Last evening I watched the final episode of The Indian Ocean with Simon Reeves. A phenominal program and I want to add the DVD to my documentaries collection. One part of the program focussed on wild Loris in Indonesia. It's a small furry animal, brown with big marble eyes that is an expert tree climber. Of all the descriptions, the most important to note it that it is a critically endangered specie. Sadly, it has been severly hunted or captured to keep as pets. Taming the Loris means forcefully removing its teeth with pliers to render it harmless. Apparently there is a huge market for this animal primarily with the middle-class community in Indonesia.

The cruelty and shame is unimaginable!! Authorities and welfare activists ackowledge the futility of fighting the poachers as they are a part of a strong mafia. Naturally then the only option is to increase awareness amongst people and stop the buying. This I find by and large seems to be the only solution for several problems in the animal/ animal products industry. No one can stop the hunting, the cruelty that follows, the subsequent ecological damage..the only hope is to create awareness. I suppose it is the same with non animal related issues as well. For centuries no one has been able to stop drug trafficking. Saying no to drugs at the buyers end seems the only course of control.

I am more sympathetic to the suffering in the animal kingdom than anywhere else and this piece of information really upset me. Why would you need a Loris for a pet? Isn't a cat or a dog good enough? How can anyone live with a pet knowing they've pulled its teeth off, watch it suffer everyday while it tries to eat/just live? My heart bleeds at the very thought of this. Such enormous proportions of sadism and evil shocks me. How is that only humans can be this cruel? I admit there are compassionate and kind people as well but the more I see programs such as this or read the news, I feel the rotten ones easily outnumber the decent ones. It is such a sad state to be in where we are destroying the world around  usin every which way we can, heedless to the fact that we have nowhere else to go.

The Indonesian forests and all it nurtures is vanishing right before our eyes. We don't have to envision its state way ahead in the future ....we will probably see the total destruction before our time is up. Even then, one day, when we stand on the barren, leeched land that was once a beautiful forrest, we will only think of  more ways to destroy it and take from it to fulfil our selfish interests.

Its been more than 3 years since I have posted anything on my blog. I had almost forgotten of its existence. I don't write much these days...no..I don't write at all anymore. Lately, so many people I know have been asking me if I have updated my blog and have written anything. I find this very amusing. They make me sound like a celebrity writer who pens interesting stories and books every other week. Even when I used to write 3 years ago, it was just mundane ramblings expressed in mediocre words. Apprently even such posts of mine suitably entertained my loyalists (few though they are!). While that is most encouraging, I am just not motivated to write anymore.

What do I write about? Everybody these days has lots to say on everything. There are plenty of witty writers (I enjoy reading their posts), serious writers, opinionated writers,  passionate writers, focussed writers, wannabe writers and then the true writers. With so much to read, when do I write and which category do I fall into? But it's a catch 22 isn't it? Unless you start writing you won't know what kind of writer you will be but to start writing you need to know what kind of potential you have. I think when I used to write earlier I had plenty to say on everything and I expressed myself loudly for anyone willing to hear but as I have grown a bit older and hopefully wiser, I sometimes feel my view is just another noise in the general din. Now now...there is no need to analyse this more than is necessary and assume that I don't value myself and all that psychological blah blah. I am only questioning the necessity to write about everything whether people want to know or not and if I don't care about my readers, then why I am publishing my words in a public blog...why not just keep a personal diary?

It seems I have wasted 3 years (according to my readers) overthinking things and analysing more than is necessary instead of just putting pen to paper or rather finger to keypad. Writing like any other art gets better with practise I am told and right now I feel extremely rusty and out of touch. With so many people asking me to get back to writing (I hope this isn't a clever tactic to get me off their hands), I have decided to start writing again slowly at first and if I feel confident about it then maybe more regularly later on. Disclaimer: I still don't know what to write about and if i did why it should matter. Ah well...for what it's worth let me start all over again.