Ideas in to ideas

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[This interview is the synopsis of the lo ng talk M r K Santhosh Kumar, Editor, Saturday Digest, had with Mr Harikumar in Kochi.]

Harikumar, now that you have resigned from your full time job as a journalist, don’t you feel it a mistake that you have com

mitted?

No. Instead I feel I did the right thing. I would have resigned before. In fact I have more time now to pursue my passions than before. I get plenty of time to write as well. In fact I am working on three books that is to be published by January 2007. To be frank with you, I repent for the precious time I lost in the crap of a newspaper.Tell me, you said about your passions.

What are your passions?

Trees are my passion. I always dream of trees. I have a peculiar attachment to trees. As a schoolboy I used to carry a lot of leaves in between the pages of my notebook, so that I always felt the presence of something I loved most. This love has grown into a big dream today, and when I was working in the newspaper, I have to keep this dream away in some hidden cells in my heart. Now I took it our and polished in such a way that I am into a mission of planting One Crore Trees across all the nations in the world.

Is it something like “forestation”?

You may think so, and many like you do think this as such. In fact planting one crore saplings across the six continents is not a simple joke and neither it is a silly job. In fact it is NOT as you put it. It is more than that.

Can you explain it?

I call my dream-project “Aaranyakam”. Simply put, it is a Sanskrit word that connotes something related with forests or trees. In ancient India, all “guru kulams” were amid thick forests and were invariably surrounded by woods. From this “gurukulams”, a lifestyle of ancient sages was developed that in turn gave birth to our Vedas and traditions of knowledge. All this, of course, was influenced by the woods around them. A kind of “Aaranyakam” thus evolved.

Is Aaranyakam a conventional process of planting trees everywhere?

No. A lot depends on how you look at the process of planting saplings somewhere. Anyone can plant a sapling and leaving it on its own from the next moment. People seldom care a jungle tree or any tree for that matter. With this project, I plan to plant any tree. And I am not going to leave them on its own afterwards. I would like people to care them like a child till it is grown. I also will see that the trees planted under this project are not cut down for nasty human needs. Any tree planted anywhere in this world under this project Aaranyakam would be documented properly and a database will be created. After a few years from now anyone can ask for any data about a tree thus planted under Aaranyakam.

Sounds interesting, but why this kind of care for a tree that is planted in some remote corner of the earth?

My approach to a tree is quite peculiar because I see a lot of meanings in the existence of a tree. Normally everyone could not fathom what I mean. Not a single individual could look at a tree as I look at it. That is why I keep a documented record of each and every tree that is planted under this Project. For this I have already launched a website too. This website will have a Tree Map and a Database. Both the Tree Map and Database are the evidences for the implementation of “Aaranyakam”. Anyone in the world can access the Tree Map or Database at any time and find the history of a sapling that was planted not only in his country but in any country in this world.

.Can you explain why you record all details about a planted sapling?

First, I want to make Project Aaranyakam world’s first ever project of its kind with complete statistical data of each sapling planted till this date anywhere in this world. Then only environmentalists or nature lovers will listen to this global movement. Mind you, then only any international environment organizations or WWF or UNESCO etc would listen to Aaranyakam and watch where it is going. Second, I said my love of trees is like how I love another human being. Do you love another human being if you do not know him at all? This is a sensitive issue as it is. But it is here that my vision about this Project Aaranyakam snugly fits in.

Please elaborate on this vision?

Just look at a tree. It takes the sun, rain, wind, and all the climatic changes silently and still continues to grow, at the same time giving shelter, shade and protection to many animals and birds. It has no demands or complaints of any sort. It stands there tall as a symbol of universal selfless love. That is how I look at any tree. And that is why I love a tree. So when I plant a sapling today, it is going to be there tomorrow, even after my death, still giving shelter and shade to many human beings, animals and birds etc. If they bear fruit, anyone can pluck it and eat them. A Tree do not complain. It gives you all that it has FREE. It seldom asks anything from you in return at all. So a tree is like a God for me. A God never asks anyone for anything or complain about any one to his favourite worshipper. A God is not partial. So is a tree. I hope you understand what I mean.

And where does this Project Aaranyakam fits in?

Project Aaranyakam is depicting this message of universal love that a tree exhibits and my vision about it. That is how I look at this mission of planting a crore trees across the oceans..

So Aaranyakam is more a symbolic project than a scientific project?

It is both symbolic and scientific. Environmentalists and nature lovers would uphold the science behind making the earth greener. I try to find a genuine reason to plant a tree and show myself what I can do for the future generations. I am not an advocate of mysticism or symbolism, neither an advocate of science. Science is reality. Symbolism is a short cut to attribute ones vision into a representative object. To me a TREE is a representative object of the whole Nature.

Tell me do you inculcate a culture of planting trees for the coming generation?

Every culture mankind practices has some principles anchored into them. Planting a tree can be developed as a culture than a formal custom. For that you should know WHY you plant a tree. And also you must be motivated enough to attain a stage of humbleness. Once you develop to that level naturally and automatically you find no meaning in many things we do in our life. Moreover you find your past life as a net total of stress, worries, tensions, unwanted commitments etc. The life you lived so far suddenly becomes a thing of the past than a stepping-stone to the future. When you take up tree planting as a part of your daily life, it becomes your second nature. You need to give it a lot of deliberate thinking before taking it up as a “must do” for you. I would love this mission develop into as a part of one’s culture. I do not find anything wrong with it.

Who do you like to come up with a willingness to associate in your mission?

