Women and Nature The Sacred Relationship
[Music]
i’m going to share with you
a jail a tale in which
my life journey is narrated
i neither do consider myself different
from any of you
nor have i done something bold and
brilliant
because i think everyone has the same
potential to be bold
and brilliant today
i am going to take you down my memory
lane
and you can decide for yourself what you
want to take out of this
i am not going to give you any piece of
advice
this is the story of a young girl
who named herself when she was four she
used to joke about it
that since she was the third girl in her
family
her parents didn’t even care what her
name was
imagine if she said pumpkin they would
go like
all right let’s call her pumpkin
but fortunately that was not the case
her parents were very supportive and
they accepted her decision since
then she always followed her decisions
her instincts and her heart
she grew up in a very beautiful village
with brooks paddy fields hills
and lot of trees she used to have
evening walks
around the trees and she personally knew
them
and got frustrated if she found one
missing
she used to wonder why people cut down
trees
that were fruits and it provided green
cover for them
she grew up reading books traveling
around walking around
yes like everyone else she had one
painful
experience too that was to be shared
one of her teacher humiliated her in
front of the whole class
because she couldn’t solve a problem
in mars and the rude remarks made by the
teacher
about her sickness did hurt her
and as a result she hated
the subject as well as her teacher
later in her school days another teacher
who inspired her as she was taught how
to love a subject
and that is when she realized she has
this tremendous love for nature
plans and environment so she did for the
studies and
understood that she can take up this as
a career
and she decided to do that thus
she took her first train ever to deradon
chasing her dreams to study about forest
and plants as the train approached
deradun
she just realized the world is different
everybody was talking in hindi and it
did scare the life out of her because
she didn’t understand a thing
but gradually she developed interest in
the area
and she got herself adapted into the
environment
and the beautiful middle himalayas
helped her
to mold the researcher in herself
she began her research life in wildlife
science
by observing the plants butterflies
and every life around her
the very first adventurous trip as a
student
was to travel to the lower assam
bordering bhutan to learn about a
project
she couldn’t even speak hindi and here
she was
in assam expecting the people from assam
to talk to her in english
all she had was 5000 rupees that was
given by her sister
she soon realized the place where she
was staying
had 5000 rupees per day as rent
so she couldn’t handle that she talked
to the forest official and he was very
kind enough
that he took her to his home to his
daughters
and he had four daughters
and she stayed there for one week
celebrating
culture cuisine and learning
it helped her to understand the goodness
in humans even in unfamiliar space
since then opting for travels that
include
huge risk was a normal thing for her
she traveled further she traveled
to the jammon kashmir kashmir wali
where she studied asiatic black bear
and then she moved to the most beautiful
arunachal pradesh
where she studied primates and she
decided
to spend the next three years of her
life
in the northeastern himalayas of
arunachal
and she studied ecology plants and
animals and their interactions
but the life in the northeastern
himalayas wasn’t very easy
the land was so beautiful the people
were so kind and very nice
but the life of a woman researcher in
her own company
staying in the remotest part of the
country
was very difficult
she was often scared of the swollen
brahmaputra in the monsoon
that cut you off in a tiny bit of land
from rest of the india she used to stay
in the rain forest sometimes
in hurts like this
where you could have hundreds of leeches
crawling
upon your feet the moment you step on
the floor
imagine nature’s call at night
she survived there for three years
after that she had a lot of days
filled with adrenaline then she decided
it’s time for to go back
and she decided to go back home to the
western girls where she belonged
and to pursue her doctoral studies
and she took up orchid ecology as her
subject
but for many officials it was a problem
that
a woman going along into the forest even
with
all required permits
she was often told to bring relatives
and family along with her
she was offended she gave them a
befitting reply
that i am not here for a festival to
bring my family along
i am here for my work
apart from handling gender issues money
issues
she had more problems coming at her
to statistics 30 percent of research
scholars
suffer from mental sickness in their
research career
and it doesn’t change in this case too
in all aspects of research she was doing
very well
she got grants recognitions
awards and she traveled to different
countries for conferences and training
but the moment she claimed that
her research was going to be big and
groundbreaking
that was when she lost the game
she developed fear deep inside
she developed impostor syndrome
wherein she doubted her own abilities
and she feared that she was being fraud
she was not doing justice to her work
afraid that she would meet the
expectations of her
guide she fell into stress and
anxiety and the next three months of her
life was
very difficult
she couldn’t read a thing she couldn’t
write a thing
nothing on earth excited her it was
blank and it scared her to death
but she accepted the fact
and she tried to identify her symptoms
she wanted to treat herself she wanted
to save herself
out of this situation so she took her
back
to the village where she started her
trails
to the village trails she walked those
trails again
and she did everything that was so dear
to her
she did photography she did flower
hunting
she did trails and tricks and finally
she came back to new life in full
throttle
and this time she was stronger and
more capable than ever before
now she was able to complete her work
and she learned that though her
research findings are big in their own
respect
it adds only a tiny drop to the worst
ocean of knowledge that is ecology that
was
her lesson she was humbled
a journey spanning 10 years of
ecological research
had its merits and challenges
more than a research it was a spiritual
journey for her
she explored her femininity
through nature and she explored
nature through her femininity
she believed women could connect with
the earth
on their own and she read and explored
more about
deep ecology eco-feminism feminine
spirituality etc
she used to think why most
environmentalists
are women but in her case
she was able to connect to the earth and
to herself
with the help of many amazing men and
women some of them included
the woman with the sweet voice from whom
she got her name
her mother who is an amazing observer of
the natural world
the woman who taught her how to love
nature
the woman she did forgive the woman
who helped her to practice patience and
empathy
the woman who inspired her to reduce her
carbon footprint and the hundreds of
women
and men who fed her sheltered her
and embraced her during her journeys
in india and abroad and finally
the man who helped her
to define and attain the spirituality
the divinity of love
her journey to herself and to the earth
wouldn’t have been possible without them
the more she connected with the earth
the more she became a minimalist
a feminist who believes in uniqueness
and equality someone that
experiments with truth a woman who
believes in feminine qualities
a messenger of love a blessed
soul a seeker
and this process taught her many new
things
it taught her how to find knowledge
around her
and it has prepared her to unlearn
and relearn and it has helped her
to redefine success
and she felt that the earth always
answers her prayers
today she is living her dreams
following her heart and finding her task
ahead
yes she is a woman
of the earth she
she represents every individual
who has the longing to be part of the
nature
part of the universe or earth and find
themselves
she is the metaphor of those who are on
their path to their truth
she doesn’t represent any gender
the journey to earth and beyond
fundamentally unfolds the journey
to yourself thank you