Rivers and Riverfronts in India
India is land of rivers. Himalayas right over her head for crown the rain falls are ample and nature at her best and diverse.
Historically be it Punjab — “Bread basket of the world and the state of 5 rivers” or Bihar, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and 30+ others where land beneath has layers and layers of civilizations. The culture so unique and diverse that they say that water changes every mile and language every 4.
Did you know British carried gallons of Ganga Jan (Ganga Water) for their 6 month old journey to London from India.
Did you know King Akbar will serve Ganga’s water in his deewane Khas (King’s gathering)
Do you know during Colera outbursts in India taking a dip in Ganga was a “prescribed” medicine by Doctors of that time.
Do you know on Ganga basin itself 1/4 of India’s population depends for survival.
Why? — Ganga’s is one unique river in the world with great concentration of Bacteriophage which devours multi drug resistant bacteria.
How Ganga got this mystical power?
Ganga is a system of thousands of rivers, tributaries, channels over and under the ground and passing thorough the same diversity building energies, joining synergies.
Now looking right from 2017-
Why Punjab is now the land of — “औलादें कंजर, जमीनें बंजर” Sons are uncivilized, and lands infertile. A famous dialog from the Movie “Udta Punjab”.
Why Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal being right on Ganga Basin have most of the water related cancer and malformed children born.
Why India is running water trains?
Why for last few years there is been spells of mega droughts and floods one after another.
Why more than 2 million farmers simply boarded trains from their villages to cities like Delhi or Mumbai and preferred to stay without a roof over their heads right outside the railway platforms. Eating off Charity? Weren’t these the same folks who fed everyone else?
And when all of it was happening, do you know what our leaders were doing?
Building a Rs. 3000 Crore river mausoleum, right over a still breathing river. Trying to hold her under big walls and machines. Building neon lights, “Selfie Points” and Big Bellagio Fountains.
Why?
The whole business of destruction-> Construction->Destruction->Water Trains->food packages is actually good for “their definition” of GDP. Because people are breaking their fasts with breads made off “their definition” of GDP now a days.
People in India like “Selfie” so as long as our leaders or shall we say fakebook marketers can muster a good selfie even over the mausoleum, People in India will go and vote. So even if this mausoleum in Lucknow is built over to up-sell another mausoleum right in Ahmadabad, people will have no idea, since a selfie around a replica Bellagio fountain will take away all their pains and sufferings.
Selfies are great for the business too. See Google got a 3 trillion dollar company playing over the same “Crooked Timber of Humanity”.
Do you know a 960 KM long river got her active river bed encroached (leave alone flood plain, that was gone decades back) and paved over. That too without any information or plans or environment assessment done available to anyone.
Do you know the famous Kumbh Mela over shipra river is organized by pumping water at 5000 liters /second, carried with pipes lifting over 350 meters and carried 50 km from Narmada. While farmers downstream are waiting for their share.
Do you think India can survive this onslaught and destruction of her water system?
Do you think Ganga can be the same Ganga after all the river linkages, river fronts and dams planned.
And more over do you think Ganga will take all this sitting silently? She is Ganga after all coming right off the Shiva’s head.
And Gomti is her little sister.
