THE PARADOX: BURJ KHALIFA AND SANDSTORM

















Pic.: Rohit Makhija



I had watched the movie, ‘The Mission Impossible 4 – Ghost Protocol’ when it was first released, some years ago. Last night, they were showing it on T.V. and my eyes happened to fall on the action scenes in Dubai.

When I had first watched it, I don’t remember the Dubai scenes evoking the same thoughts they were evoking in me, last night…

Now, I was thinking…

Many, many years ago, Dubai was not as prosperous and as vibrant as it seemed now… It was a God-forsaken desert inhabited by the poor and illiterate locals… As time passed by, someone spotted oil and began to dig wells… The oil brought big, big money… and, money made not only their king wealthy, it made, almost, everyone who set foot on this land wealthy, too…

We know, the oil-wells have come with an ‘expiry date’. They will, soon, dry-up… and, the land will be barren, again…

But, that’s how it is for every land on this earth… The trees go, the rivers dry and the tigers and the birds will disappear… The kings and the queens go, the tycoons and the terrorists, all come and go… The children grow-up, become old one day and go… The temples end-up as ruins… God comes on earth by a new name, a new incarnation… Everything is in a state of flux… the mountains, the deserts and the oceans…

They come, they go…


Last night, I was wondering over the paradox called Dubai: on the one side, man has raised amazing landscapes – ‘The Palm islands’ - right at the heart of the ocean; the Burj Khalifa proudly stands to remind us as to how a desert can be turned into pure gold and can house the power that be…  But, then, there is this scene when  a sandstorm comes charging at you with ferocity and you  - the power that be – like everyone else run for your life, hide… try to save yourself, leave alone saving what you have built!

This scene of Tom Cruise running - on the one side to chase his Russian foe, on the other side, he running to save himself from the wrath of the sandstorm - made me numb for a while… The time when storm raged, the Burj Khalifa and city in the ocean… yes, they all looked meaningless, pale…  But, when the sandstorm passed,  it was clear to all of us that God gave everything to us with its terms and conditions, with its expiry date… and left us either to make the most of it, or to just lie there dormant in our deserts…

America, England or Australia, India, Japan or China… France, Russia or Egypt… Singapore, Mauritius or Dubai… all the lands, all the kingdoms have come from God with ’clauses’ attached to them…

Just as our own lives do…

God has given us our lives stuffed with our hidden wealth… and has left it for us to convert our deserts and oceans into whatever we want them to be… 

 Even to abuse them is a choice before us!

Japan is such a small land. When her people raise those mighty skyscrapers, they are aware of the deadly earthquakes and tsunamis which God has put in their package… They can’t argue with God, just as the Sheikhs of Dubai and Saudi Arabia can’t argue with God about the sandstorms and the imminent oil dry-up…

All of us are given what we have and we are expected to make the most of it in our lifetime…

Yes, we are aware of our sandstorms and earthquakes, and we find out how to raise our skyscrapers tougher than those tsunamis and earthquakes… We find out where to hide and how to run when they come… Above all, we learn how to bounce back in life!

So, should man raise castles in the air?

I say, ‘Yes’…

Should man pray?

I say, ‘Yes’

Should man argue with God why sandstorms in Dubai and why tsunamis in Japan?

I say ‘NO’.



GERALD D’CUNHA


Comments

Neena Pinto said…
There is lots of truth and depth in what you are telling in this articlce Mr. Gerry. Thank you. .. Neena Pinto
November 19, 2014 at 1:48 PM
Harish Pandey said…
Man has to make the most of what God has given him------------- Harish Pandey
November 19, 2014 at 2:57 PM
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