Roti Kapda Makaan

ROTI + KAPDA + MAKAAN

WHAT & NOW? .
WHAT & HOW???
WHAT & WHY??????

An important segment of the human race is a worried lot today.
We know man is caught in a VICIOUS CIRCLE.
Hunger, poverty, climate change, population, pollution, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and food security are some cardinal bombers frequently impeding the growth and development of man, mammals, and ecosystems.
All this can be solved by increasing awareness and constant, repeated periodical education at all levels of the education system and by increasing research and use of better environmentally friendly alternatives.

Let’s analyze

Prehistorical and historical periods
The evolution of man passed through the STONE AGE >>> IRON AGE >>> STEEL AGE, and after billions and trillions of years, as we sit, read, write, live, eat, and breathe, let’s further discuss 

What’s happening NOW??

We understand all this, but has the evolution finished?
Sadly but truly, it’s the 21st millennium, & yes, we are still evolving?
Let me make it short but brief:
Needless to say, the earliest people were hunter-gatherers.

Because they lived out in the open, they had to hunt other animals and gather plants and fruits to produce food. Time and tide wait for no one. The cycle of evolution carried on & on & on>>>>.

Why have I titled this episode as
ROTI_KAPDA & MAKAAN??
Many, many years ago, the defined basic needs of humans were Roti, Kapda aur Makaan (food, shelter, and clothing). This phase lasted several hundred years.
With the advent of urbanization, industrialization, and modern technologies coming in, say, in the last few hundred years…
Man saw changed food habits. Some jokingly coined a phrase for the changed basic needs of the city or industrial township dwellers:   & changed Roti/ Kapda / & Makaan to
Roti, Pakoda, and Mutton (keeping Roti unchanged).
Roti for food,
pakoda for junk food
and mutton for overuse of non-vegetarian food. (Man started to eat more and more animal food) .

Jokes apart, let us deep dive, research, and analyze. For many people, Kapda (clothing) and Makaan (house or shelter) are actually not basic needs now. They own multiple houses and hundreds of pairs of dresses, that too _diffrent dresses for different occasions. How can these be put on the list of the basic needs even now?
A person can survive without shelter indefinitely (it may not be in a dignified way,) but yes, he can!!! Some people can also survive without clothing (after all, our ancestors have survived so).
Likewise, a person can survive without food for at most some weeks, as has been seen in the past during the fasting of Gandhiji for 21 days. Some may even survive slightly longer.
So, that’s why I had left out these two from my new phrase.
And now the BASIC NEEDS have acquired newer dimensions.
Apart from these three, have we missed something else?

Yes, the first one is water.
Without water a person can survive only for some days, not for weeks;
After all, the human body is 70% water. This commodity is abundantly available on the Earth, and it covers about 71% of the earth’s surface. But around 97.2% of this is found in the ocean, which is too salty for human use like drinking or growing crops.

Out of the rest of the 2.8% freshwater, 2.5% remains unavailable, as that is locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, the atmosphere, and soil; is highly polluted; or lies too far under the earth’s surface to be extracted at an affordable cost. So, only 0.3% remains available for human use. In simpler language, if the world’s water supply were only 100 liters, our usable water supply of freshwater would be only about 3 ml (around half a teaspoon).
Isn’t this really SCARY!!!
So, shouldn’t it be put in our list of basic needs????? 

The other one is oxygen.
How much time can we survive without oxygen? I am not talking about the level of oxygen in blood that we hear about today during Covid times, but the oxygen that we breathe from air, day in and day out, or that oxygen that is artificially supplied to the lungs in ventilators.
Air contains around 21% oxygen, which gets regenerated by the lungs of earth: (1) the trees of rainforests of the Amazon or elsewhere, (2) trees of the tropics, or (3) algae of the ocean.

During Covid time we all saw, and post-Covid researchers have come forward with newer revelations.
Lungs are getting damaged by tiny viruses, causing decreased capability of lungs to supply oxygen to the bloodstream. Many are succumbing to this devastating act of the virus.
Similarly, this is happening with the lungs of the earth. As per the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990. Although the rate of decrease of forest cover has shown a decreasing trend, the absolute number is still alarming (loss of 10 million hectares per year). Human civilization, along with the total animal kingdom, is getting asphyxiated due to this reason, and it will be too late if we don’t act now.
Then there are many more reasons why the oxygen that we so dearly need is not freely available to us. (Shall discuss this later on…will require thorough deliberation).
We are all on the brink of atmospheric disaster, which, if not immediately brought under control, will create havoc everywhere.
Thus, it is high time now that oxygen and water be put in the basic need list of humans along with the other three and be taught in schools so that young minds can act to restore the damaged lungs of the Earth.
And let it be called ‘
Jal, Amlajan-Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan’—(‘Water, Oxygen, Food, Clothing & Shelter’)  (Basically, “Amlajan” means “oxygen.”)
So, to recapitulate…
Roti, Kapda, aur Makaan was the clarion call of the then Prime Minister Shrimati Indira Gandhi to make India a self-sufficient country (1960); basically it was an election slogan. These three tenets have been the quintessential demand for generations of Indians.
So, as I started to write this BLOG __ THIS IS LIFE, being a DOCTOR, it’s but natural that I would definitely write about FOOD & NUTRITION and OUR ENVIRONMENT, which will directly and indirectly affect our body.
So friends, in this blog, while I will go into semantics on life, I will be covering all these topics as well!!! But you will wonder about the title of Roti + Kapda + Makaan.

Roti: means food. Food that we eat. We eat to fill our stomach, satiate the urge, and appease the hunger, and it is essential for growth & survival.

Kapda: The cloth, the apparel, the cover, the protection. But protect what?

Makaan: I have used this example to make us understand that, as per my interpretation, makaan is our body.

So a makaan (our body) will remain strong and withstand the onslaught of all adversaries if the roti (food) that we eat and the kapda (outer covering) (i.e., the aura and the atmosphere we live in) are within permissible and optimal parameters.
The brain is a very analytical and integral part of our body. It asks a lot of questions.  Being inquisitive by nature, I read a lot of books and magazines and stories of the lives of people and asked a lot of questions.

To try and sum up, my brain being the brain of a doctor, (who is also very sensitive) right from class 3 as far as I can recall, always asked a lot many questions from any one, everyone,  be  it Teachers at school Parents at home, Older sibling, Uncle’s & Aunty’s , who so ever chanced to be around and would not be satiated till my curiosity  was quenched.
I would always think into the how’s and why’s, into the what’s and the why’s, into the why’s and more why’s, and I am looking for answers even

NOW.!!!
Let’s sum up.
Let’s see all that we have covered so far:
1) This is Life, including a brief about myself.
2) Life & Living…
3) Life & Relationships
4) Dost & Dosti
5) And now ROTI, KAPDA & MAAKAN (RKM).
How the meaning of RKM will change as my blog evolves.

 Just wait & watch
Aachha to hum chalte hain..
Aachha to hum chalte hain….
Fir kab. Milogey…….

Aaj se…Char din baaad
Aa rahi hoon mein …char din baad
See u then friends,
Do wait for me…. Cheeriyo!!!