changeadmin“Grandma, I heard Dad listening to a YouTube video on his laptop. And the big uncle in the video kept talking about climate change and the consequences of industrialization.
When I enquired Dad about these terms, he mentioned protecting natural resources, blah, blah… I didn’t quite get what he meant and now he is busy again. Can you help me out in understanding these things?”
Grandma, putting her reading spectacles aside, looked at her 9-year-old grandson’s face – it had curiosity written all over it. “Let’s go to the terrace, and I will tell you a story about climate change, the consequences of industrialization, and the harm our actions will cause if we do not protect our nature.”
Once upon a time, there was a flourishing kingdom of Ashi in a faraway land. The place was filled with lush green trees, free-flowing rivers, and a big, beautiful blue lake. The kingdom’s biodiversity was one of the best in the entire region. Birds, animals, butterflies, insects, and other marine life used to have a gala time. There was never any shortage of food and water.
The land was ruled by a very benevolent king, Dhruva, who made sure all the people in his kingdom were happy and well taken care of. The king had demarcated areas for various activities.
There was a big palatial garden in the middle of the kingdom, which was adorned with many unique and beautiful plants and flowers. The denizens of kingdom Ashi visited the garden frequently and proudly boasted to guests from other lands about the unique flora and fauna found in their Kingdom.
Housing complexes were built on one side of the palace garden, while the other included an educational complex and healthcare facilities. Then there was an area for sports and recreation, agriculture fields near the rivers, a huge lane for shopping, and so on.
The educational complex housed schools of different kinds to take care of children’s learning, skills, and interests. There was a center for learning medicine, a center for science and mathematics, a center for culture & dance, etc.
One of the centers was also built for arts and crafts. It was regarded as one of the most popular centers in the educational complex. People used to visit the center to see the intricately designed pieces of statues & figures that the students used to create.
The center was headed by a very skillful and highly learned teacher, Aman. Children used to admire his craftsmanship and skills in making complicated art pieces.
Aman’s intricately designed figurines embellished the walls of the King’s palace and all the places of worship in the region. One of his most celebrated pieces of art was a human-sized statue named Pari, which was kept in the King’s special chamber, which was only meant for eminent guests, other kings, and courtiers.
As the King’s special chamber was open on the sides and near the river, people used to take glimpses of it from the opposite side of the river.
The statue Pari symbolized prosperity and was made on a special Rehaan stone.
The figurine was extremely delicate, and its fine carving depicted the layers of dress that the statue adorned. Because of the Rehaan Stone, the statue also released an alluring fragrance. Anyone who saw the Pari would admire it and long to have such a statue.
Rehaan Stone was a special piece of stone that was only found in that kingdom, it not only consisted of different shades of colors, but certain chemical compositions in the stone also made it release sweet smells.
However, if the stone were crushed, it would not release any smell or find any other utility.
Many kings, rulers of other kingdoms, and affluent people used to buy figurines made with Rehaan stone. The students at the Center of Art created those figures, and Aman personally monitored and quality-checked each piece. As the head of the Art Center, Aman was designated the responsibility of mining Rehaan Stone.
The Rehaan stone was found under the lake bed. The kingdom had only one big lake, which fulfilled all the inhabitants’ needs for water. Because of the stone and the minerals, the lake water also used to taste sweet and have a very light, sweet fragrance.
Aman was very careful in mining the Rehaan stone; he used to diligently manage the excavation of the stone along with a special team of underwater divers. Only twice a year, expeditions would be sent inside the lake waters to bring the Rehaan Stone in limited quantity.
Though all the students of the Centre of Art longed for bigger pieces of Rehaan Stone to create their figurines, Aman had set strict rules about the stone. “I will give about 2 feet of this Rehaan stone to all my students only once a year in the final semester. Each student would create their piece of art, and in the final assessment, whoever scores the highest marks would get to have a bigger piece of Rehaan”
Each student leveraged their acquired skills to carve a beautiful sculpture, and the winner got the opportunity to create a more substantial piece of sculpture.
The crafted pieces of art were sold to other kings and wealthy people. A portion of the money was given to the student as a reward, and the rest went for the school’s maintenance and operations.
While all students were happy with Aman and his guidance and intellect, they always complained about the restrictions imposed by their teacher regarding the stone. If they got a bigger piece of stone, they could demonstrate more of their skills, and the bigger sculptures would earn them more money.
When the complaints reached King Dhruva, he summoned Aman, “Why don’t you give bigger pieces of stone, the students will earn more and our kingdom can generate more income.”
Aman, standing in King’s special chamber, politely replied, “Dear King, I would be more than happy to share bigger pieces of Rehaan stone, but as you know the stone is found on the lake bed and we need to send underwater divers to fetch the stone“.
King inquired, “I can ask more divers to go with you to bring the stone. Is there any issue in the availability of the stone?”.
Aman replied “No King, there is no issue with the availability, but as you know the stone consists of special minerals and compounds, which give uniqueness to our lake. The prosperity of the biodiversity in the region is also attributed to the water in the lake. There are many birds, butterflies, and small insects which are only found in your kingdom and nowhere else”.
“If we indiscriminately mine the stone, we do not know the consequences it will have on the other aspects of the kingdom.” He added, “Moreover, we should use our resources conservatively so that our future generations can also enjoy them.”
King Dhruva understood Aman’s intentions and he also respected Aman’s wisdom and knowledge. Aman was not only skillful in creating sculptures but his knowledge of environmental science and geoscience was equally exceptional. He agreed to Aman’s way of functioning his Center for Art.
