Take care of environment

By BASANTH RACHAKONDA

This book offers practical insights on contributing to a better environment. It highlights the transformative power of individual actions and emphasizes our collective impact. Each person plays a crucial role in shaping a sustainable future.

 

As Earth's inhabitants, it's our shared responsibility to safeguard the environment. A

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Apr 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9789359899978

Book preview

Chapter One

Zenina Was A Different Person….

Thanks To God

Suddenly, a strange happiness surrounded me; a spark flashed in front of me… as she floated down the stairs like a swan, at that moment. Zenina was approaching me now with her face lit up by her smile, gliding like an angel. With such a smile that it was like a cascade that was noticeable even from afar…I could feel a wave of joy intensifying in her eyes as she approached me….

It was as if a feast of happiness had set out and was slowly coming towards me.

Stairs…Yes stairs… Almost always they have been a concept associated with the ups and downs of life, success and failure for me.

It was on this day that the stairs displayed a unique treasure, presented a visual feast to me. It was as if all the troubles, problems, fatigue of the day had been pushed aside in an instant. Why was this? I didn’t know…

It's been a long time, and now we’re meeting again. A long time later, I remembered our first meeting with her. She was a very dear person to me. A good friend… She was a very special person.

I will never forget it in my life, that night she told me Who cares about the troubles, now is the time to live! It's time to talk, to chat! There is no place for sadness, let the sadness wait a little; now there is joy, joy! The turn of problems will also come, but not now. Let the sadness come when I’m alone… I was faced with a person who challenged life in her opinion. A hard-tempered rock-like person, who has defied the years…I never can forget that night…

There was a person in front of me that night who had a rich and colorful personality, such a treasure, that everyone wanted to reach out to and have.

No matter what I did to make her happy, I never found what I did enough, I always wanted to do more, more beautiful, more meaningful for her…For her…Only and only for her.

We meet late in the day and go on the road, I join her, she joins me…We had been longing to meet and we were both determined to meet again, we knew what we were doing. She just believed that a fresh clean slate might be turned over, in her life. It was as if there was a woman in front of me, who wanted to put an end to the unwarranted sadness that she had accumulated, which she has lived with to this day…Zenina was such a person.

We are going somewhere that we have not planned ahead of time. We are going to Sarıyer, to the seashore… We are going to a cove where the seagulls compete with each other unrelentingly. A place where tired fishing boats drop their anchor rest and fisherman repair their nets. A port where white seagulls sing with joyous screams persistently. Maybe we will watch the sky turn red there… Together.

We are at a place where smile and joy of life fills our soul. This is a quiet and peaceful place, away from the city people with pretense. A place where outfit, perfume or expensive jewelry is not important. A place where the smell of salt embraces our bodies like a silk cover.

She is standing next to me shouting out Wow! as she fills her lungs with clean air. Thanks to God that has destined me to be at such a beautiful place with you she says putting up her hands to the sky….

I’m smiling when I hear that I’m involved in someone's gratitude, prayers… And she's looking around with joy and looking at me every now and then. Finally, we came to this calm bay to spend our day as we should, in a nice way… Especially for her.

She had come here to escape an unrelenting life battle she was waging. She needed to get some rest here, get some peace, and then go back to her relentless war again. Our task was to enjoy this fleeting moment of break and enjoy it as it should. That's why we left the problems, troubles, thoughts, everything behind and ran away together to this calm bay.

We came here to calm her down, to get rid of those strange feelings that don’t even give her the opportunity to breathe deeply, and to forget about her future worries that are constantly gnawing at her for a moment…

Two beauties stand across me: The harbor and she, Zenina…

When you stop breathing, which is the only requirement of life, and dive into the water, a person understands the meaning of time in another way…He witnesses the feast of light under the water and begins to hear sounds that he did not know, did not recognize until that day. A person understands what the joy of life means, how much he needs it, better and in another way under the water.

We have been diving in and out of these azure cool waters many times during our lives, sometimes in calm, sometimes in turbulent waters, sometimes alone, sometimes with someone. Each time we realized what time meant to us. I don’t know if I should call it as life experience… Maybe… Now we are at the Sariyer fishing port… Our right, our left, our front, our back are full of colorful fishing nets. I am in my port, immersed in deep blues, sometimes stormy, sometimes with stagnant thoughts and concerns.

