Senseless population - can you help?

After a long time, I caught up with my friend and was enquiring about other friends. I was shocked to know when she mentioned xxxxx was planning for a second child. I asked twice to confirm I heard it right. Well, I wanted to leash out my whole flood of thoughts, at that very moment. But guess what, I had been always unpopular among my friends for being very blunt and lost many "friends". Over the years I had learnt not to speak my thoughts where it probably isn't welcome. But where do I come and throw it. Right here.

We are in a country (India) with population of 1.18 billion which constitutes to 17.31% of the world population and we occupy only 2.4% of area in the world. We will surpass China and be no.1 by 2025 says the projection. Is this something to be proud of or ashamed of? As for me, I will be absolutely ashamed of. We will prove to the entire world by 2025 we are the most senseless population.

Why senseless? When you crib about the traffic in the roads and honk, skip signals "to beat" the traffic and go home/office, When you crib of water scarcity, When you crib of unmanageable crowd in public places, buses, trains (Who stands in a queue when there are dozens pushing and pulling around?), When you are disappointed your child is not getting admission in the mostly sought out school or a college in merit, When you are not able to find a piece of land say plot or flat to house yourself (shooting real estate prices is due to black money, etc but, most of all the insecurity of competition in the crowd), have you for a moment thought what have YOU done about it? The least you can do is to acknowledge yes the primary problem of India is we are senselessly overpopulated. When you (husband and wife) are stuck in a overcrowded bus or water scarcity, would you like to replace yourself by one or two? Won't one be better? Then why the hell are you planning for two kids? (This is the question for all NRIs also who eventually are planning to settle in India.)

Hmm, yes the classic advice from parents "only if there are siblings they will be in the time of distress". Or worser still like what my periamma gave my mother "What if your first child doesn't survive, you can't handle it".

Wake up my fellow zombies! We are already facing constraints due to our population. We are fed with pesticides in our food because agriculturists have to produce in mass. Most of perennial rivers have dried up. There is water scarcity and we are drilling thousands of feet to find water. Do you want one or two of your kids to suffer this fate? Will two be better so that they can fight between themselves?

We were blessed with a country rich of natural resources and we had screwed it up as much as possible. For example, my heart sinks to see how idiotic of the masses who had polluted the Koovam river. The more we exploit and misuse nature, we are screwing our lives big time. I laugh at the propaganda "Save the planet". Bullshit, the planet can survive without morons like us. "Save ourselves" should be the propaganda. Anyway we are bent to extinct 45 species a day with our senseless greed. I sometimes, feel Agent Smith (Movie Matrix) had told it right "Humans are the virus". I get furious when fellow humans scold other humans as animals. Why degrade animals?? Animals seem to act better than us in terms of dealing with planet earth. We are the morons who are sitting and exploiting it. Remember all it takes is a small shake from Mother earth or the waves to stand up to crush us miniscules of the world.

I used to see advertisements "Naam iruvar, namaku oruvar" which means "We are two, one for us" for family planning in lorries. Now most of them have disappeared. The government seem to have slept over the issue. But it is heart-wrecking to see educated masses like my own friends are not acting sensible.

I was grossed out when one of the interviewees said "It is in the hands of God" when I asked her about her family plans. Well, do you say the same when you or your dear ones are suffering from some illness? Do you leave it "in the hands of God"? I remember a forward that said "Trust in God, but lock your car". Similarly, use a condom if you don't plan. I don't care a damn about your fancies of God or atheism. As far as I am concerned, whether you believe or don't believe in God, you are an equal fool if your heart does not beat with humanity. For heaven's (or hell's or more correctly earth's) sake, this is common sense. We are being senselessly populated. The least you can do is plan your family. Even if you are not broad-minded/large-hearted/bold enough to adopt, can't you restrict your procreation to ONE?

Another part of the game is a ruthless joke. Nature tries to restrict the population by creating barren wombs and spermless testicles. But here there are fertility clinics in every nook and corner of the cities. I understand the social pressure that one goes through. But you don't have to tell anyone that you don't have sperms or eggs or a blocked tube. You can just tell that "we are not interested to have children as we two complete each other". Ok if that sounds a little far from truth and you are suffering life, "We are itself suffering running the rat race, we don't want another one to come and suffer the same fate". If you are spiritual, "My focus in life is to evolve to the next level. I don't want to get into the everyday tangles. I love children and feel it is great to raise one. But I had taken a certain sadhana which wouldn't suit this lifestyle." Like this, you can give a zillion reasons. Ok if you don't have enough IQ like the next door one, do you go about telling everyone you are a complete idiot? NO, right? (Atleast this the wiser can find out :-) But about your sperms, ovum, none can.) Then same way you don't have to tell about this absolutely private matter. If fools around are gossiping, why do you bother about less evolved creatures opinions?

The second part is probably you yourself feel you are missing the fun of raising a child and are not inclined to adopt because of fears of gene beliefs, or insecurity of being not taken well by the child. Adoption is a personal choice and I respect it. But you don't have to be desperate to have a child. You can make it up in a lot of ways. You can visit a nearby orphanage and spend sometime with the children. They also adore being cared for. You can take that extra time that is usually stolen of for parents and focus on something constructive for our society, or your own spiritual growth. You will be better of than visiting such fertility clinics. I have heard that fertility treatments are painful and is not guaranteed and it costs a lot. With that money you can probably educate a child or help a rural village with medicines or help in making our planet greener. That would be more fulfilling. The key is to change the focus from only "me" to "us".

After all we are not living here eternally. Do you want to leave this earth a blessed place for your future one child or a hell to more than one? Do you want our children to curse what senseless idiots our generation was, like some curse the previous generation for corruption? Do you want to join the majority of senseless or act sensible? Unfortunately choice is yours :-)