Expedition

Yesterday, enthusiastic motor bikers rode across the Mhadei River basin. Dr Prithvi Amonkar’s Wildtrek Adventures had organised ‘Bikesscape’ to take adventure enthusiasts on a day long trip through an elegant environment under siege. The bikers discovered the beauty and reality of the hinterland. The experience was refreshing as well as educational.

I suggested to the motor-bikers to watch the film, ‘Motorcycle Dairies’ - the story of a young Ernesto Guevara and his friend who travelled 5,000 miles, on a motorcycle. Exposed to situations and people he would have never met otherwise, the trip planted the initial seed of cognitive dissonance and radicalization within Guevara. The voyage, initially one of youthful indulgence, unfolded into a life defining experience for ‘Che’ Guevara.

We need to move around our world to understand it better. However, just self-indulgent wandering will not suffice. We need to involve a sense of purpose as well. And that purpose will be better served when the experience moves beyond the surface to a deeper and meaningful connect.

The world is full of earnest people but many do not move out of their comfort zones. From the ones who move, very few allow the experience to become substantial because their trips are too short to permit real understanding. Short rides expose us to surface realities, but it is only longer expeditions that can trigger worthy transformations.

To BE BETTER at ensuring transformation,
Our ride has to be a longer expedition!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Lessons of Bhopal

3 December 1984, was a tryst with fatality for people in Bhopal. The Union Carbide plant released methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals, killing nearly 10,000 in 72 hours. Four times the number died from gas-afflicted diseases. Even now, toxic chemicals abandoned at the plant continue to contaminate the ground water in Bhopal and affect its residents.

Sadly the lessons of Bhopal have not been learnt. Hazardous waste from industries continues to be released into air as well as the waters. Manmade disasters are a creation of callous corporate where profits have precedence over human lives. Natural resources and human resource are under attack by the pied pipers of economic prosperity. The appreciation of wealth of a few is resulting in the depreciation of the health of many.

Those, who do not care about the devastating impact of their actions, will always find loopholes in the legal process. Aided by acts of omission and commission by the authorities, the culprits get away. The greatest lesson of the Bhopal case is that when we ignore a crime, it repeats in varied avatars.

It is only to our peril that we may ignore the menace of ‘toxification’ of our ecosystem. Any act that worsens the situation of lives and livelihoods cannot be accepted as development. But plain indignation by the citizens can never suffice. It would be better to treat all manmade disasters as acts of bio-terror and counter them, their promoters and apologists as such.

To BE BETTER at learning Bhopal’s painful lesson,
We must prevent and punish every toxic action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Quasi Terrorism

My colleague in Trainers’ Association, Zahoor Zaidi speaks often about the threatening trepidation of terrorism. He insists that terrorists are not just those who directly snuff or maim lives, but also those whose diminutive acts led to eventual destruction and devastation. In fact, Zaidi’s analysis exposes even seemingly innocuous acts as paths to peril.

Motorists who ignore speed limit restrictions endanger the safety of bridges they travel on. Citizens, who refuse to align to the responsible management of garbage, trigger a deadly epidemic. Those who carelessly pollute water and environment jeopardize innocent lives. What may seem as casual transgressions toward social responsibility end up akin to quasi terrorism.

Irresponsible behaviour is born of contempt for collective responsibilities.  When narrow motives eclipse the common good, we involve in acts that eventually lead to the endangerment of lives. It is pertinent to note that often, proactive promoters of selfish greed contribute to deadly acts of destruction. Humanism is oft attacked by careless acts of irresponsibility.

To be better at ensuring zero tolerance to acts that lead to quasi terrorism, we must ask ourselves: Do our careless actions violate the common good? Does our self-centredness result in glorious insensitivity to the lives and livelihoods of others? Does our indignant talk result in committed and consistent actions as citizens of an interdependent world?

To BE BETTER at escaping the vice of quasi terrorism…
Let’s respond with responsible acts of humanism!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Struggle

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through a little opening. To help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly.

When we lift weights in the gym, we experience a lot of pain. However, we know that the harder we push ourselves, the stronger we become. We see the pain is a good thing. Struggle becomes a source of enjoyment and accomplishment; when we take it on voluntarily. To enjoy life’s hardships, we must stop resisting them and stop seeing them as unfair. We must embrace the situation, and take pleasure in the difficulties.

It does not make the pain go away, and life does not become suddenly easy. However, by inculcating that sense of challenge and adventure, we give up that limiting belief that life is supposed to be easy. Instead of pining for something easier, we learn to enjoy the parts that are hard.

