Where have the Birds gone?

I looked at the sky yesterday.It was bleak and filled with smoke.
The one thing that struck me was the "EMPTINESS".

Now the flashback-I look back on my childhood.
I studied in a defence cantonment.I remember the myriad birds which filled the sky.

I remember seeing mynahs,parrots,sparrows,bulbuls,cuckoos,drongos,
thrushes.Their used to be a lot of birds other than the common crow.

I even remember seeing carrion birds like the kite and eagle.
But Now...,I am a bit puzzled,have all the birds been rusticated from the cities
due to the extreme pollution levels and excess urbanization..??!!
I occasionally see crows!!.kudos to the resilient bird.

Anyways I wish bird watchers do more to conserve urban birdlife rather than just bird watching in remote bird sanctuaries.

As i pondered.."Where have the birds gone??"..I reply to myself..."Wish they were back...".

Receding Forests-Environmental activism needed..

I was searching for a furniture piece recently.I was amazed to see the cost of basic furniture shoot up enormously.The reason was-Wood scarcity,No natural teak and rose wood available in much of the country.Even though our population is shooting up to almost a billion,we have not cared to increase the forest cover over our country.

The end result,mass plunder and destruction of our limited forest resources to satiate an insatiable appetite for wood and allied products.

We need more NGOS to work at the grassroots in afforestry programs to solve this problem.We need an performing environmental ministry rather an namesake protagonist.

Environmental activism is needed,However what is happening is an ostrich like approach,Burying the head in the sand and failing to see reality.

Meaning of life-???

What is the meaning of life on earth?
When do you feel you have attained satisfaction?

Is it attaining unlimited money,fame,power,unlimited pleasure?
What is the meaning of life...I keep thinking...

If i have left behind children,property and charity,Have i attained the pinnacle?
What about the person who could not obtain property and wealth?
Is his life in this planet meaningless??

is it unrivalled charity?

Or is it destruction which is the ultimate aim of creation?
the "death goal" as a sociologist put it.
But anyways on a lighter note,I will postpone these serious issues to another day...

and till then............??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eat,drink,party and be merry-uncontrolled hedonism

Rising Fuel costs

What is the solution to the rising fuel costs?

option1- Switch over to renewable energy sources?

option 2- force the government to issue artificial subsidies by organizing strikes

option 3- Ban all vehicles more than 10 years or with outdated combustion systems from plying?

option 4- Improve public travel systems.ban unlimited vehicle production and distribution.Maybe we need to be a dictatorship for this to come in force.

option 5-Force all single people to use only cycles...lol

Wish some people find some innovative solutions to this terrible problem and save the natural resources of our planet..... .

Johnny gone down-Book review

Verdict-Good, Rating-3/5

A good attempt by Karan Bajaj.

The Novel is an adventure novel and is a combination of James Bond meets Phileas Fogg meets Manmohan Desai.

The Novel traces the life of its Protagonist an Indian MIT student-Nick,who keeps stumbling from one mishap to another across different troubled spots on earth.

Nick who is on a vacation with his chum in Cambodia finds himself accidentally hurtled through the clutches of the Khmer rouge.He survives this and lands in a Monastery in Bangkok.He seems to discover a vision of life here.

He moves to the Rio branch of the monastery to indulge in evangelization to find himself trapped in the vicinities of the Rio underworld.
He himself becomes the gang-lord and eventually move to the las vegas through another whirlwind of circumstances.He develops an online gaming software worth billions when he returns to India to become a bait in an indian satta version of Russian Roulette.

This is when he realizes the whirlwind his life has taken and tries to sort out things.The author attempts a surreal psychedelic view on life.
The book is a good entertainer and opens the floodgates for an indianized version of James Hadley chase.

Some of the instances seems cliched and resembles bollywood potboilers of the 1970's,especially the last minute reunion with his college chum.

The book is a good one time read,could have been a little more down to earth.