Albert Barrow Memorial All India Inter School Creative Writing Competition 2007
School Code: JH008
Category: IInd Category
Name of the Participant: Arunima Gupta
Class: X B
Name of the School: Carmel School, Dhanbad
Topic: What is this world, if full of care?
We have no time to stand and stare
Before I start justifying this statement of W.H. Davies, let me elucidate a conversation that I overheard. It was of two pre teenagers in a park.
1st Child: “Wish if we could reduce the frequencies of our radio-cum-transmitters and share secret tech-linked messages”
2nd Child: “That’s boring; I wish I could annihilate my neighbour’s house with my new antimatter samples I made last night in my laboratory”.
If taken into consideration, the time is not far when every child will talk in high-tech language as cited above. Or maybe, this is just an iota of the actual paroxysm of tech-craze that is creeping up in our society very rapidly. The modern world is completely mechanized, be it in our language, be it in our behaviour or be it in the inventions and discoveries. One gets so many facilities nowadays. Through one webcam of a computer that is connected to the internet, a man sitting in the Sahara region can look at, can communicate with those sitting in the Arctic as if the actual distance is just a few metres. But of course, there is always a dark side of the moon and in this case, it is of the negligence of man towards his root, his origin—the Nature.
The beauty of nature is what lacks in the present times. What man fails to realize is that, there are still many things in the world except gizmos, gadgets, advanced electronic equipments and many more. He fails to understand that it is we who belong to nature and not the nature that belongs to us. Francis Bacon very appropriately quoted, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed”. And here’s where the issue of man taking nature for granted is concerned.
No one can remember a single day in his life when he has not compared or related a normal happening or a very simple issue into its mechanized version of interpretation. We have become slaves of science. We fail to realize that it we who made Science and not the Science that made us. But taking into consideration, all that happens now proves the fact that we are enslaved by science and it is the scientific technologies and high-tech systems that is manipulating us, overpowering us and crushing us into mere working models of human robots. But this is not what should actually happen. To prove this statement, there are a few words that Lincoln spoke, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”. Man needs the soothing touch of nature. The very feeling that there is an aura of the forces of nature around us is so invigorating. But does man seem to understand that he would never be able to sense this invigorating power if he is so wrapped up in the intricate calculations of the demonic craze that creeps up in his mind every second?
The answer is clear and shocking in its simplicity—NO. We know, to stop technical and mechanical development is not possible. But then, we can at least bring about a change in the other side of the bitter truth that exists among us --- paying more attention to nature. It is we who have come up with solutions when our path is dogged by these kinds of difficulties. A pensive mind quoted, “It is always a struggle to get the system working. But you lose only if you give up”.
But who wants to struggle now? We all search for ‘smoother walks to stray’ in our lives. After all, this is the reason why we take so much pain to get more mechanized, so that we can have some rest. What remains of nature now? The beauty of sunrise and sunsets has been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The coolness of the wind is forgotten and instead, they have started measuring it by anemometers. Even the colours of the rainbow, the beautiful spectrum is made lifeless and boring by interpreting it as different varieties of frequencies and wavelengths, merging one with the other, subtracting one from the other. Nature gave rise to matter, but people, now make antimatter and matter annihilate to cause mass destruction. It was the scientific technology that once gave rise to the formation of lethal weapons like atom bombs and such. And if we look at how much destruction has been caused, it shall make our blood curl with fear. The obliteration that was caused on 9/11 was also supported by high-tech lethal machineries. The simplicity is gone and it is the mechanized version of the simplicity of simple thing that exists. We have forgotten the idea of ‘simple living and high thinking’. In the “Tragic Sense of Life”, Miguel de Unamuno had said, “True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant” and this statement is correct to the fullest. In a nutshell, science contradicts every natural happening and the simplest of things into an intricate, mechanized and complicated explanation. After all, the prevalence of the atrocities in the present world is attributed to science. But in no such example, in no such case it is proved that Nature has been misused or has been interpreted as something with which one can harm the other. What remains in the world now other than people feverishly working on their computers, laptops, and palmtops; searching, downloading, printing out, researching on it, drawing some conclusion out of it and then again searching for something new and scientific, colourless as a dry parchment that would have them intrigued. Now it’s high time we should cultivate the mantra of ‘stop spending and start mending’ in ourselves. If one wants to divert his mind from his hectic schedule to beauty of nature, he should not be discouraged by the majority (of the people who are techies and very science-oriented) because sometimes, the majority only means all fools on one side! After all, what else is man but a fool if he fails to realize the correct interpretation of the simplest things he finds everyday?
There is an adage by Linnaeus: “Nature doesn’t proceed by leaps”. It waits, it watches and then, moves further. It is not frantically groping for conclusions everywhere. Though secretive and mysterious, it is so soothing, so caring. Just like our mother, it caters to our needs and necessities, but do we ever express our gratitude to it? Will we ever stop taking it for granted? The answer though is NO presently, but we can, of course, make a change. We can change this heinously strong NO to a beaming, successful and powerful YES. All we have to do is to pay a little more importance to nature, which is a non-renewable resource to retain its beauty and power. Though a lot of time has passed, we can, of course put a foot forward to help Mother Nature before its too late keeping in mind an adage, “If it is to be, it has to be me”.
