Is this climate change? I asked
as rains lashed out. Oh, that is
a subject for experts, the bald
man with a goatee said. We
stood on the clouds and watched
the water slowly submerge —
seeping through the marshes
rising, rising till it covered the
fields, the houses. The cattle —
did they swim? The cats and dogs?
What of the humans? I asked again.
Is this an impact of climate change?
No, the goatee shook his learned
head sparkling with rays of erudition,
This is just flooding. Climate change
is for experts. I teach how to make
money, manage your business.
Oh, I said and gasped at his tome
of books, that despite internet, rose
from the floor to the ceiling in his
home perched on clouds, far
distanced from common lives.
Sweltering heat, the forests burnt.
Animals in droves roasted. People
ran amuck. Again, a simpleton, I asked,
Is this climate change? With spectacles
perched on his nose, the learned man
replied, No. This is just farmers
cutting grass and burning fields.
Climate change is for experts. What
of the flames that roasted kangaroos
and llamas across the seas? I asked.
I do not know he said. I told you
climate change is for experts and
not a subject for us. I help teach
making money. That is my expertise.
Typhoons, storms ran amuck.
Tsunamis. Oh, that is in Andamans,
said the goateed one. I help teach
how to generate the economy,
To make money.
A decade passed. Two and three. The habitat
shrivelled lives, trees and the economy.
The sun grew strong — beating down on the
parched ground. Thunder, rain thronged in
sheets, tidal floods from rising seas. The goateed
one, now left alone, sat on his learned tomes.
Was that the impact of climate change?
I asked. He replied, I told you. I do not know.
I help make money grow. Economy.
Maybe, bunnies will consult the dwindling goatee next —
on how to make the economy grow and
Oh money!
Mitali Chakravarty writes for a future filled with hope and harmony and in that spirit has founded the Borderless Journal.
