WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS WHAT YOU SEE.

Little Billu was wide awake and was staring at the artificial stars and the moon on his ceiling. He could not sleep that night as the excitement over his grandpa's visit was still lingering in his little heart. His grandpa had got him lots of toys that day, but even before he could play with them,mummy had asked Billu to go to bed early. He loved his grandpa and wished he could spend more time with him. The voices outside the bedroom were so clear and Billu's heart ached to be a part of those voices. Just then, the voices grew louder and Billu realised that they were nearing the bedroom. As the lights were switched on, Billu jumped out of bed and hugged his grandpa. He knew that his grandpa would sleep with him.

Billu got onto the bed quickly and was waiting for his grandpa to finish his prayer. Grandpa winked at Billu after finishing his prayer and got into bed. "Story! Story! Story?" little Billu demanded and Grandpa read him a story from a book:

Once upon a time, there was a well-educated man who announced to his friends that he would not believe in the existence of God! He said that he would never believe anything,which he could not understand.

An old farmer overheard the remark,turned to the young man and said,"As I went into town today, I passed a field where some sheep were feeding. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", said the young man."Not far away from the sheep some cows were also grazing. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", was the reply! "Not far from the cows were some pigs eating grass. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", "All right, now you listen to this", said the farmer."The grass the sheep ate turned into hair. The grass the pigs ate turned into bristles. The grass seeds that the chickens eat turn into feathers. Do you believe that?"

"Yes", the young man said."Do you understand it?"

"No", admitted the young man. "Young man", said the farmer."if you live long, you will find that there are a good many things which you believe without understanding. God is one of them".

Billu smiled and slept peacefully in the cosy arms of his Grandpa.

Next day morning Billu could not spend time with Grandpa and left for school with a longing heart. But when he returned, he was in for a pleasant surprise. His Grandpa has arranged for a small picnic and away he went, along with his parents to a beach resort. After spending a lot of time in the beach the family sat together for dinner. Grandpa started talking about his next book: "On Belief and God!" But, daddy didn't seem too interested in it. Daddy quickly finished his dinner and commented, "I will not believe in the imaginary God. I believe only in things that I see, hear and understand". Grandpa just smiled, he did not answer. Instead he asked Billu to tell everyone a story. Billu got excited and narrated Grandpa's latest story without skipping a beat. Daddy stood up and said, "I don't understand how the same grass changes into hair, wool, bristles or feathers, but I do see it. I believe it because I see it. I can now understand it with science. So, it again comes back to my belief on things that I see and hear. What I see and hear is what I believe. I don't want to understand everything, but I need to see or hear to believe in something. So I don't believe in God! I have never seen him or heard his voice".

Grandpa was silent. He again had an 'all-knowing smile' on his lips. After helping mummy set all things right, Grandpa invited Daddy for a walk. Billu understood that his Daddy has won the argument, but he did not want his Grandpa to lose. He knew that Grandpa was taking Daddy out to talk more on this. Billu stayed back indoors for a minute, he knelt down and prayed. He then jumped up and ran out to catch up with Grandpa.

Grandpa walked slowly and was waiting for Daddy to complete his call on his mobile. After the call got over Grandpa asked Daddy, "Imagine if I gather a motley crowd and utter the word 'cell' and ask them what I was referring to, what do you think they would answer?" Daddy thought over it answered, "They would definitely tell that you were referring to a cell phone", Grandpa looked at Daddy in the eye and smiled. Daddy started thinking again and said, "Well, it could have also been a 'battery cell' or to 'sell a product'. Grandpa said, "It could have also been perceived as a 'bacterial cell' or as a 'prison cell', right?" Daddy nodded.

"But why were you so confident when you said I was referring to a cell phone?" Grandpa enquired. Daddy said, "That's because I thought that you were referring to the cell phone". Grandpa nodded. Daddy added, "The context in which the word was spoken also matters and in the current context I believe you spoke about the cell phone".