It had been quite some time since I came here.

We are in a harbor full of boats capsized by big storms. For some reason, I was imagining what these boats were fighting with in their time, what efforts they were making to survive.

It was as if there was a silent shout, a personal revolt inside both of us.

I see Zenina's eyes plunge into the horizon, and then she was scrutinizing me with her meaningful gaze. It was impossible not to notice this. At one point, our eyes seemed to be decoupling, and they were talking to each other…

After a short quiet moment, she says Oh! Thank God! Look at this beauty! This is life!!.

***********

She thanks the creator and me with her smiling eyes; I had already forgotten the fatigue of the day by being here with her, joy and peace were filling me, I was feeling it. I could see her decimating me with her eyes as bright as daylight hitting the surface of the still water. …

It was hard, but I didn’t want to show her what strange thoughts and worries I was in, trying to hide a lot of things from her. While I was in some anxiety for her, she was lying peacefully next to me on the sands, watching the setting sun, as if she had forgotten everything that was going through her, yes, as if she had forgotten everything immediately. From time to time, an expression of joy, a joy, appeared on her face, vaguely. Maybe that's what I wanted to see.

Oh beee, there's life. Let's go around, let's enjoy this world, that's enough, that's enough! She was looking away, turning her small, bright eyes to the horizon. All the way away.

It was as if this was an outcry from her… Maybe a riot…Next to me.

I was asking myself, I wonder what she's thinking now?

Should I have been content with what she told me?

Or her reticence?

Sometimes screaming, sometimes quietly, full of meaning, should I have to keep silence, listen to her screams?

I didn’t know…

I preferred to keep silence and watch her.

For some reason, Zenina was a very different creature…

Maybe she's a hard-to-find person…

From the first day I knew that…Anyway, we wouldn’t be together if it wasn’t that…

I was lucky to have such a friend…

I’ve gotten a better sense of it over time.

This woman was not such an ordinary person.

It was necessary to understand her, to feel her.

Zenina was firmly attached to life, her eyes were shining brightly like the reflection of the sun on the water, and there was such a person next to me.

I cleared myself of all existence around me and looked at her. I chose not to speak and just stared at her and watched her. I couldn’t fit inside of me, I was silent. Probably the most beautiful and most meaningful thing to do today was to remain silent…by watching her.

The moment has come… A lack suffocated me…

A great pain I had from my past…

My loss, my love sat in my thoughts, in my heart…

Sometimes it become an invisible fear…

And my soul began to worry a little…

The responsibilities that life brings to me…Our friendships, our loves, those joyful peaceful days we had. I thought of all of them…I used to dream about a lot of things passing by like a silent film…the past, the old beatiful days.

We, like everyone else, write down some of our meaningful stories, memories. The memories that we were in and lived in on the edge of our life… And, then when the time comes, we read them over and over again… Sometimes…There are events that leave deep, profound traces in our minds, and they are like the pages of a book that we open and read again from time to time, highlighting some of its lines…Yeah, like the books I’ve underlined some sentences. That's why, for some reason, these sometimes never ends…

Sometimes our hands go to some letters, pictures that we keep at the bottom of the drawer, and we look at them over and over again, and we shuffle the albums and smile. Our hands go to meaningful pictures and albums decorated with those memories…Sometimes…

These are not the most ordinary behaviors of a person…? A lot of times, some special moments pass in our thoughts, surround us…And we feel that our face is smiling…A special kind of smile.

In our daily lives, we must have someone that we can trust, who is close to us, even next to us, and we struggle together on some issues that are full of worries… Every time I am with Zenina, these were my thoughts. İt was nothing more than that. Being next to a respectable, special person with a special personality… İt was necessary to give her shoulder and defeat her malady …To bear the responsibility, a valuable association and to share some problems with her…

The desire to live day by say life together with its beautiful sides…

Over time, I feel that Zenina has become a valuable person for me, a good friend…

All these were beautiful, meaningful feelings. I had a feeling that I would do whatever is necessary to make her happy. That was satisfying to me, a lot. To be with this woman, whom the nobility has wrapped up like a thin veil…Yes, her nobility…With Zenina.

