Armchair trek
The monotony of staying indoors was broken when THE WEEK took readers on a journey to the exotic Western Ghats (‘Guardians of the Ghats’, June 6).
It was knowledge to me that more species perish or go extinct than the ones we manage to document. The captivating story of the black leopard, Saya, and his consorts, was an absorbing narration. I also liked the lucid stories on most uncommon snakes, and dancing and singing frogs. The icing on the cake was the experience of a couple who live for birds and frogs.
The Sahyadri is our treasure, and the living beings there are our pride. Let me thank you for gifting us a collector’s issue.
Sanath Kumar T.S.,
On email.
‘Guiding Knights’ by Rekha Dixit, which ends with this line—”a few more hungry paper mills, and this song will be silenced forever”—brought tears to my eyes.
As a zoologist for over 38 years, I recalled my contributions, fettered by a degree syllabus that demanded dissection of frogs (and other animals). Back in college, we must have dissected around a thousand frogs every year. We were named mandooka mardakas (frog killers).
Today I live just about 50km away from the Western Ghats, and I feel sad and helpless on being a mute spectator of the onslaught.
At this juncture I am reminded of what Gerald Durrell said: “We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners. We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of gardening. By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves, in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors.”
M. Sudhaker Rao,
On email.
Your cover story on the Western Ghats made for wonderful reading. We are fortunate that mother nature has generously painted a variety of landscapes in India. We have extremely rich and diverse flora and fauna, but, alas, they are constantly under the threat of extinction.
We must strengthen our conservation efforts that helped us to reverse the damage already done to ecology and wildlife.
We should never be oblivious of the fact that biodiversity is the pillar that facilitates ecosystems to function and for us to thrive.
Sunil Chopra,
On email.
Not as bad
While I agree with Barkha Dutt that the Covid situation in the country could have been managed better, it seems the aim of her column was to project the situation in extreme negative light, in spite of the positive initiatives taken by the government (‘The dead do speak’, June 6). Dutt should provide a balanced opinion to readers.
May I remind her that even advanced countries such as the US, with their unlimited resources and access to the latest technology, fare far worse than India when it comes to infections and death rates compared with their populations.
S. Nagarajan,
On email.
Bold woman
Anu Aggarwal is a woman of indomitable courage as she revived herself from the trauma she underwent with mindful exercises (‘Drive to live’, June 6). We should take inspiration from her life and believe that nothing is impossible.
As Anu said, it was God’s will to transform her. May God give Anu all the strength to do what she wants to, and may she serve many more trauma victims.
Shweta Chaudhary,
Delhi.
Salute to Rajiv Gandhi
The author has well described Rajiv Gandhi, whose modesty, loyalty, humility, kindness and love for the great country was amazing (‘A Kindred spirit’, May 30).
I completely agree with the view of the author that Rajiv was a doting father, a committed husband, a dutiful son and a loyal friend.
The most important thing that Rajiv had in him was to use technology as a tool of equality and empowerment for the masses. Rajiv always tried to keep open a constructive relationship with all major world powers.
I salute to this great stalwart for his contributions to the country.
Ashok Sharma,
On email.
Kudos to THE WEEK for bringing out such an impressive and knowledge-laden cover story on Rajiv on his 30th death anniversary. The articles by people who were close to Rajiv made for good reading.
Good work and keep it up.
Ajay S. Kumar,
On email.
They say that Rajiv made a mistake by sending the India Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka. I have been visiting the island nation for 22 years now. I feel the mistake was on how it was executed.
The intent was to stop the civil war in the region. The presence of the IPKF would result in displacing the Sri Lankan army. As a first step the LTTE was asked to surrender their arms, which they partly did when the IPKF arrived.
G. Venkatakuppuswamy,
On email.
[Rajiv Gandhi] was a good man destroyed by bad politics. Cannot be described otherwise.
K.S. Medappa,
Bengaluru.
Why support Modi?
When people in Europe and the US were reeling under the peak of the second wave, Narendra Modi boasted of India’s success in not only controlling the virus effectively but also in saving humanity from a big disaster. It seems hollow when Meenakshi Lekhi comes to the rescue of Modi, who is only concerned about upholding his personal image over the interests of the country (‘Forthwrite’, May 16).
Pankaj Kumar Chatterjee,
On email.