AAWARAGI

Rehguzar ka hai pata na manzilon ki hai khabar

Chal rahe hain chalna hai kismat yehi bas soch kar...

Hum nahi hain jaante kya hai smajhdaari magar

Ye safar hai is safar mein chalna hai kismat meri.

Log kehte hain theher hai rasta mushkil magar

Hum hain kuch aise theherna jinki fitrat mein nahi,

Hann magar waadein hain jinko saath le kar hoon chala.

Bas unhi waadon mein hai meri chupi manzil kahin

Saath koi ho na ho apna safar rukta nahi.

Aur main kehta hoon isko hain yeh meri AAWARAGI

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN BY ROBERT FROST

We look for a way in life.... a path to walk on...
he question is where we want it to lead us???
Frost chose the one less travelled, what about you?
Think where you want to go and how you want to go about it, chosing the less trveled path may make a difference, but chosing the one you like will change your life.

Here comes the poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

All for a drop

Rivers lie at the centre of life in India. Econnomy, culture or religion, no aspect of lfe in India is left untouched by our rivers. Our rivers flood in monsoon and are dried up in summers, and we yell.. is the government doing anything. Officially, yes, the 11th plan has Rs. 8000 crore for flood management and 1500 crore for river management. Apart from this around ten billion have been spend on Ganga action plan and there is no account where the money has been spent. Ganga is not clean… it has rather become a dying stream with much of its lower course dried up already. Similarly more than 20 billion has flown into the sewage canal river Yamuna has become.
The first phase of Yamuna action plan started with an estimated fund of Rs. 715 crores which completed in February 2004 without any satidfactory result. The second phase has been formulated with an estimated cost of 625 crore.
Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage by virtue of drains outfalling in Yamuna . This is more than that of all the Class two cities of India put together. The low perennial flow in Yamuna and the huge quantity of waste it receives have given it the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted rivers of the country. Ten to fifteen years ago, a large quantity of Delhi's sewage was used for irrigating agricultural lands. Today agricultural lands have been converted into residential colonies and hence drainage of waste water is difficult in the capital. Some 3.5 lakh people live in the 62,000 jhuggis that have come up on the Yamuna river bed and its embankments. The Govt. of India over the next five years has prepared plans to rebuild and repair the sewerage system and the drains that empty into the river. However, there are no plans at present to shift the jhuggis.
Rapid urbanization in Delhi has further compounded the pressure on the sewerage system With the population of Delhi increasing from 0.4 million in 1911 to 9.4 million in 1991 and with a population of 13.9 million in 2001, (source: Delhi Jal Board) there is an ever-increasing pressure on the water resources .
Sewerage Problems : Poor condition of trunk sewers, shortage of sewage treatment capacity and lack of sanitation facilities in unsewered areas of Delhi which account for nearly 50% of population are responsible for continued pollution of yamuna in Delhi. The problem is compounded by lack of minimum perennial fresh water flow in the river along the 22 km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla.
The water treatment capacities have increased from 159 MLD (million letters per day) in 1951 to the current production level of 2951MLD (DJB 2002). Despite this, the average current shortfall is about 681 MLD (as calculated using the DJB’s supply norms and average losses estimated at 15%). However, the percentage of UFW (unaccounted-for-water) calculated from the difference between water produced and pumped is a high 35%–40% (GHK International Ltd 2000), reflecting problems in management of available resources.
While cleaning of Yamuna, and other rivers remains a critical issue for the government, the policy makers don’t recognise the ecological sphere of the rivers are not limite to its banks. It involves the flood plains as well.
While on one hand the Central Government and the Government of Delhi is pumping money to make our rivers pollution free, on the other hand the dried up river course is being used for development (read construction) without thinking twice.
Standing tall on the banks of Yamuna, the Akshardham temple is stretched on over 100 acres on Yamuna’s bed and to spring to life is another ambitious plan, the Commonwealth Games Village aiming to transform the urban outlook of Delhi.
The much debated construcition work of the CWG games village is going on despite of much protest from activists across Delhi.
Cleaning of streams is just one aspect of our management plans. Ever since India gained independence we have been putting time, effort and investment in the multi level river projects bulding dams and canals without stopping to take a breath. Phew… that sounds ambitious. But are the result equally satisfying is the question.
The government keeps pumping funds and the civilisation keeps pumping pollutants in the rivers. Water Resource Management is the cry of the decade, rather the century. But is it realy an environmental concern or just another use for the term made popular by the corporate influenced urbanites. The term management no doubt adds weight to any other word attached giving it the status of a serious activity. Are we actually managing our rivers or mismanaging them.
The basic problem of the plan lies in the outlook which treats rivers as water pipes. If the line gets choked, clean it up. Put some chemicles, add some chlorine, as far as our needs are answered it hardly matters for how long the solution would be effective. We are still working on the idea that came up in the fifties; “never let a drop go waste to sea.”
Our dams, our multi purpose river valley plans, the cleaning plans, the interlinking of river plan, all focus on how to use the water to its maximum capacity and fail to address how to help the rivers survive the pressure put on by the industrial society.
Rivers have a delicate ecological balance which gets disturbed due to human interference. Though the natural system of rivers rejuvenates itself the rate of disturbance created has surpassed the rate of correction.
Rivers carry along with them more than just water. They carry life, history and culture. Imagine the history of India, rather the history of humanity without these rivers that have supported humans since the dawn of civilisation.