Death Of Conscience

I read about the elephant last night and ever since there is an unsettling eerie feeling within me. I am pained, saddened, ashamed and disturbed in equal measures by what the locals in Kerala’s Malappuram did to that poor pregnant elephant who was scrounging for food. Who on earth, in his right mind and with even an iota of conscience could do a vile thing as to feed it pineapple laced with crackers. The crackers burst into her mouth and she died standing in water. The attempts to rescue her went futile probably she was too heartbroken to ever trust humans again. 

This incident is not the only one and not will be the last one but it is another noose that has tightened its grip on our collective humanity and conscience. I am way too depressed even as tears fill my eyes as I write this, I demand harshest punishment for those monsters and a radical change in animal protection laws in India. Sadly, the priorities of Indian government are can make this seem like a very distant dream. We are currently obsessed with changing the name of everything- cities, stadiums, roads, or even the country- from India to Bharat after the great king Bharat, a step closer Hinduism. In the whole drama that plays on the national stage along with many other pointless ones, we have forgotten that it is collective ethics and morals along with a robust justice system that make a country great, and not just assuming the name of a king once called great in some mythology books. Real life needs attention and care and more respect than mythology.

It was a gruesome murder not only of an animal but of humanity too. Human stupidity and cruelty is boundless. It is a shame. Sadly, TV channels, instead of raking up this ghastly issue to shake the people’s conscience, thought it more important to please, we all know whom.

Read@ https://bit.ly/36UyWKC 

Fish in Net

Traps are always luring and attractive.

I have tried to play with form and style in this piece of abstract work.

I am against fishing as it is animal cruelty and do not endorse it through art in anyway

Little Chikadee!

Medium- Sketch pen and white gel pen

Bits & Pieces 6

Chitthi Aayi Hai!

One of the few things that can make me happily nostalgic is written letters. I still have preserved all the paper correspondence I used to have with a same age cousin when I was in school. In early 2000s, the fashion of writing letters started fading but with the advent of cell-phones and social media it has definitely become a long lost memory. We wrote each other letters out of sheer fun of writing and of course, for the excitement of receiving the next one.  Now, I am back on this track and with a few like-minded friends of mine, have joined the letter loving group!

Pic link

Biblio-mania

I cannot have enough of books and it seems I am slowly turning into a compulsive book hoarder, for I have a huge heap of unread titles in my room. Recently, on my trip to my ancestral house, I brought many of my late Grandpa’s books, most of them being classics printed around 1920s and 30s. Last week too, while browsing for something else, I impulsively bought two titles - one by Ruskin Bond and the other by Agatha Christie. Reading may be a good habit but book hoarding is definitely not, so now I will try my best to avoid buying books impulsively, at least this year.

 Rest in Peace...

My heart is deeply saddened by the demise of the brave horse Shaktimaan who died of shock after being given a dose of anesthesia. His case is an eye opener about the pathetic condition of animal-care in India. In western nations, even a local animal hospital is far better than any govt. hospital of India. In fact, after every hurricane and natural calamity, their special squads actively rescue pets and other animals. Such a thing is sadly unimaginable, rather laughable in our country where food grain remains scattered on roads due to lack of storage facility and thousands of liters of water is wasted in the construction of helipads for the ministers who go, ironically, to visit the drought hit areas. We have a mismanaged system working on wrong priorities. In such a scenario, animals remain the most tortured category.

Pic link

Mother & Child (Art)

There is only one beautiful child in the world and every mother has it!

                                                                                                            - Anonymous

    

                                                                           

Medium: Pencil Color

Cruelty-Free Beauty

The shampoo that does not burn your eyes, the fairness cream that makes you look gorgeous or that lipstick that gives you instant pout may have a darker side to them too. Most cosmetics makers use brutal animal testing to check the effects of their beauty products, like the levels of acidity or the side effects on skin, to name a few, before launching their products in the markets. It is a known fact that lipsticks contain fish scales which make them more glossy and shiny. However, here I am more focused on products that are tested on animals rather than those that contain their parts in any way. Such things take place at high levels and that too quite discreetly so we cannot be sure completely. To be on the safer side, it is always better to go for beauty brands that are cruelty free and if possible, vegan as well.

A few days back, I and my blog friend Katrin discussed about the right cosmetic brand and animal testing. Well, the term ‘right’ for us means a brand that is completely cruelty free. Since then I have been reading quite a lot about this topic and fortunately have found a few brands that are not only cruelty free but vegan and chemical free too!

Animal testing is one of the cruelest things one can do to the hapless creatures. To check the levels of burning sensations of shampoos and conditioners, they are commonly poured into the eyes of rabbits, puppies, kittens and chickens leading to extreme pain and mostly permanent blindness. Bleaches and creams are tested on their skin that leads to severe skin irritations. These creatures experience a living hell and brutal torture that ends only with their lives. If this is the cost of beauty, it is better to ditch such cosmetics and opt for natural products that are gaining fast foothold in India. We do not need to compromise on quality because that is the biggest concern that stops people from switching to more environment friendly cosmetics. Various herbs and natural products are far better than any chemical could be. We just need to be a bit careful and check out for a few symbols.