Being around someone who clings tightly to life, who thanks every moment she lives, this was not something that would be given and seen to everyone…This was a friendship that brought hearts and souls together, which was a friendship that we brought with us and developed it long the time.

A pure, clean friendship, where there were hopes and unrequited expectations.

When the time comes, yes, how beautiful and worth living our life was…when the time comes, a person sees and understands this in another way…

I admire on you, on what you experience and how you manage day after day. I used to say her. I used to repeat this many times silently…She used to laugh at me with her sweet smile when we talked about all…

Sometimes we agreed with our eyes… By looking into our pupils in a meaningful way. Sometimes with our reticence…

She shows her thanks with smiling eyes, her eyes were as bright as the daylight reflected on the smooth water. Here I forgot the tiredness of my day, my heart fills with joy and peace.

It was quite a while since we came here, to Sarıyer… We are in a harbor full of boats capsized by big storms … For some reason, I imagine what these boats fought in time, what efforts they made to survive.

Yes…Zenina is standing quietly next to me… She is looking to horizon.

These colorful fishing boats and Zenina… Their similarity suddenly came to my mind.

A few weeks later maybe she will have an brain surgery, I am the only one who knows it… All will be cleaned… There are things that need to be cleaned…

However, she is not aware of anything; even of tomorrow! Tomorrow, we will start a new treatment… I am the only one who knows it. I cannot tell her everything as it is. Her relentless life struggle is going on. I do not know how I will speak about all these with her. Where and how do I start to speak about such things and to convince her?

This modern illness can come up in an unexpected time to any organ. Even, it will be cut out and thrown away and afterwards it may spread to all cells again.

I sense that even though I do not tell her anything, she knows everything. If one knows that one has come to the end of her life, why would they crumple it up and throw it away like a piece of paper?

I don’t want to show her what strange feelings I have been…Trying to hide many things from her…My worries, my thoughts about her, with some difficulties…

Suddenly, she turns her bright small eyes to the horizon saying… Oh, there is life. Let us go out, enjoy this world, enough is enough!

It seemed like, this was her scream…

Maybe her rebellion… Just next to me…

What is she thinking? I said to myself.

Should I settle, and keep quıte…Just listen what she says to me?

Should I listen to her screams which are sometimes quiet and sometimes loud?

I don’t know, I wouldn’t know.

I preferred to keep quiet, keep my silence and just watch her.

Zenina was a very different creature…

Maybe a unique person…

Since the first day I known her…

We would not become friends if this were not so…

I was lucky to have such a friend…

I understood this better, in time.

Life Is Worth Living

Zenina was a person who strongly tied to normal life, living. Her eyes were shining like the reflection of the sun on the sea; she was such a special person. I disregard everything around me and look at her with enthusiasm in general. Mostly I preferred to be silent and only watch her. I kept my silence. I think the only thing to do now was to remain silent.

I feel like revolting, revolting to life, of course I cannot do this next to her… There is sometimes something that can happen to everyone. Feelings of anxiety caused by the fact, when one of our beloved ones would be snatched away from us in the most innocent moment of our lives…! Sadness …Uneasiness …Rebellion. What more can I say… But just to keep silent.

Even though we know that our life somehow will end one day, we live as if it will never end. And … it is a very strange feeling to live, with the fear that it will take away the loved ones who are next to us before it takes us…. Sometimes we feel something is lacking because of a loss that can happen to us at any moment. I remember what happened in the past, what I experienced… The experience of an invisible fear. Some anxiety, some mutual responsibility… The importance we attach to life, to our values, to our friendships and love. Such things suddenly come to my mind, one after another.

We, like everyone else, write e some stories that we are in, these are our memories. We read, remember them over and over again when the time comes… Sometimes we look at the old pages of some albums, read again some old letters that we keep at the bottom of the drawer… We are human.

Now have I set out on my own will, to help someone else's life story, perhaps to be a warm breath on her window. To defeat this malady by standing beside her, shoulder to shoulder, next to her.

As a friend who does not expect anything back.

We fought for her life together. My aim was not to leave her alone in this war…I felt the responsibility and pleasure of being with this respectful, special person.

