Sundara Vana

Four years back when I moved to the locality where I stay now, this place I am writing about was a “mountain” of junk. Located behind a lake which was just a mess of blackish, sewage -mixed water, the place was detestable – an outcome of human callousness. Even though our area is residential in nature, the lake and its adjoining land had been abused for a considerable period. The eye chooses to avoid things it doesn’t like and this was the case with this mountainous heap and junk and plastic. I hardly noticed it.

But humans have the ability to both create messes and beauty. It’s a choice and a strong vision which drives how we shape up things.

I used to think several times while passing by the Somasundarapalya Lake of how wonderful it would be if the lake were restored. I guess, there must have been several like me. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed one day that work had started to drain out the lake. It was a great initiative by the Government. Over time, the lake was completely emptied to reveal a lower layer of wastes. These were dug up and fresh soil was brought in to restore the lake bed. During the rains, the lake filled up again. I’m still amazed at how life came back in the lake – I mean, water plants, fish and ducks. Considering that everything was reduced to just soil, I wonder how birds and fish came there. Nature is miraculous!

I sometimes take a walk around the lake – alone or with someone from my family on a pathway that has been created. Some people are back to their old ways – dumping garbage, throwing plastic, littering, allowing their dogs to poop and so on, creating a small mess. Some people just don’t change! Yet, the good done is overall much better than the bad and overall, the place has got a facelift.

But this is just the precursor. One day it stuck to me while I was driving past, that the far end of the lake looked different. Since it was the pandemic time, I wasn’t going out too often. Hence, I hadn’t noticed the work that was happening. It seemed strange but I could see a white wall beyond the lake. Due to the rains, I had stopped walking around the lake (and I had taken to exercising home). The developments were new and I was unable to point out what had happened. But it was different and better.

Come another day, around 3 weeks back, a post appeared in our apartment’s Whatapp group talking about a tree plantation going on at the Somasundarapalya Lake. I was curious to know more.

On the first possible occasion, I ventured to walk around the lake with Subhashree. At the far end, we saw people working. Not quite sure we waited till we met Suresh. He explained to me – the entire mountain of plastic junk had been cleared and the 4 acres of land had been adopted by the local community task force to create an Urban Mini Forest. We were intrigued and wanted to see. We were shown the area, the places cleared for the plantation, the rows of saplings planted, the space for more plantation, the rows of bamboos growing along the white wall. It was astounding.

It seems that the plastic was too deep to be cleared completely. So, after razing down the heap, soil has been brought in to support the trees. The trees are being planted in the Miyawaki method wherein, they are planted close by and help each other build a firmer foundation of roots while they grow taller.

While some part of the area still remains to be cleared of the plastic, around a third of the place bears the little trees planted till date. The highlight is a Rudraksh tree – I’ll be amazed to see it grow and bear fruit.

The other highlight is that the plantation is done entirely by a set of volunteers, spending their spare time on making a heaven out of a dump. I can feel the vision – the common sentiment of envisaging and toiling to a bright future for the place.

Last week, I joined the group and am astounded by the work being put in. As I said, we humans are capable of so much good too. I can feel the energy in the working group – some people even spend weekdays while a larger team comes during the weekends for an hour and a half to plant as much as possible. There is target of over 1000 plantations.

Added to this, a set of around seven local boys also turn up on their own to contribute in their own way. Goodness and kindness have a way of bringing people together.

This is really the first instance I can recall that I have participated in a “social service” activity. The experience of my first 2 days of digging, de-weeding, planting and toiling are captured below.

I am sure the inference is obvious.

So go on! Take a step, join something beyond yourself and see how you change as does the world around you. A collective vision and consistent effort towards the vision can do wonders.

While I’m closing this post for now, I will write more on the topic as I work further towards the vision of Sundara-Vana – as I get to know more of history, the people and of course, the trees who will make our future better and beautiful.

Knowledge is Only for One Who Seeks It

People have a tendency, a liking to share what they know. It feels nice, gratifying actually.

The methods vary from person to person. Some are emphatic, some are matter-of-fact, some do it to show-off, some do it with under-confidence, some do it with kindness, some with the stick. No matter what the style, sharing of one’s knowledge is a natural tendency of humans. It helps in overall evolution of the human race. It in an integral part of the human ecosystem.

Information is the basis for knowledge. Information is a fact or situation.

Knowledge is distilled from information. It evolves after the person processes the information with his or her perspective and makes conclusions. The process of converting information to knowledge is also influenced by others. But the final take is always of the person who uses the information.  Thus, a nuclear scientist uses information on nuclear reactions to create the knowledge useful to make either a power plant or an atom bomb. It’s a question of perspective and intent.

Information thus processed to knowledge can do many things to people – make them arrogant, humble, silent, talkative, able to forget and forgive, vindictive, all those contrasting things.

Our world today is greatly driven by information. It’s a flood, a deluge, rather. It’s too much for a person to handle. Yet the addiction for more information is strong. More the supply, greater the demand.

Along with information, gets passed knowledge created by people with their own perspective and intent. In the flood which rushes in, it is difficult for people to discern what is information and what is opinion. People end up taking in knowledge of others unwittingly. A large contribution, of course, is from social media. Other’s opinions are taken as facts and these borrowed opinions influence one’s thinking.

However, what I’m trying to say here is that the knowledge that one acquires is exclusively his or her choice. While there is access to vast stores of information and knowledge on the Internet, people only take what they are attracted to. A person is drawn to that he or she wishes to see. No amount of coaxing, forcing, presenting, requesting makes someone take in knowledge he or she did not seek out.

That is the really funny thing about knowledge. It can’t be pushed down someone throat. One only picks up that knowledge which he or she is seeking.

The crux of the matter, while there are enough messages floating on the positive side of things, the general tendency is to take in huge amounts of negative sentiments. Its futile to expect people to lap up what they do not intend to. This is the greatest challenge to positivism. Even if one person is trying to spread positive thoughts, it really depends on the whole lot of others whether the thought is really carried forward.

It’s necessary that each person does his or her bit to spread positivism. Doing it without expectations is the best that one can do. A good thought will find its way to one who needs it and one who seeks good thoughts will come up the same. It’s beautiful the way the world works with everyone doing their part in this huge cosmic design.