Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Make like the birds...

We have grown up knowing and taking for a fact that Birds fly south for the winter. Now, just because we make allusions to dumb people as bird-brains doesn't necessarily make the original owners of those brains dumb.These migratory birds, leave the northern regions in search for alternative food sources, or the 'beat the cold'. The northern parts of our planets can get frigid in the heights of winter, and so these birds fly south, where the climate is far friendlier. So also for the southern parts, where the birds fly North for their winters. These are migratory instincts, that the birds and animals have.
An instinct is an inherent disposition of a living organism to a particular behaviour -Wikipedia.en
The seasonal movement of a complete population of animals from one area to another. Migration is usually a response to changes in temperature, food supply, or the amount of daylight, and is often undertaken for the purpose of breeding.
-Dictionary.com
The instinct of migration was true even to animals and mammals. From the prehistoric era onwards man has recorded that mammals like the mammoth find that the grass is greener on the other side, often of the equator(considering all the continents were joined together). They all went in search of better land and places where food was agreeable to their palates'. And when the climates changed, they would return, to the very same place from where they had left.This shown in the popular film ICE AGE 2. When the ice begins to melt, all the animals begin to move from their habitat.
This instinct i feel was a part of the humans as well, but a little different in nature. Whenever our ancestors found climates were unfavorable, and could not carry on in the same location, they moved. i suppose the difference is that they moved away, which is to be understood different from migrate.Apart from the accounts of Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq, who kept moving his GHQ from Delhi to Daulatabad every so often, we really have not come across anecdotes of migration by our ancestors.
However i feel it is time that we took to migration and learn from the birds and animals. With the seasons of today, we are faced; at least in the city of Bombay, with torrential rains. Where in other countries rain falls, here it comes down with something that can only be described as a wrath or vengeance. And Thanks to all the reconstruction and badly spaced out areas, not to forget the low lying sections of our 'mega' city water collects, claiming lives, or worse, destroying everything that makes life live-able and sparing the life itself.
Why not make like the birds, and leave town starting Early June, and return to where we were, just 3 months later. We could make migratory patterns of our own. We could collectively leave this city, to go anywhere. Pack our stuff, and leave.
They city already comes to a standstill every so often in the rains. Us leaving would just make sure there is no loss of life and distance the inconvenience in living in this season.The picture clearly shows what this city is put through during the monsoons.An entire stream of traffic just clogged,waiting endlessly for the road ahead to be cleared. This is worse than a complete standstill to city life. We leave for a few months, and effectively bypass the devastation, saving us the frustration, anger, irritation and other negative effects the rains have on us. All the Governing body has to do it make if official. June to September is Bombay's Vacation Season.Whats better is we don't have to go only to one place each time, we could plan in advance, and go visit different cities. Every year a new place to see. Its not impossible to do, and since the city would be deserted, maybe the conditions that bolster the chaos causing rains could be corrected. Till then, Lets just Make like the birds...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice idea..but i definitely enjoy these rains, though they are sometimes little irritating. However given a chance i would have liked to avoid the summer months

Soft Secret said...

:) nice idea dude..interesting. wish i cud leave mumbai durin d monsoon too, but d colg schedule doesn seem 2 b so cooperating, u c..

Nikhil said...

if only the city realized it and announced it as vacation months :)

Anonymous said...

so, it seems that the Bombay...sorry Mumbai rains inspired this article....why not build flood-proof cities,,that's not a big task at all - don't allow illegal constructions and the many problems plaguing the city wud vanish...but the idea of a 3 month long vacation is too tempting..so i vote in favor of ur idea of migration

Nikhil said...

i am sure there are ideas that can be carried out by the city officials...while we just sit around waiting for another session. this is something we can do....maybe its what nature wants us to do ;)

Anonymous said...

man always changed his environment to suit him , not the other way round..that's what is causing problems world over !!

Siddharth a.k.a. Plasmabhai said...

the weird thing is (and thats my fav line...) that mumbai has one of the better drainage systems in the world.....none, and i repeat none of the other megacities in the world are at the receiving end of annual floods of the scale we get in mumbai.....

but i like the monsoons....and believe it or not....i enjoyed 26/7 intensely even though i was on the streets drowning....hehe..

Nikhil said...

@ THe fish: thats why we should give in to natural instincts and move to safer places for the time being.

@plasma: well, u are among the fortunate ones who didnt lose much then....

Anonymous said...

yeah niks i ryt , maybe plasmabhai didnt loose much.....i just realized that i enjoy commenting on blogs more than blogging :-P

Prijila said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Prijila said...

i think we should leave mumbai in summer!
or summer vacations should be back!!
love rains re though they are irritating at times but it is way more bettter than summer!!