Daddy was sporting a victorious smile as he sat down on the shore of the beach. Grandpa sat next to him and said, "Son, have you ever wondered why two different people see an elephant and a mouse in the same shapeless cloud?" Daddy said, "It depends on their perception as to what they think the cloud looks like". "Exactly!" affirmed as he stood up. He continued, "See son, the act of seeing and hearing when understood deeply will reveal you the truth. You told me that you will believe only things that you hear, but did you know that you only hear what you believed you heard? The act of seeing is coordination between your eye and your mind. The eye presents the picture and the mind attributes a meaning to it. This attributed meaning is what you see. Your belief system pre-programs your mind and this directly is responsible for your perception and the context you are referring to. So, your belief is the base. If my mind is pre-programmed with 'fullness', I will see a half-filled water bottle; but if my mind is pre-programmed with 'emptiness', I will see the same water bottle as a half-empty bottle".

"When I asked you what will people perceive when I say 'cell', you were very sure that everyone will perceive it as a cell phone. You claim that in this context this was applicable. But if I had asked the same question in the same situation to a school goer, he would have heard it as a 'bacterial cell'. A shop-keeper would have heard it as 'sell' and a jail warden would have perceived it as a 'Prison cell'. So don't you realise that there is something deeper than a context or a situation?" the Grandpa enquired. 

Daddy just blinked. Grandpa continued, "You need not accept my view now, but think over it. You will understand that beliefs drive you. So the fact is: What You Believe Is What You See and What You Believe Is What You Hear".

"Son, I believe God created everything and so I am able to see God's hand in everything. You believe that everything has a scientific tint to it and you are able to see it. On a larger scale, this is exactly what al religious doctrines tell us: Believe and you shall see".

Daddy looked up and smiled. His smile was his affirmation. Billu did not understand anything that was going on. But he understood that Grandpa has won the discussion. Billu believed his Grandpa would win, and he saw what he believed in.

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9, 

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic, Tarnaka,

Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State.

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Comments of Chennai Floods, 2015.

Chennai is inundated but the water is not potable. There's no power or mobile connectivity. No newspapers. No essentials whatsoever. People have been dislocated and the damage to property and loss incurred is unaccountable. Daily wage earners have lost their jobs. Over 250 people have lost their lives. It is widely believed that a natural disaster such as the floods in Chennai lead to an inevitable loss of life and property. The rainfall in Chennai and adjoining districts this year has broken a hundred year record. But should the magnitude of rainfall in 2015 have come as a surprise? Chennai. Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts are not unfamiliar to heavy rains and cyclones during the north-east monsoon months. Heavy rains during the month of November are a way of life for the people of coastal Tamil Nadu. Therefore, can it be called a disaster? If yes, appropriate preparedness could have been minimised it enormously. The most relevant question therefore is - what was the administrative preparedness for such disasters? What lessons have we learnt from the tsunami of 2004 and a series of cyclones experienced by the state recently? 

For any city to survive the current disaster in Chennai, the fundamentals should be in place. In the present case, these fundamentals were bypassed and deviated from, i.e., the basic infrastructure, especially drainage. If that had been taken care of, the state would have saved such a huge economic loss. This wasn't the case with Chennai and so everyone suffered and paid for the establishment's inefficiency. Isn't this wrong? Geographically, Chennai is actually placed very uniquely and it is a blessing. We have three water-ways, something very few other places can boast of. We have the Cooum river which takes of Central Chennai, the Adyar which caters to the south and kosasthalaiyar running through the north. And then there is the Buckingham Canal which cuts across all three. It is the most fantastic macro drainage system for a city. Unfortunately, these major drainage systems are in a pretty bad shape due to heavy encroachment, reduction of bed-width by more than two-thirds, heavily silt and sludge deposits and formation of heavy sand bars at the mouth of the rivers. In addition to these major drainage systems, there are medium drainage systems. At the moment, it is difficult to trace these medium canals. Indeed, most of Chennai's prided IT corridor on old Mahabalipuram road is situated on the flood plains of Pallikaranai wetlands. And finally, there are the storm water drains constructed by the government which are today heavily clogged because of garbage and so narrow that they cannot even manage if there is persistent rain of one centimetre every hour. Put together, all these networks comprehensively failed to carry water during the recent rains and that is why I state that the city's most important 'fundamentals' have failed.

