Santa is dancing with joyous abandon near a newly installed public tap from which water is gushing out.
“Banta, come join the celebration!” he shouts gleefully.
“The age of hardship is over!”
No more long walks for our women to the Dhara and Naula, no more waiting in line!”
“This is true Vikas!”
“This Sarkari Nal is really a miracle!”
He then gestures dismissively towards the old, moss-covered village Dhara nearby.
“We should just build a nice concrete platform over that old dripping Dhara.”
“It’s useless now.”
“It can be a good spot for parking scooters!”
Banta watches the celebration with a bittersweet expression.
He walks over to Santa and says, “Santa, your joy is infectious, and the convenience of water at your doorstep is indeed a great comfort.”
“But in our celebration of this new, glamorous guest, let’s not be so quick to declare our old, faithful mother, the Dhara, as useless and bury her.
“Mother?” Santa asks, stopping his dance.
“Banta, it’s just a place where water comes out of the hill slope!”
“For our ancestors, it was much more than that, Santa,” Banta explains, his voice softening.
“That Dhara was the heart of the village.”
“Our mothers and sisters gathered there, sharing stories, joys and sorrows – it was our community’s living room.”
“We held rituals there, thanking the Jal Devta for its life-giving water.”
“This Rishta ensured we also protected its source – the forest in the recharge zone above.”
“We knew that to keep the Dhara alive, we had to keep its Maika above healthy.”
“It was a sacred bond, a system of mutual respect.”
He points to the new pipeline disappearing into the distance.
“This new water… it comes from a distant river, a source we do not see, from a watershed we do not tend to.”
“It is a service we pay for, not a relationship we nurture.”
“And now that we have it, we are already forgetting our duty to our own local Dhara.”
“Soon, the path to the Dhara will be overgrown, the sacred grove above it will be neglected, and one day, when this distant pipe breaks or its source faces problems, our own Dhara might have dried up from our neglect.”
Santa’s celebratory mood dampens.
“So, you’re saying this miracle tap could make us lazy and irresponsible towards our own natural heritage?”
“It could, Santa,” Banta says gravely.
“It can sever that age-old bond between the community and its immediate environment.”
“We risk becoming dependent on a fragile, external system while letting our resilient, local water sources die.”
“And a dead spring is more than just a loss of water; it’s a loss of our connection to the land, a loss of our self-sufficiency.”
“And as we will learn, a blocked spring can make the mountain behind it very, very unwell.”
Santa looks from the gushing tap to the silent old spring.
“An orphaned spring… and a mountain getting unwell… “
“Banta, your words have added a spoonful of worry to my plate of celebration.”
“Perhaps we should celebrate the new tap by first going and cleaning our old Dhara, to show we haven’t forgotten our real Mother.”
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- नल का पानी सुविधाजनक तो है, पर इस के कारण परम्परागत जल स्त्रोतों के साथ ही उनके जल संग्रहण क्षेत्र की अनदेखी भी हो सकती है / Large-scale water schemes, while providing convenience, can lead to the neglect of traditional water sources and their vital recharge zones.
- इस के कारण सामाज के उनके पास – पड़ोस के पर्यावरण के साथ सदियों से चले आ रहे मधुर रिश्तों में खटास आ सकती है और पर्यावरण संरक्षण के परम्परागत तौर – तरीके ख़त्म हो सकते है / This severs the socio-ecological bond between communities and their environment, undermining traditional conservation practices.
- दूर – दराज से आने वाले पानी के कारण स्थानीय जल स्त्रोत जोखिम में पड़ सकते है और समाज की घातकता बढ़ सकती है / Over-dependence on distant sources increases vulnerability, while local water security is compromised.
- पारम्परागत जल स्त्रोतो की अनदेखी व उन पर अतिक्रमण के दूरगामी दुष्परिणाम हो सकते है और इस से ढाल का स्थायित्व भी प्रभावित हो सकता है / Neglecting and encroaching upon natural springs has severe, long-term hydrological consequences for slope stability.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं और सच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने को प्रेरित होते हैं।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
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