Yes, Palampur doesn’t even need  a Corporation

I write this piece in continuation of last week’s post. While making my case against Palampur’s supposed upgradation to a district primarily owing to environmental concerns, I had suggested a Municipal Corporation as a possible alternative or a way out without applying my mind fully to the full extent of the negative fall-out of the proposed alternative. Last Sunday, on a rather languid, soggy, bedraggled afternoon I got chatting to a dear friend– a diehard Palampur and nature lover who fumes, frets and worries a lot about Palampur’s rapid decline towards a nightmarish ghastly urban ugliness. Apart from sharing his valuable thoughts on books he had recently read and relished, and wanted me to read without fail, we got talking about my last week’s blog. I was glad to know that my views on the subject of district status to Palampur had found an echo and resonance with him. We agreed how our politicians in cahoots with the powerful business lobby and those with vested interests have conspired to trumpet a tailor-made kind of ‘developmental agenda’ to just promote commercial and business interests with scant regard to – or rather at a huge price of – destroying the precious natural assets that our state and this  valley of ours is endowed with. Thus unchecked, unregulated, haphazard, and frenetic construction activity here, there and everywhere, including even on the narrow banks of khuds, defying law, defying common sense - forget about aesthetics - goes on and on… without any let up. While the politicians - whose moral and public duty it is to ensure that basic natural integrity and ecology of the hill state and that of the town remain unsullied and intact - look the other way. So do the officials whose job it is to enforce the laid-down rules and regulations without fear and favour. Well, when commerce, business, bucks, getting-rich-quick become the guiding mantras of ‘development’ this slide towards concretization and ugliness becomes an inescapable, painful reality. Be that as it may, I dare say that our politicians have let us down; they have failed us. Above all they have failed our Pradesh. No prizes for guessing how the comming generations will rate us all and what choicest expletives will they have for us for having ruined the intrinsic beauty of this hill state.

I do sincerely hope that the old guard now opts  for a political vanprastha. They have had enough of their share of the power cake. Let a fresh crop of young brilliant and vibrant minds surcharged with energy and idealism with a grand vision of a green and beautiful Himachal now take over.

Coming back to the central point. As rightly opined by my friend whose insightful views I value a lot, as well as a few other enlightened friends, well, even the idea of a Municipal Corporation for this small town is flawed and fallacious. I agree with their viewpoint that Palampur is too small a town for such a monolith. It would do more harm and good. We know how the other MCs are doing in our state including our capital town. Closer home, the CEO of MC Dharamsala Mr Lalit Jain who was being proactive in taking on the McLeod Ganj’s  hotel lobby, unscrupulous builders and other illegal operators has been in the eye of storm lately for his ‘misdemeanours’. Alarmed and feeling threatened, the coterie prevailed on the political leadership to strip him of all the powers except the garbage disposal job. And now, finally, he has been shunted out. When Corporations and such bodies become mere handmaidens of the mighty and powerful and cater to their agenda of greed rather than working for the general public good under the ambit of law, then they become mere ugly, white elephants.  Therefore Palampur is certainly better off without one.

Instead, the sane and sensible thing would be the expansion of municipal limits of Palampur. It has so far been restricted to just the cramped confines of Palampur town, lorded over by the handful. And there are vested interests at work to stifle the ever-growing clamour and demand for the municipality’s expansion. It is already too late. The need of the hour is to purge it of the deadwood and expand its limits. It is the suburbs of the town where the bulk of Palampurwallas live. It is these areas: Ghugar, Aima, Sughar, Bundla, Lohna, the University, Kalu-di-Hatti, Chowki and Maranda which need to be embraced within the committee to provide for proper civic amenities and monitor and regulate developmental works preventing encroachments and haphazard constructions.

Therefore instead of pulling in different directions let’s all jointly stand for just one and only demand which is practical, feasible, doable and sensible: Expansion of Municipal limits of Palampur.

Such natural catastrophes will become more frequent and devastating with degrading ecology of our hills and mountains...Palampur included...at huge environmental and economic costs: Let's conserve and preserve.

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                       Of Love 

I finished reading Elif Shafak’s book, ‘Forty Rules of Love’ early this week. It has been one of the finest books I have read so far. The story is simple but lucidly woven into a wholesome, heart-nourishing read. It revolves round a middle- aged homemaker American woman Ella Rubinstein leading a settled life of contentment and middle-class comfort with her husband and three children…contentment yes,  but with an undercurrent of monotony perhaps. That’s why when she happens to read a manuscript that lands on her table for a review, her life and the very philosophy of it undergo an upheaval…a sea change. Laced with Sufism and Rumi’s heart-tugging poetry, Ella is jolted by its beauty and wonder resulting in a quiet transformation in her. As her reading the MS progresses she falls more and more under the spell of its author. Finally, she rebels and spurred by the dictates of her heart - rather than head - goes on a voyage of love…unconditional love; and fulfilment.

As I said before the narrative is lucid, gripping and poetic. In the present times of crass commercialism, intolerance, lack of depth, warmth and richness in our daily, market-driven, unidimensional, cosmetic, robotic lives, our flashy, insipid lifestyles without music,  without poetry, without books, without birdsong, without a view of the first ray of the rising sun or the crimson hues of the westerly sun, heartlessness and above all lack of unconditional love in all its magnificent dimensions, reading this book becomes such an elixir for the soul. In fact after reading the book, one would feel like falling in love over and over again! And with a bit of Sufism now running in my veins I daresay that I know of many friends around, whom I deeply adore, admire and value, who are excellent, exquisite human beings, who would blossom so much more but for  a touch and spark of LOVE.

Perhaps you may be quite sick and tired of this 'overdose'  on my part as my outpourings on this theme have become rather monotonously frequent and repetitive.

But even at the cost of boring you here is one more quote:

“A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western…Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple.

“Love is water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire!

“The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”

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