The Chembarambakkam reservoir overflow is not the only reason for the flooding. Adyar river is fed by 25 other tanks. On the night of 02nd December, 2015 only 30,000 cusecs of water was released from Chembarambakkam, but near Siadapet the river was carrying over 50,000 cusecs. Still, it was less than the river's original carrying capacity of 72,000 cusecs and much less to the flow of 60,000 cusecs in 2005. Then why was there so much damage this time around? Obviously because of the enormous scale of encroachments during the last ten years. Isn't Chennai a man-made disaster then?

The floods in Chennai are certainly part of the larger changing weather patterns across the globe and similar to the Uttarakhand floods, and the floods in Orissa, Mumbai, Copenhagen and, more recently the UK. This is due to the changing weather and climate patterns of the northern hemisphere, largely due to 'developmental activities' undertaken by industrial countries. In the pre-industrial era, the concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere was only about 240 ppm. But at present, it is at 350-400 ppm. Thus the increase in global temperatures. This rise in temperature is because of larger industrial activity like construction, automobile emissions, thermal power stations, cement industries, glass industries, etc., especially in developed countries. Rapid industrial activity has contributed to the global rise in temperatures, which has resulted in the melting of ice in the Earth's polar regions. And finally, the mismatch between the evaporation and precipitation rates of water in the atmosphere leads to so numerous many complexities visible in the form of climate change.

Post the industrial revolution the atmospheric temperature is increasing day by day and, consequently, oceanic evaporation and precipitation rates are increasing, leading to heavy rains and floods, or severe drought. This will also result in the increase of flies, insects, weeds, reptiles, mosquitoes and other unwanted components of the ecosystem, something we see in abundance in Chennai today. Severe drought and dry weather, always likely to come soon enough after the rains, will be seen. The consequences will be water scarcity which is as capable of causing untold harm as excess of water, though a deluge makes for more compelling visuals in newspapers and on television. We need to restrict our industrial, automobile, thermal power and urban expansion activities if we are to make any difference to our atmosphere. Only if we preserve our forests, our treasured flaura and fauna can we hope to bring the planet's climate back to sustainable levels.

What we are facing today are the consequences of thermal power generation, cement industries, glass, paper industries, port, road, mining, deforestation, reverse coastal management with tourism activities, rapid urbanisation, slum dwellers, population explosion, hydrocarbon industries, unscientific agricultural practices, household instruments and equipments and unscientific waste management, etc. Unless we rein in some of them, there is no way to control the change in the atmosphere. Chennai floods are not exactly a man-made calamity but part of this global phenomenon. It is not a localised problem as many argue it to be. Countries like the US and China most of Europe are the major contributors to global warming through gaseous emissions like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. This has resulted in a sharp rise in temperatures and we should not blame state and national governments for it. 

Developed countries are exploiting the natural resources of developing countries in Asia to produce commodities consumed in quantities disproportionate to the finite volume of our planet's resources. Despite this knowledge, developed countries are not responding to international agreements and protocols on global warming generously enough. Irrespective of what city administrations do, these extreme weather patterns will continue to cause havoc in cities like Chennai and the world.

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C.S. Chakravarthy

H. No. 12-13-302, St. No. 9,

Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,

Satya Classic Apartments,

Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,

Telangana State, India.

E-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com

Cell: 09985732397.

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THE IMMEDIACY OF LOSS AND AMNESIA AFTER.c

