Miles to go before we reach?
Corona has made visible the invisible face of migrants and hope we can feel the pain behind these unrecognized unfamiliar faces...
Miles to go before we reach?
Corona has made visible the invisible face of migrants and hope we can feel the pain behind these unrecognized unfamiliar faces…
Ranju Gulati & Vivek Gulati (Chandigarh based Educationists)
Every cloud has a silver lining and so is this dark cloud of the present lockdown. The lockdown gave all of us an opportunity to look back and we were no exception to this. In the present day digital era, the species of “Photo Albums” falls in the category of endangered list today. This we had witnessed in the past few years whenever we asked shopkeeper for traditional albums with black handmade papers and corners to fix photographs in these albums, we were always looked upon as an old black and white TV coupled to an antenna. But today we can say with pride that these traditional albums collection of ours has not only rejuvenated us by reviving our old memories but also forced us to have a serious thought about a burning issue which every govt. is stranded with in this hour of pandemic.
As we were flipping our old albums, we came across some stellar pictures of Sukhna Lake – A famous hotspot of migratory birds in the city beautiful. These migratory birds throng this water body every year travelling miles and miles from what Bollywood often calls “ Saat Samandar Paar”. In winters these avian tourist are delight to watch and it seems relatively warmer places act as Athithi devo bhav for these creatures who take formidable risks to their wintering grounds. With each passing year the number of these birds has been declining and it has become an issue of concern and worry not only for avian lovers but also for scientists and researchers. Is charm of Sukhna Lake over or is it reverse migration, a trend we are witnessing these days in labourers? Is there some lockdown in the world of birds too?
Reverse migration in birds is usually witnessed in inexperienced, juvenile birds that become confused and go in opposite direction and end up as vagrants and stray away from migrating range. In birds reverse migration is by young birds and never seen in flocks but in humans’ labour it is not showing any demographic boundaries and it seems that the phrase “ Birds of same feathers flock together” applies lesser to birds but more to the migrant labourers .
Reverse migration in birds is definitely a stray phenomenon but why are we witnessing this in humans. Migrants came to cities for better facilities and are invisible force of our economy. These labourers might be shaping the urban landscape but have not been able to become the urban face. It seems that the place where they worked was never a home but they were alien in this place. Is it uprooting and connecting with roots. Dreams of Roti, kapda and Makan– the three basic necessities caused them to migrate and it is just Roti which is causing reverse migration today. This raises many questions in our minds – Have we failed as society? Why these pillars of our economy are not the nation builder? Why we have not been able to check this reverse migration? Or is it modified Darwin’s “Survival of the fittest to Struggle for Existence” in these times of Corona? We have always heard of no man’s land but unfortunately today these migrants have become no man’s people.
Corona has made visible the invisible face of migrants and hope we can feel the pain behind these unrecognized unfamiliar faces and I am reminded of a couplet by famous poet Mirza Ghalib- “Kaun Puchta Hai Pinjre Mein Band Parindon Ko Ghalib, Yaad Vahee Aate Hai Hai Jo Ud Jaate Hai”
About the Writers: The writers are educationists from diverse backgrounds. My wife Dr Ranju Gulati is a Botanist and working as Head of Botany Department in prestigious DAV College Chandigarh. Her tastes include contributing to literary works in both Hindi and English besides contributing to the Environmental cause. Myself Vivek Gulati I am an Electrical Engineer but then turned into a Philosopher. I did post graduation in Philosophy followed by M. Phil and presently pursuing research on Science and religion with special focus on swami Vivekananda at prestigious Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra.