After a few years, as age caught up with King Dhruva, he peacefully died while sleeping one day. With the passing of the King, his eldest son, Pratap, took over the reins.
King Pratap was young, dynamic, and very ambitious. He was known for his hunting skills and killed many animals, whose bodies were put as trophies on the palace walls. When he was the prince, he suggested many overzealous and aspirational ideas to his father, like reducing the forest size to increase the agricultural land, selling the wood to the nearby kingdom, etc.
Though King Dhruva did not like his son’s ways of doing things, being the eldest son and also because of his popularity with the young people in the kingdom, he anointed Pratap as the next King.
Within a few months of his reign, the restriction imposed by Aman at the Center for Art was brought to King Pratap’s notice. Without asking for Aman’s point of view, he ordered that the size of the Rehaan stone would be made double and given to every student not once, but twice every year.
As it was the king’s command, Aman had to faithfully oblige. Now, the students were able to make bigger statues and more in number. Slowly, the word reached other kingdoms, and demand for those statues increased. People used to pay a much higher premium to get hold of the beautifully created pieces of art made from Rehaan stone.
When King Pratap came to know about the stupendous growth in revenue because of the statute sales, he ordered that all the Rehaan stones in his kingdom be used to make statues and also sell the stone to other kingdoms at a huge price.
When his ministers informed him that all stones cannot be easily excavated as they are in a lake bed and Aman does not approve of the Kings’ idea. King Pratap was in no mood to budge, he ordered, “Construct an embankment on the river which flows in the Lake and then empty the water of the lake and mine all the Rehaan stones“. He further added, “Sack Aman!“
Aman was removed from his post.
A major embankment was constructed to stop the flow of the river into the lake.
Thousand-year-old trees were removed to construct another smaller lake, which will be filled with water from the main lake. This was in addition to trees being uprooted for increasing the agricultural land.
After the lake was emptied, King Pratap’s best men were able to extract all the Rehaan stones from the lake bed. Over the next few months, many figurines were created by all the past and current students in the region. The figures, statues, and idols were sold. Even stone was sent in raw form to many places.
King Pratap was overjoyed when he came to know that his kingdom, Ashi, was able to generate revenue a thousand times over. He soon became one of the richest kings in the entire region.
In the following few years, the residents of the kingdom Ashi became rich and experienced overall prosperity in the land. There were parties, dancing, merrymaking, and gambling all throughout the kingdom. The sweet-tasting water from the lake was made into booze, and even that was sold in huge quantities.
What people failed to notice was that there had been no rain in the last two years, and many learned people, like school teachers, doctors, and scholars from the place, including Aman, had left the kingdom of Ashi.
As most of the trees in the forests were uprooted, the animals, birds, and insects had either fled or died.
The smaller lake, which was built in lieu of the main lake, which had the Rehaan Stone, was also drying.
With hardly any water, the farmers were unable to irrigate their fields and as a result, agricultural production went down.
When King Pratap came to know about the extreme water scarcity, the embankment on the river was asked to be opened. The sudden gush from the river first took away the Pari statute, which was built very close to the river. Secondly, as there was no proper storage space to take all the water from the river, most of the water was wasted and only a small portion of water went into the smaller lake.
When things came to an extremely dangerous situation, he asked to use his money to buy water from other kingdoms. As rainfall was scarce across all regions, no other kingdom was able to offer much support.
The small water bodies and puddles of water created after drying the river became the breeding ground for mosquitoes and insects. Diseases started to spread in the kingdom, and as most of the doctors had left the kingdom, people started dying.
With the Angel of Prosperity gone, learned and knowledgeable people gone, and hardly any food and water left, but with lots of money, King Pratap realized his mistake and started repenting for his blunders. The ministers advised him to seek Aman’s help and also ask other learned people to come back so that they could recommend solutions.
King Pratap personally took a journey to a small village where Aman was staying. On seeing Aman, King Pratap fell on his feet. “Pardon my mistake, Aman; I should have listened to your advice and should not have allowed the entire excavation of the Rehaan Stone. I did not realize one mistake can have so many consequences.
The entire Kingdom is ruined; we hardly have any water left in the kingdom. Many people have died because of my fault. There are no birds and animals left. The entire ecosystem has collapsed…”
He further pleaded, “Aman, you can take all the money that I have, but please rescue our Kingdom Ashi.”
Aman quickly lifted the King and bowed his head, “You are King; you don’t have to plead.”
The King replied, “I am not only many years younger than you, but I also know the advice that you gave my father of not exhausting the limited resources that Mother Earth has given us. I purposefully did not listen to it. Now such is the catastrophe that has unfolded that it is befitting, that I ask for your forgiveness. In my foolishness and desire to make more money, I destroyed many aspects of the kingdom”.
Aman replied, “I don’t have any magic way out of the situation in our kingdom, and we cannot overturn the damage that is already caused, but we can make a new beginning.”
In the next few months, millions of trees were planted in and around the kingdom; a clear passage was made for the river, which started flowing back into the main lake.
Fortunately, in the monsoon season, there was decent rainfall, which helped the new trees to grow, and enough water was collected in the storage tanks.
In the next few years, though the unique birds and insects that used to thrive during the time of the Reehan stone did not return, few other animals and birds did come back.
After Aman passed away due to his old age, a statue was constructed in his memory using whatever Rehaan stone was left in the kingdom. The statue was named “Symbol of Peace and Hope.”
The kingdom lost the glory that was present during King Dhruva’s reign, but it lived on to fight for another day.
Please share the moral of the story. What was your learning? Were Grandma’s story on climate change and the consequences of Industrialization helpful?
The story is contributed by Varun, founder of Change Started.
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