• This leaping bunny is a sign that the product is free of any sort of animal testing.
• This Green dot means the product is 100% vegetarian.

Before you pick that beautiful bottle that can make you look like a goddess, just close your eyes and try to remember that poor animal that suffered unending torture and died a brutal death to make you look a bit nice, that too only for some time. I believe that real beauty is just another form of kindness.

In our little ways, we can contribute much to abolish such obnoxious testing and most importantly, 

When buying will stop, killing will stop too

Images have been sourced from the Internet

Universal Blindfold

Amongst all the human emotions, some offer huge exploitation potential for the people with tainted intentions. Greed is one, vanity is another; as per Hinduism the two along with anger are also considered the gateways to hell. The motherly love or mamta has, however, been exploited most widely, for all kinds of purposes.

A few days back, a scene on television caught my attention instantly, hence this post. A documentary on Mongolian villages on NG Channel showed how wild goats and other beasts can be domesticated without much botheration.

The locals keep lambs tied uncomfortably to a mule, as hostages to be more precise. This way, the lambs keep crying out in pain and mother wild goats come bleating after them upto the village. Hence, the entire task of finding, catching and domesticating a wild goat is reduced to one single action. Mothers can go to any extent for the sake of their off springs. What the locals there do is basically done by people all around the world; only forms vary.

The romantic love knows no bounds; so does love for progeny, but while the former is often dipped in lust, the latter is as pure as a dew drop from heavens. All over the world and from the times immemorial, people have widely cashed in on the parental love for varied ends, from money to thrones. Even the great Mahabharata battle can be attributed to it: king Dhritrashtra ignored all the evil doings of Duryodhan out of paternal love.

Companies, especially health-foods makers clearly show mothers wishing their kids to be the brightest and tallest in the entire group. This love is more of a mint machine for MNCs.

So, I cannot just blame the Mongolians or the goats; every living being is literally blindfolded with this. The few, who are not, stand out like sore thumb. Isn’t it?  

Images: http://www.indolink.com/kidz/Mbharatpart12.html

http://animalszooguru.blogspot.com/

MEAT WHEAT AND ALL THAT

Should a person be meat-eater or wheat-eater, I mean a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian? The debate is endless and leads to more confusions than conclusions, simply because it is a matter of personal choice. Off and on it flares up but never dies. A comment given recently by Dr. R.K. Pachauri that we must avoid meat at least once a week to begin with, in order to help contain global warming, has again brought it live.

Everyone has his or her reasons for eating or not eating meat. I do have mine for advocating vegetarianism. But certainly some of the arguments that meat eaters put forth appear so lousy that even the most gullible person can see through them. Some of the most common ones I came across were that we don’t kill ourselves; without meat one will suffer protein deficiency; that the world will be full of animals if not killed; there will be food shortage; there is growth of associated industries like leather, fur, etc etc. The latest jewel in this crown is that without meat the brain may suffer shrinkage.

Anyone can see that there are millions of vegetarians in the world surviving and leading normal lives from the times immemorial, people who have never tasted meat etc since generations. None has suffered protein shortages or brain shrinkage. In the last case, the title is misleading. Actually it tells that this may happen due to deficiency of vitamin B-12, which is present in meat. But then it is also present in milk, green vegetables and fruit. And the earth is not full of jackals, lizards, bats or such animals that rarely if anyone eats. We don’t have to play Mother Nature for this. As for food shortage, there are ample data to prove that on the overall balance meat production involves loss in the food production due to water, land, etc required for rearing the animals. For fur, the less said the better; wearing fur, to me means wearing, almost literally, the wails of animals being killed with utmost cruelty. And mind that morally, everyone using meat, fur, leather etc is equally a party to all the cruelty and killings; for these trades flourish only because there are buyers.

Returning to the nutrition myth, after all where do the meat animals get these proteins, fat, etc from? Their bodies as well as our human bodies have their own protein and fat synthesis mechanisms, i.e. making these essentials from greens. Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and water we get from our food. Vegetarian food supplies all this; where is the need to indulge in gory killings for taste? Why develop such a taste in the first place and then call the diet essential for nutrition?

Still further to all this, I personally feel that the meat eaters, since they grow up that way, feel fewer qualms at the idea of dealing out injury to others or are less perturbed with violence, although vegans are not guaranteed sages who do no harm to others. I think all virtues stem basically from kindness of heart which essentially entails non-violence. All the display of kindness and charity by a person who enjoys eating a killed animal therefore seems, at least to me, to be more of a farce.

Of course these things are of purely individual liking and no one is bound by others’ choices but I wish more and more people turn vegetarian to avoid cruelty to our animal friends. For a try, love an animal and see the response, and then think all over again.


Just try to imagine all those things being done to the animal you love: I bet you will switch off your thinking mechanism mid-way.