I call myself a ‘nature slut’. Credit goes to my friend Payal (uzuuumaki on instagram) when she used this phrase while we were trekking last year. But I live in Mumbai, and because of that my constant urge to be in the wild doesn’t get satisfied. In my college, I travelled whenever I could. I travelled even before it got ‘cool’. And I travelled to satisfy this constant urge.
Now, where did this urge come from? For starters, who doesn’t like the beauty of nature? It’s the calm you find when your life is chaotic as a result of modern functionaries. Moving on, (giving you trigger warning: self-harm) isn’t being in nature - well, our nature? Ah, when I was plotting my own death - thinking for which reason I should endure whatever I’m going through, nothing held me back except the fact that I want to live another day to see the next sunrise/sunset. I want to wake up listening to birds chirping & climb those mountains. I want to dip my legs into cold ocean while the moonlight hits. Nature, till date, has kept me alive.
So, whenever I could not travel & wanted that anchor to remind me to find beauty in this world, I shared my worries with my favourite tree in my building. It was a huge coconut tree. I used to sit besides it alone, with my friends, few years back even with someone I crushed on (phew, long long ago). This went on till my 12th grade and I moved to Pune. GUESS WHAT? MY COLLEGE WAS A FOREST. And you can say there were two cute buildings inside it. People complained about the infrastructure (but meh, I was happy to walk in that campus). This phase of life is also over now. Finally, packed my bags to be back home. I was disheartened that the greenery Pune had, Mumbai will not offer me that. So, I decided to go back to my favourite tree and share that sadness with it. Before I could do that, someone (insert abusive words) CUT MY FAVOURITE TREE.
As soon as I saw that, my heart sank. A decade of memories flashed where that tree had been calming me during every storm I faced in my life. I still can’t digest the fact that people are okay to uproot the very thing that gives you oxygen to breathe?
My dependency on nature calls for people to worry. My friend asks me to find a better reason to live. She’s like, ‘live for yourself, your parents, partner (which I don’t have currently lol) but why seek nature?’ Doesn’t climate change worry you?
To that I would remind you, if anything happens to nature, not me who’d die - me & nature are taking you with us! evil laughs
So, I live another day to experience everything this universe has to offer me, you and every soul on the planet.
*ps. when I started writing this today, I wasn’t aware that today is environmental day. ad agencies, why didn’t you pop up on my socials?*