. Prevention to Cruelty to Animals. 17A. Forests & 17B. Protection of Wild Animals and Birds), which makes it easier to handle the problem.

PROPOSED STRATEGY

To create a body titled, NATIONAL PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY at the national level with the under-mentioned terms of reference and responsibility areas it will help not only the Indian tiger but also promote India as a Wildlife Tourism destination.

To create a brand- WILDLIFE INDIA

A detailed Bill to be prepared and later an Act passed by the Parliament to create this unique body. It shall be a feather in the cap of the Government for nowhere in the world has anybody thought of such an idea to integrate the National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Biosphere Reserves in a dual bid to preserve wildlife, flora and fauna and also to promote wildlife tourism.

We must intervene now before it is too late. Task Forces’ will not be able to give a solution as they think in a straight line and nobody indulges in ‘out of the box’ thinking. One has to think at the national level and propose a workable practical solution. It is time for a systemic change and laying down a workable process.

We apply dressing to a wound when it is raw. What I am proposing is like invasive surgery, but at the moment it is in the best interest of the country.

My idea and concept can be made subject of a national debate if required and if it stands its test, it may then be accepted and implemented by the Government of India.

FORMATION OF NATIONAL PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY

  • Create a NATIONAL PARKS MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY.
  • The NPMA shall be provided budget allocation from the Central Budget.
  • All National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Biosphere Reserves in different States of India be brought under umbrella of the Authority for management and policing.
  • Raise a special police force under the name of ‘Wildlife Protection Force’, which will police all the National Parks on the pattern on CISF, and be responsible for safeguarding the flora and fauna.
  • The officers and staff of the NPMA shall be trained in environment conservation and recognition of flora and fauna apart from policing training.
  • the Wildlife Protection Force shall have powers to prosecute for offences committed within their jurisdiction.
  • A Wildlife Protection Force Act will require to be drafted to provide the legal framework for this special force.
  • The earnings from the National Parks shall be utilized for the upkeep of the parks.
  • The Force will also regulate the entry and exit of visitors to the parks and be responsible for patrolling inside the parks.
  • Proper coordination at the Central Authority level for publicity purposes, booking arrangements and publishing of relevant brochures, books, other literature etc. would help in branding and marketing of ‘Wildlife India’.
  • The Authority shall become a central body for co-ordination with all relevant Central Ministries and State Governments.

ADVANTAGES

The advantages from setting up of such an Authority will be tremendous in the following respects: –

  • The management and protection of wildlife, which is at present as per the present level of commitment of a State Government will be standardized and be uniform.
  • Wildlife shall actually be saved.
  • Job opportunities shall be created.
  • A discipline will be enforced throughout the country in the National Parks.
  • A uniform ticketing system will be in the interest of visitors and the Authority. This will save visitors from being cheated by touts and harassed by locals who do not following any standard pricing system for organizing jeep / elephant rides inside the parks.
  • Information to visitors on the available flora and fauna inside the particular park shall be available in a systematic manner apart from books and other literature.
  • Branding of tourism product ‘WILDLIFE INDIA’ shall become possible.
  • Consumer satisfaction index shall go up.
  • Concern for protection of wildlife shall be felt at the national level and by people individually.
  • The communication within the park and in between the parks will become possible for the benefit of Management Authority and visitors both.
  • Information on other parks and its peculiar flora and fauna shall also be available to visitors in each park thereby prompting their visit to other parks.
  • Vested interest of one set of officials and their linkages with poachers will not be able to develop, as it now exists, as the officers/officials will move to another park on transfer.
  • Government will be seen to be keen to protect wildlife and the magnificent tiger.
  • Railway and Airline tickets, plus reservation in Park Hotels all over the country, when available inside each Park will have a direct bearing on increase of time period a tourist stays in India thereby increasing tourism receipts.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

  • Cabinet Note for approval to be prepared by Ministry of Environment & Forests

 

  • Bill for enactment of the National Parks Management Authority to be drafted by MOEF.

© Sandeep Silas

www.garlandofpeace.com

www.sandeepsilas.com

JAI HIND!

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