Photo: ecoworld

Millions of years ago, when the mother earth was in a primitive era, where life struggled to exist, atmosphere boasted with its evil intentions, and rivers refused to quench the thirst; the rotation of earth led to the shifting of continents continuously. It was not long when a huge island from northeast came uninvited and kept moving towards south. In its own attitude, southern lands refused to drift away. Centuries passed and eventually they met, shared the impact, and agreed to hurl the mutual fraction of land in the outer space. But the only remaining issue was that earth declined to give away her possession, and gravity did the rest of work, pulled the hurled land back, forming very high lands. And this is how I got born.

            My silence speaks! Being close to the coldness of space, I acquired few of its characters. Slowly life has begun to flourish on me, tackling all the hardships of temperature, altitude, and atmosphere. Today, a diverse species of flora and fauna along with the human civilization has found its way to survive here. For some, I am beautiful, for others, ruthless. For a moment, I become so generous that others don’t stop praising me, while on the other hand, when my mood swings, I desert myself so hard that life cannot find a new dawn. Struggle for survival is every hour here, many for hunger, a hand for shelter, few for attention. Even the plants have grown all over me dressing me, but cannot patch their own wounds.

            Standing tall, every morning, when rays of sun kiss my forehead; I think, if this deer doesn’t run with its full potential, it will become a stronger animal’s meal; whereas if this leopard slows even for a nanosecond, it'll have to sleep hungry. These challenges were not enough I guess, that's why few aborigines settled here, making their life to be lived more securely. Humans have found their way to live in this extreme climate. I often observe them feeding on meats giving them more energy to continue their livelihood. They fish in the water flowing through my veins. No matter how small a creature is, or how big, struggle is for all; some have adapted to living while other are still trying, and those who gave up, got vanished.

Nature took away my legs, so all I can do is watch the beautiful misery of all individuals. Sometimes I wish I could walk a mile down to warm these creatures whose habitat I am. No one promised life to be easy, but that doesn’t mean it has to be get tough with every sunrise. I realized the only truth about myself: I AM THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF LIFE, generous and ruthless at times, vast from east to west and when narrowed summoned in poet's notebook, home and hell for creatures, peace and conflict, food and hunger, pleasure to see and pain to live in…..

Sharma is Studying Bachelors at Institute of Forestry, Pokhara