Reporter: ‘Just setting up my recording device, sir. We shall begin shortly.’
Environmentalist:
‘You’ll make my voice be with you
To start just give me a cue’
Reporter: ‘How do you find life in this village?’
Environmentalist:
‘More houses or less houses matter not to me
I work for the environment, you see’
Reporter: ‘Since when?’
Environmentalist:
‘I was born with this love for the birds and the plants
To this fact there surely cannot be any slant’
Reporter: ‘What all have you done so far?’
Environmentalist:
‘We plant more trees, we use what the earth gives
This is why our ecosystem here now lives’
Reporter: ‘Isn’t this what everyone all over the world is already doing? Isn’t this what the authorities recommend? Isn’t this what is done after trees are felled to give way to building more roads and larger buildings? Isn’t this what the business of life and living is all about?’
Environmentalist:
‘Yes, but easily planted and faster growing trees
Will tilt the balance in ways no one really sees
Can the native do as much good in a foreign land?
Or walking on sawdust replace walking in the sand?
Plants and animals too have a choice unique
Must we try and change whatever they seek?’
Reporter: ‘You understand the ecosystem well and know every jigsaw piece inside-out. So is this why the local government has recommended your name for an award?’
Environmentalist:
‘Not just this but I go out and tell others many ways
This is what keeps me busy on even no-work days’
Reporter: ‘I really appreciate all your work and I’m sure my readers too will when they read my article. So could you write a small message for our readers and sign it please. That picture will be on the front page.’
Environmentalist:
‘Never been to a school, never learned to read or write
But my birds and my plants love my rhyming insight’
Environmentalist: (after a pause)
‘Our world is so like a poem, my friend
Learned wisdom is just a passing trend.’
Reporter: ‘I guess I have more than I could have actually wanted for my article…’
Environmentalist:
‘Read the signs as you look at the sights
The organic world really needs no fights.’
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Note: This post was written during the Writer’s Retreat at Birdsong Cottage. The prompt given to the participants was to write a piece in dialogue with little or no narration and, if possible, give a twist towards the end.
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Our environment and our future needs intuitive understanding and not unresponsive education
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Arvind Passey
02 April 2016
(Post written on 28 March 2016)
