This nest appeared in a few days in a plant on the plant rack we have in the courtyard of our cottage and remained unoccupied for several weeks. There was no indication of life inside or covering around it. Someone mentioned to me that it might be a nest of a wasp. I was also told that wasps make nests much ahed of their nesting season.
The three stems of a rare thriving plant that Anna carefully nurtured died since the nest appeared, which might be because of the chemical effect of mud smeared with toxins from the wasp.
What held my attention was the master art work evident in the nest. About 1 cm thick mud wall with neatly made round holes at the top, and the nest well protected between the plant stems.
The wasp too is an intelligent planner. A two centimes long insect with mo cerebral or cerebellar volume of any significance, plans and executes what look like a designed nest.
It is this, which reminds humans to glory less in themselves and what they achieve. Although we are at the apex in the created order, with considerable control over most things around us, the truths such as this around us ought to make us revise the exalted estimate of ourselves.
A hospital of considerable reputation serving people in a city close to where Anna and I live, closed down its services after thirty-five years of reputed multi-specialty services. In fact, it was this hospital which was a pioneer in tertiary care in that city in some higher specialties. To me, the story of the closure of the hospital was a sad news because, it exposed the vulnerability of any thing that appears to be strong and secure.
'He who stands, take care lest he falls', is a statement of some significance.
I watched a TV programme yesterday of an exhibition cum sale of hand made articles at Kollam, made mostly by people who suffered colossal loss during flood in 2018. They put together their resources mostly by borrowing to earn their annual income through this handicraft sale. The three women who spoke to the interviewer said with choking voice, about the intense personal loss for which they are yet to receive compensation which was promised by the government. They spoke about it with pain but not with malice.
It is this transformation that gives them the human dignity. They accept and endure their suffering and are tolerant of those who are indifferent towards them.
This is a striking contrast to haughtiness and arrogance we come across in our political and social discourses.
Ours has become a politics of blaming the past prime ministers for all the ills we go through. Not only that we blame them, but use uncivil utterances to grieve their loved ones who are alive. To descend to this low level of annihilating the gains of the last seventy years and create a euphoric mood when the economy is slipping into recession, the poor have less money to buy, the farmers are still being pushed to commit suicides, the press and visual media feel muzzled from saying the whole truth, etc, is not an honourable character of democracy!
We build democracy by valuing and respecting all, those whom we like and do not like!
What is man! Is he not like the grass of the field which is there one day and might not be there on another day!
Humanity is larger than what self imposed leaders project of their authority and control! They too would become people of the past one day. What would last is values we add to humanity to make people of large heart and self giving disposition.
The United States of America has a vertically divided polity as of now with the president being under high scrutiny for his acts of commission and omission and tangential view of politics, economy, nationality, etc. The people in Hong Kong have been on street protests for nearly a month for freedom and fraternity. The people in Britain are in distress since the parliament has been suspended, which reduces the parliament to be utilitarian rather than as the symbol of democracy. There are disturbing trends of civil and economic unrest in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, etc.
Since we are distant by about sixty years from the nuclear catastrophe in Japan during the second world war, our memory seems to fade about the devastating consequences of human suffering we still suffer from. There are utterances from governments of Pakistan and India of their nuclear capability to win war. What a low state of regard to humanity we have come to!
A nest is a safe place an insect or bird would create for their offsprings.
The politicians and the elected governments are under heavy obligation to create a better world for their citizens. On the contrary, are we perpetuating added suffering for some segments of people in the community!
Yesterday, at the ATM, I met a senior citizen who said that he has only 200 rupees left in the account till his pension of Rs. 1500 would be deposited in his account on the 15th of September! He has his ailing wife to take care of. He was too exhausted to be tearful while he spoke to me about having been forced to stop selling home made snacks after the demonetisation in 2017 as demand declined. Now there are at least three big snack bars near his home and he does not seem to be confident to compete with them.
He and his wife have no safe 'nest'!
I sense a call within me to think of others even more!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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