School Code: JH008
Category: IInd Category
Name of the Participant: Arunima Gupta
Class: X B
Name of the School: Carmel School, Dhanbad
Topic: What is this world, if full of care?
We have no time to stand and stare
Before I start justifying this statement of W.H. Davies, let me elucidate a conversation that I overheard. It was of two pre teenagers in a park.
1st Child: “Wish if we could reduce the frequencies of our radio-cum-transmitters and share secret tech-linked messages”
2nd Child: “That’s boring; I wish I could annihilate my neighbour’s house with my new antimatter samples I made last night in my laboratory”.
If taken into consideration, the time is not far when every child will talk in high-tech language as cited above. Or maybe, this is just an iota of the actual paroxysm of tech-craze that is creeping up in our society very rapidly. The modern world is completely mechanized, be it in our language, be it in our behaviour or be it in the inventions and discoveries. One gets so many facilities nowadays. Through one webcam of a computer that is connected to the internet, a man sitting in the Sahara region can look at, can communicate with those sitting in the Arctic as if the actual distance is just a few metres. But of course, there is always a dark side of the moon and in this case, it is of the negligence of man towards his root, his origin—the Nature.
The beauty of nature is what lacks in the present times. What man fails to realize is that, there are still many things in the world except gizmos, gadgets, advanced electronic equipments and many more. He fails to understand that it is we who belong to nature and not the nature that belongs to us. Francis Bacon very appropriately quoted, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed”. And here’s where the issue of man taking nature for granted is concerned.
No one can remember a single day in his life when he has not compared or related a normal happening or a very simple issue into its mechanized version of interpretation. We have become slaves of science. We fail to realize that it we who made Science and not the Science that made us. But taking into consideration, all that happens now proves the fact that we are enslaved by science and it is the scientific technologies and high-tech systems that is manipulating us, overpowering us and crushing us into mere working models of human robots. But this is not what should actually happen. To prove this statement, there are a few words that Lincoln spoke, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”. Man needs the soothing touch of nature. The very feeling that there is an aura of the forces of nature around us is so invigorating. But does man seem to understand that he would never be able to sense this invigorating power if he is so wrapped up in the intricate calculations of the demonic craze that creeps up in his mind every second?
The answer is clear and shocking in its simplicity—NO. We know, to stop technical and mechanical development is not possible. But then, we can at least bring about a change in the other side of the bitter truth that exists among us --- paying more attention to nature. It is we who have come up with solutions when our path is dogged by these kinds of difficulties. A pensive mind quoted, “It is always a struggle to get the system working. But you lose only if you give up”.
But who wants to struggle now? We all search for ‘smoother walks to stray’ in our lives. After all, this is the reason why we take so much pain to get more mechanized, so that we can have some rest. What remains of nature now? The beauty of sunrise and sunsets has been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The coolness of the wind is forgotten and instead, they have started measuring it by anemometers. Even the colours of the rainbow, the beautiful spectrum is made lifeless and boring by interpreting it as different varieties of frequencies and wavelengths, merging one with the other, subtracting one from the other. Nature gave rise to matter, but people, now make antimatter and matter annihilate to cause mass destruction. It was the scientific technology that once gave rise to the formation of lethal weapons like atom bombs and such. And if we look at how much destruction has been caused, it shall make our blood curl with fear. The obliteration that was caused on 9/11 was also supported by high-tech lethal machineries. The simplicity is gone and it is the mechanized version of the simplicity of simple thing that exists. We have forgotten the idea of ‘simple living and high thinking’. In the “Tragic Sense of Life”, Miguel de Unamuno had said, “True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant” and this statement is correct to the fullest. In a nutshell, science contradicts every natural happening and the simplest of things into an intricate, mechanized and complicated explanation. After all, the prevalence of the atrocities in the present world is attributed to science. But in no such example, in no such case it is proved that Nature has been misused or has been interpreted as something with which one can harm the other. What remains in the world now other than people feverishly working on their computers, laptops, and palmtops; searching, downloading, printing out, researching on it, drawing some conclusion out of it and then again searching for something new and scientific, colourless as a dry parchment that would have them intrigued. Now it’s high time we should cultivate the mantra of ‘stop spending and start mending’ in ourselves. If one wants to divert his mind from his hectic schedule to beauty of nature, he should not be discouraged by the majority (of the people who are techies and very science-oriented) because sometimes, the majority only means all fools on one side! After all, what else is man but a fool if he fails to realize the correct interpretation of the simplest things he finds everyday?
There is an adage by Linnaeus: “Nature doesn’t proceed by leaps”. It waits, it watches and then, moves further. It is not frantically groping for conclusions everywhere. Though secretive and mysterious, it is so soothing, so caring. Just like our mother, it caters to our needs and necessities, but do we ever express our gratitude to it? Will we ever stop taking it for granted? The answer though is NO presently, but we can, of course, make a change. We can change this heinously strong NO to a beaming, successful and powerful YES. All we have to do is to pay a little more importance to nature, which is a non-renewable resource to retain its beauty and power. Though a lot of time has passed, we can, of course put a foot forward to help Mother Nature before its too late keeping in mind an adage, “If it is to be, it has to be me”.
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