To better at living we must give up the dread of pain and hardship. So easily we find something new to worry about or fear. We strive to avoid the struggle, not realising that struggle is inevitable. It is pertinent to note that real strength is acquired through that very effort.

To BE BETTER at taking on every challenge…

Embrace the struggle’s accompanying pain!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Envisage

Last Saturday, we led students of Mustifund Higher Secondary School to an uphill trek, from the 13^th century Tambdi Surla Temple to the majestic Vajra falls. Most of the young trekkers were first timers. The strenuous climb was turned more prickly by the numerous leeches on the way. Every five minutes, a tired voice would inquire, ‘when shall we reach?’

I would inform ‘reaching the destination depends on speed, not distance’ and then add, ‘but when you reach it, it will be worth the effort!’ When I would describe the magnificence of the waterfall, the young enthusiasts would discover a renewed vigour. On reaching the milky cascade, one boy confessed that the description of the destination helped defeat the tiredness of the trek! I admitted that it was the only way to keep up the energy.

So often the journey can turn tedious and weigh us down. As fatigue rises, hope diminishes and doubts get magnified. It is in such predicaments that we can recharge our tired mind by looking forward to the eventual destination that we have set out for. The vision, of the destination that awaits us, will help us revisit the initial intensity of our intent.

The music legends ABBA sung it so well, ‘and my destination makes it worth the while; pushing through the darkness, still another mile.’ To be better at maintaining our passion during a wearisome journey, we must, in our mind’s eye, envisage the desired destination. In fact, the best vision is one that can envisage the entire spectrum of midway experiences as well.

To BE BETTER at every journey that looms large

We must revisit to the end vision we envisage!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Responsive Rage

MONDAY MUSE (29 October 2012)

 

RESPONSIVE RAGE

During our college days, my first impression of Victor Hugo Gomes was of an ‘angry young man’. But the art student’s fury was intertwined with passion. He held the emotion of hope as well as the sentiment of restlessness. Most of our generation seemed consumed by a rebellious rage, but not many were able to make a difference like Victor.

Victor’s passionate rage made him constantly step out of the confines of his boundaries. From putting together music shows to restoring and retrieving a losing heritage, Victor allowed his rage to fuel his progress towards transforming the negative situation. His anger, at the callous and careless attitude towards a diminishing legacy, resulted in the impressive Goa Chitra – a museum of implements, tools and cultural lifestyles of Goans.

Every stimulus can trigger off a wide range of responses. One of the possible responses is anger. So often, the situation is such that the rage seems natural. We get disturbed by the provocation born of dismay, disgust or distress. So easily we respond with rage, but it is pertinent to ask whether our rage is responsive.

Indignation is definitely desirable over indifference and insensitivity. But mere fury is just hot air. However, if the hot air makes a huge balloon rise and takes people along to loftier actions, then the fury turns worthy. We need to be better at ensuring that our rage is not just a reaction... it must transform into a responsive action that can strive to overcome the very cause of that rage... like Victor has!

Let’s BE BETTER at nurturing the seething rage emotion

by renovating the negative through responsive action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

PRESERVE FIRST

Last week, the Rotary Club of Panaji organised an interactive discussion on heritage. Rajendra Kerkar shared stories of blinkered attitudes towards natural heritage in the tiger habitat in Goa. Prajal Sakhardande depicted the lameness of law in protecting heritage sites. Victor Hugo Gomes shared his pain of seeing the literal burning down of ancient artefacts. Maria de Lourdes Bravo da Costa Rodrigues decried the careless maintenance of existing documents due to the shifting focus towards acquiring new ones.

The audience discovered their own heritage unfolded through the passion of the panellists. They were also exposed to the harsh reality of the destruction of age-old heritage treasures. The enduring message was best articulated by Maria who said that ‘preservation is more important than acquisition!’

The statement can spread across a wider spectrum... preserving old treasures is more important than acquiring new riches... preserving existing relationships is more important than acquiring new friends... So often, so easily we move for further acquisitions while losing out on the ones in hand. In the greed to get more, we give up on what we already possess.  

Of course, new acquisitions are not always a bad thing, if we do not lose hold on the earlier collection of assets. Let’s take inspiration from the poem ‘heritage’ by Chidi Okoye who wrote, ‘my past is my life... the mother of my future’. We must place preservation as a priority over acquisition.

Let’s BE BETTER at preserving the existing roots

Instead of senseless acquisition of newer fruits!

- Pravin K. Sabnis