We did not give up; we did not get tired.

We fought day by day and hour by hour.

There have been moments that we have succeeded, sometimes not,

But…we did it, we did it, succed together …! we said always. We tried to live the life with its beautiful sides, especially for her…

I tried to keep her alive vivid, give her the required strength to live, as we were friends… Yes friends. Whatever I did for her was never enough in my eyes … Whatever necessary was done for this person. Whatever effort was shown for her all these were not enough. Because she was a really very special person.

To be with someone who embraces life tightly, who thanks for every moment she lives … as a friend. This was not something that everyone would be favored with …

A person understands how beautiful and worth living life is, when the time comes… Unfortunately… I said to her, we must know the value of our live and what does life mean to us, day by day.

Manytimes when I said the same thing for myself, silently, she would laugh at me with her sweet smile…

Time for a Chat

If anybody asked me what makes a human a human, I will say that it is an art and persons capability to have a chat. People who are able to have a chat, they live in peace. When there is chat, there is harmony, love and respect.

With chat, there is no fighting or breaking each other’s hearts. On the contrary, there is affection, friendliness and closeness …

As people get to know each other, their friendship develops; they realize how the conversation must flow, they talk frankly about everything. The communication between people, with kind, polite words, sometimes a smile and a warm look may be the beginning of new life stories…

Sometimes, during chats with my close friends, Zenina was my subject. That person was gracefully mentioned, remembered and even missed.

Each time, when I passed by some specific places of this city, I thought about her; I remembered those very short but meaningful fragments of time, we spent together.

Words and sentences do not always have to be uttered entirely; sometimes people speak with silence, there are times silence open the doors to a new world. People mostly express themselves with their noble behavior, postures, words and phrases, facial expressions, and sitting style… Like Zenina.

It was a coincidence; I had met her with a stroke of luck. She made me to realize how relative the concept of time is in our lives. During the days I was with her, I sensed the importance of how fast was running our time line. How could I know at the beginning that I would make one of my best friends in life.

We set on the road, as two friends.

Yes…Our meeting was only a coincidence. She had a teasing character. Most of the times I could not interpret or answer many of the questions she directed at me.We kept on our interesting conversations but I had to admit sometimes I had difficult times.

One day when we meet, she said very innocently and frankly "They say, affection makes one put her head on your shoulder and you stroke her hair." I felt my eyes grow wide. Although I grimaced with surprise at that moment, when she pointed at both of us with her finger. We both laughed out loud and this forthright attitude caused our friendship to continue in a different way…

We were human after all… It was some time that we had left our Middle Ages behind and our hair was partly grey now. We were both serious looking people. We had lived our lives to a certain point, and we were proud of it.

Once, she apologized many many times for her strange talks, saying that I may misunderstood her. She had the sad and innocent expression of a child on her face. She looked at me with her timid smile and I could sense her nobility and frankness when she started to read some lines from the magazine she was holding in her hands.

I could see that she was a person looking for meaningful life and challenging it in every way. Yes, she was challenging life in a way and she had enough reasons to do that. There were times she would then look at me and saying wow for something she had newly discovered. She would murmur silently.

When I respond her saying that I had heard all what she said but would deliberately ignore most of them and when I did not react to her, I would watch her tears fall down her eyes … She was such a woman.

When she realized that I was offended or angry with her, she said to me over and over, I beg your pardon and excuse me. Sometimes the words I said, I used and some of my behaviors were not proper but they were never things against you and She apologized sincerely.

I used to go to the city where he lived. It would be weeks, even months, when I wasn’t seeing her, we’d just talk on the phone, that's all.

During our close friendship we established, some specific sentences, some expressions between us… We had turned some of these words into a password, especially in our internet communications. Now when I remember all these words, I feel a smile on my face.

People who can chat affectionately are of course different. They travel in different places and realms. They search for beautiful and meaningful things in life. People who do not understand this or cannot do it even though they understand it are people who have no respect for friendship and love, they stay where they are. They dig their own holes… Many things build up and becomes a disease.

The medicine of their disease is a chat.

We had chats…During our chats, the silence between us disappeared replacing it quickly with