The Rings on her Wood

Living in a remote town in the southern part of South India in the year 2008, a young teenage girl is just grasping the concepts of environment and climate change. That's when it first happened - 

"The sun isn't yellow anymore, there's this weird whitish ring to it that hurts my eye," Ayra pondered. In her physics book, she read: "Global Warming and Greenhouse effect". 

In the year 2009, Ayra was struck with the biggest tragedy of her life - the death of Cameron - her precious guava tree. This was, however, no isolated incident - she later came to know of groundwater depletion, an effect of global warming.

The year 2010 was tedious for her. Global warming nevertheless is untiring and she was made a witness to the forest fires in the mountains of Ghats, migration of monkeys, snakes and even bison into human civilization. She was sad then, for the first time in her life, she worried about mother earth. A Verse from the Tirukkural came to her mind:

"அகழ்வாரை தாங்கும் நிலம்போல தம்மை இகழ்வாரைப் பொறுத்தல் தலை."

How long will the planet keep sustaining the rising population? Then, she started planting perennial trees all over the town as a part of NGC volunteer and felt better about herself. 

The rains came in 2011 - a torrent like never before and she enjoyed it to the fullest - little did she know it was a symptom of climate change.

But the hardest blow of them all was seeing the moon all red in color.

A new leaf bloomed with the coming year 2012, but gone were all the beautiful butterflies that surround her garden like a horde. No more chirping sparrows either along with the beautiful pink strokes. With the disappearing bees, she totally surrendered to the end of the world, apocalyptic doom. December came and passed away and the planet is still standing.

But, gone were those joyful days of playground games along with the petrichor and rare species. Global warming is happening and citizens of Earth needed a reality check. But little was being done globally, even as late as 2013.

The years started to blur as news of earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, changing weather patterns, solar flares, extinction of species, migration of wildlife, tsunamis, cyclones, heavy rains, drought, famine, landslides, disease-breakout, fires all hit her like a hammer on a boulder one after the other - the endless effects of global warming and climate change. Ayra panicked, Ayra cried, Ayra wallowed and at last acted - Wherever she is, she and her surroundings will never be treated any lesser than it deserves! She witnessed clouds moving in fast forward like in the movies in the year 2016 and hail rain for the first time in 2017. Ayra wasn't hindered. She had already decided to contribute to positive climate change.

Till this date, she lives in another remote town on the southeastern part of South India, with four perennial trees in her garden and some cattle flock, determined to keep filling that single drop of water in the depleting ocean called Earth's Safety. Battling against global warming and climate change, hour by hour hopeful there will be significant change sooner than later, Ayra waters her little olive plant in her garden, as a tribute to Peace on Earth.