Jalaavrata

 I kept on thinking - that I will do some little bus journey and do Bangalore Bhraman. But you know it is difficult to plan something, when you have nothing specific in mind. 

But I should have done my bus journey, already. Because, now I can't venture it out in my dear city, unless I know swimming. Which doesn't seem probable. 

 

No, I know this is not the time to make light of these events - but unless we talk about this situation, how will we realize that we have a serious problem. There are other things which are in khatara, not just our religion (wink wink).

Yes, the raja kaluve - which I think was a nice stream connecting all the lakes of the city, has been encroached upon, everywhere, by everyone. And people throw anything and everything in these drains - little realizing that that garbage they threw is going to be brought back to their front yard, along with a river  too.

Authorities sanction plans to construct houses, apartment complexes, gated communities, without a care, as long as they get their bribe. Now are you going to punish these officers of BDA or BBMP who sanctioned the buildings which encroach on raja kaluve, thus causing the floods? But they might have retired from their jobs long back, some may have even retired from this world too.

Look at Pakistan. The flood have caused havoc there killing more than 1000 people and destroying tens of thousand of houses. 

Global warming is causing extreme weather conditions. And cities like ours, which are not planned for severe rains can't withstand them. 

But what can be done now is cleaning of drains (and not leaving the garbage found in the drains on the footpath as is customary here). Making sure that houses and  large residential complexes implement rain water harvesting. Trying to move away from fossil fuels to reduce global warming - we do have a very sunny country for solar power generation. And spending some money on making towns and cities monsoon ready.