I was talking to an old taxi-dirver - he told me, for the first 20 years
of his life he was a fisherman and used to live in a village, and
used to get all his food from the sea and from his vegetable
patch - and he was very happy. He put his net in the sea
and in 3 hours caught enough fish to sell and eat for 1 week!
He said he had no needs, no wants, no worries. A lot of
people in Asia were living this way for thousands of years.
Until the modern times caught up with him, and the way
of life was lost for ever for him. His old village is gone and
he has regretted it ever since. He misses the simple life.
Is this what is known as modern progress, the way
that is taught to us as something every country should
be doing? Can we question it? Yes, we can.
One day, we hope that that simple life will be back for all
of us. The modern cities and technological advances that
the world is so proud of today, do not give human
beings that peace and happiness our ancestors had for
thousands of years, for we have come far from mother nature.
We have come far from the land, from the seas. We no longer
have the feeling that mother nature, in her endless bounty,
will feed us and look after us. Today we are at loggerheads
with nature and all it's powers - we treat nature as the enemy.
Our cities are a testament to that, because we have cut
ourselves out from the natural way of life.
Like the story about the famous violin player playing in a
subway and no one paying attention to him, today,
we miss out all of God's Creations - we dont have the time
to stop and stare. How many of us have looked at the starry sky
recently? We used to do this as children.
There was an English poem like this we learnt in school.
If anyone remembers it, let us know.
Regards,
Porus.