Narratives of disasters are are virtually summoned by the urgency and intensity of the event. They convey the immediacy of the loss, the helplessness and the range of destruction. It is as if the narrative turns from noun to verb,from an act of reflection to an act of doing. Such narratives are dramatic, hurried but often avoid major issues countering on the disaster. The recent description of the Chennai rains shares this predictability. I want to begin by creating a distance to assemble a perspective. One is reminded of a Franz Katka story, probably the only one he wrote in India. It is about a village near a forest which decided to hold a sacrifice. On a full moon day, the village square was decked in wreaths and food. The Brahman priest came out to perform the sacred rituals. when a tiger came and ate the priest. The villagers were undaunted and decided to go ahead with the rituals on the next full moon, but again the tiger ate the priest. This happened on one more occasion and the villagers met to discuss the crisis. Ar the meeting, the village idiot came up with a brilliant solution. He suggested that the tiger's act has to have a theory of man-made causation locating responsibility of different levels.
Legend has it that the village idiot later became a World Bank consultant. The narratives of the Chennai rains have shades of the Katka story. They make the rains sound inevitable,an act of God, a message from nature, but few speculate on the man-made nature of many of these disasters. As a result, the newspapers tell two different stories: one about the Paris talks on sustainability and climate change, and the second on the Chennai rains. There is no sense of connection. Otherwise, the drama would have escalated. Imagine if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone to Paris and submitted a Bill for climate change asking the rich countries to pay for Chennai and Uttarakhand.
This one act would have changed the Paris Conference from its stereotyped scripts and made the world sit up. Thinking that such disasters are man-made, let the affluent West get away with its depredations of nature. The new political economy of disasters has to have a theory of man-made causation locating responsibility at different levels. It is not just Western society, our State and our systems of governance have to be analysed in terms of a disaster perspective - the old "3R model" of relief, rescue, rehabilitation with a wider model of responsibility which starts long before a disaster and continues long after. As the political sociologist Chadrika Parmar put it in her essay on the multi hazard state, disasters from flood to cyclone, drought, famine are part of the everyday facts of governance. The old 3R model merely talked of rescue but little of state presence of responsibility in the first parts of a disaster. Disasters completely transform the notions of governance and the evaluation of state competence. The lack of preparedness of the state in handling this calamity was obvious. One,in fact, wishes the critique were more systematic, but the media often handles the Jayalalithaa administration with kid gloves.
What is heartening is not the performace of the state, but the role of civil society of individuals at every level. The word often used is resilience, but resilience is a polysemic. The courage of the ordinary survivor - in the Orissa cyclone of 1999 or the victims of the Chennai 2015 - remarkable. What differentiates them are the different networks that come into play. In fact, when one looked at studies of Gujarat earthquake, Parmer has pointed out that ordinary people suffered but were hard at work, at rescue and relief, without complaint. One must be careful here in creating an ideal of resilience which might be exaggerated. What is impressive is stories of courage, resilience and stoicism.
Yet what worries one is not resilience, which is welcome, but the nature of memory after disasters. Memories tend to be shortsighted and states drift away in indifference. Public policy often becomes an act of amnesia. Disasters narratives often point out to what they call the domain of amnesia. After a bit of acrimony and a touch of nitpicking, society and state settle down to a period of normalcy, as if nothing had happened, as if pain and suffering belonged to a parallel life. There is little follow up, no real attempt to use repair to create reform. It is almost as if amnesia is the preferred state and the only memory one has is a few anecdotes. It is time disasters are linked to development and climate change, otherwise we are guaranteeing the reproduction of such tragedies. The sadness is what we need in policy and planning: a society that cares. Heroism is a desperate answer of a society that cannot plan or think about its future. A caring society may be more humane than a purely heroic one. One is not denying the creativity and power of improvisation. One is enthralled by series of amphibian seeps first used in World War II returning to perform rescue functions during the devastation. The radio, especially FM, was used in a creatively desperate way to send messages about being marooned. Suddenly the radio, which had been suffering from benign neglect as a secondary toy, acquired a new life. The FM radio virtually played the role of a substitute telephone with FM companies organising volunteers to affected areas. Yet the innovation of civil society and the heroism of individuals and the community hid the fact that the state had failed to respond. One saw little of the functionaries of the state or political parties. It was as if they had decided that there was little that was political. Party protest and concerns of the vulnerable behave like two different worlds and even disasters fail to make them meet. 
What one needs now is a civil society audit of the disaster and the evaluation of responses to it. One has to have narratives of lives and livelihoods lost, homes destroyed and the nature of state response. Democracy has to come alive to make disasters a part of the institutional rules of the game. Otherwise, all one adds is a cynical selfishness which does little to minimise suffering.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St.No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat.No. 203,
Satya Classic Apartments, 
Tarnaka, Secunderabad- 500 017,
Telangana State, India.
E-mail: chakkuresearchscholar13@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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