Master's in Climate and Society

Hear my professors, alumni of the programme and classmates talk about Columbia's Master's in Climate and Society program.

Original video available at http://vimeo.com/79431006

Decaying leaves

Decaying leaves

The waves roll in,

Piling on leaf on leaf,

taking  some back,

adding others,

red, yellow, orange, pink, some green,

and the leaves,

they begin,

their slow, cold decay,

sinking to the depths,

of the frigid waters,

never to be seen of,

or heard of again.

Mukund Palat Rao

October 20, 2013

As we watch

As we watch,
The sun sets,

The winds blow,
The clouds gather,

The bamboo creaks,

And it rains.

Four Months is a Long Time

Wow! It feels just yesterday I was celebrating New Year's and we were still in the middle of winter, and now it is April and springtime already. The flowers are begun to bloom and the weather is warmer. Nostalgia is a weird thing. It always makes you yearn for something you do not have. In a few days we will start complaining about how hot is has become and start wishing it becomes winter again when just until two weeks ago we were complaining about the unseasonally cold March. Guess that it life. A series of constant desires.
On that note, on the post below this one you will find my new poem and a few photographs I have taken recently.
Let us not yearn for the past, but work towards a better tomorrow.
Best,
Mukund

In the Eyes of a Killer Whale

In the Eyes of a Killer Whale

What is it that I see in your eyes?
Is it memories from days’ bygone?

Now distant and from a long time ago.

What is it that I see in your eyes?

Those beautiful shiny and glazed orbs,

Looking closely at all of us and things around you,

Plotting a secret and dark revenge,

For we trapped you,

And confined you to these glass walls,

A symbol of our perverted desires,

For we like nature,

But not when it is wild,

We like things tamed and domesticated,

And not free,

To be able to look at you,

With these barriers so that you may not harm us.

Or is it maybe,

The happiness of good-riddance,

From those long cold dark days in the open seas,

Where the food was scarce,

And life was an endless stream of near-deaths,

From personal rivalries, fishing boasts, or being trapped in ice.

What is it that I see in your eyes?

As I look at you, and you at me,

As you swim by in these huge monstrous tanks,

Which to you would be just a speck in the ocean.

Is it a wish to swim, and swim free,

And not be constrained by these glass walls,

Built for us to gape and ogle at you?

What is it that I see in your eyes?

Is it a look of gratitude,

Thanking us for our protection,

From the vagaries of the open seas,

And for the food we so dutifully provide to you every day.

I cannot say, for I do not know,

What is it that I see in your majestic eyes,

But sometimes at night,

I dream I am you,

I know I would rather swim out into the open ocean,

And face whatever life throws at me,

And swim free, and die free.

Mukund Palat Rao

(April 7, 2013)

The poem might be about killer whales but this is my opinion about all animals and fish and other living beings we have trapped in various zoos and aquariums all around the world.

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of killer whales but these were a few images I found on my computer of animals in zoos and fish in aquariums.
(If you click on any of the images below you can view them on a slide show)

Parallel Universe

There is no one like you,
but you,
or is there,
someone just like you,
who looks like you,
eats like you,
loves a copy of the same person you love too.

Could it be,
that there be,
another person the same as me,
and you,
and you,
and everyone around us?

If our actions were the same,
would my life be dictating his,
or his mine,
in this strange universe with parallel universes.
Mukund Palat Rao
December 13, 2012

A Prayer for Peace

A Prayer for Peace

The mistakes of the past,
cannot be blamed on the present,
but remember it and do not forget,
for remembrance is all we have left,
now that everything has been lost,
our lands taken,
and our way of life destroyed.

There is a solemnity in old memories,
a common pain,
shared amongst us all,
a wistfulness of a different present,
that could have come with a different past.

But let things be,
the way the stand,
just the way the Lord above forgives us for our sins,
and forgiveness is a divine art.

Two wrongs have never helped set things right,
and things now can never be the same,
as it was in the past,
nostalgia is a wonderful thing,
but we might find ourselves more content beings.
if we give it up, get on, and let it go.
Mukund Palat Rao
December 3, 2012

This is dedicated to all the ongoing conflicts on our planet.