I do not invite or force anyone to associate with me. I wish those who can understand my vision in its full worth can associate with this project. Only such people could sponsor this. In fact I am looking for sponsorship to my project from anyone who can realize and understand the meaning of this project. I know it is hard to come by as any involvement in this would bring no fame or publicity for the sponsor.

I heard that you have already launched this project in Kerala State, India. Where do you like to start this project next?

I have already launched it in a humble way in Aluva, near to my hometown, on the banks of river Periyar. Immediately after that the first ever module of 1000 saplings has started in Bangalore, in a most beautiful academic premises I have ever seen in my life. Now I am moving on to the Middle East countries to promote the next sequences of modules there. I am looking for some sponsors who can accommodate my Project Officer and me for three months in the Middle East till we finish our second stage of Project Aaranyakam there.

What kind of trees you plan to plant in the Gulf?

I am not particular about the types of trees. I believe palm trees are the best suited for the Middle East climate. I would plant 1000 palm trees as modules in each gulf nation.

When do u begin the Project in the Gulf?

Incidently, I have already launched the Project in Dubai with the kind help of Dubai Municipality. But that was a small effort, of course. I am looking out for solid sponsors to help Aaranyakam take roots in the Gulf region. As soon as I get a sponsor who can afford our, mine and my Project Officer’s, accommodation, travel and food there for three months. Mind you, we will visit all the seven nations in the Middle East region, and plant 10000 trees in total within three months.

Do you plan anything else other than planting trees while you travel all over the globe?

During this mission I get more time than I had in my life as a journalist in Kerala. More time means I can write more. I plan a research book on Khalil Gibran, and a metaphysical study of the Desert and a novel too. A new publishing company from the Gulf will publish both books in English. I do not want to reveal who they are right now.

How do you meet the expenses involved in implementing this project all over the world?

We came into this world as a helpless child with no money. But we lived on and on and we earned and spend too. My trust in God will see that my vision is materialized somehow.

Such is my faith and optimismWhat do you find as the most difficult aspect in implementing the one crore trees project?

Finding a suitable spot to plant a three-inch high sapling is the most difficult aspect I have found so far. I can easily find one crore saplings, but not enough space to plant them. Land is dearer than life here. Those who have land think that they would take this land with them when they go away from this world. That is why land has become more dearer than life.

How can you then find 250 acres of land to plant your symbolic forest of trees from all the world?

I am sure if I can complete this one crore trees project as I planned, I can get this piece of land as a donation from any nation. It would be the property of that nation and my symbolic forest would grow there.

Is Aaranyakam the name of your symbolic forest?

Yes. I cannot find a better name that conveys a universal feeling. Aaranyakam is anybody’s not mine alone. Aaranyakam stands for selfless love and global peace. Every one can hear what global peace is. But seldom one understands selfless love. That is why Aaranyakam becomes more important a project as it is as a symbol of “selfless love”.You said in the beginning that a tree is more than just a tree for you.

Can you take me deep into your vision?

There is nothing complex in my vision. Look at the Nature. Nature is omnipotent and omnipresent. You cannot control Nature, but it controls you. A tree is a pocket edition of Nature. You cannot control the growth of a tree, but you can kill the tree. And a tree can influence your existence. The trees control the very climatic condition of our nature. Science has proved it beyond any doubt. I believe that a tree has a religion of its own. It practices that religion and we are beneficiaries. After all every religion speaks of selfless love. The trees do practice the same without our knowing. They take the brunt of nature and protect animals and man by giving us shade and shelter and food and in fact themselves.

Which part of a tree is unusable for man or animal?

That is why I said a tree is selfless and generous. Every religion preaches us to do the same things. But we do not do as it says. But a tree does it. All trees do it. That make me think and believe that they do have a “religion” of their own, which man should understand and recognize. I see a lot of things beyond our imagination in the life of a tree. I told you just one example now. So Aaranyakam stands for selfless love. Once love is there, peace follows. That is my vision of Aaranyakam. It is my mission to make others know of it. That is what exactly it is.

Is it hard to mix your “vision of life” with the “mission of life”?

Once you understand what is what, both seem the two sides of a same coin. One is a purpose, and the other is a method to reach your goal. A vision is endless, where as a mission can end abruptly. I want the whole world must recognize the vision behind Aaranyakam. I want every nation should help me carryout my mission till one crore trees are planted from corner to corner of this planet earth.

.Can I say your God is “tree”?

I am happy if you say so. Because no quarrels or war break out in the name of my God, tree. No crusades will happen anymore in the name of a tree. No politics or any other religion work dirty tricks in the name of a tree. No terrorism will be there in the name of a tree.

Can you imagine one quarrelling in the name of a tree with another ?

Remember no tree has an enemy. Only man has an enemy. So it is better to worship a tree than a God created by the man for the man and of the man. One more thing makes the tree important to me. A tree never dies. It grows and grows throughout its life. Whereas a man or an animal stops growing after some biological stage. A tree cannot copy a man or an animal into its life. Still it lives uniquely different than man or animal. A tree drinks, eats, reproduces, and expresses its own moods as the Nature around it changes. But they do it entirely different than a man or an animal. That is what exactly made me LOVE the tree more. My love is a passion, a burning passion. Only those who can understand the underlying meanings of all that I have told you will realize the worth of this project Aaranyakam.

What message do you like to give to the world, Harikumar?

Find a place to plant a tree and have a room in your heart for another human being. By loving a tree, you love your posterity without your own knowing. So plant a sapling for Aaranyakam, and help me spread Aaranyakam everywhere

1. Nostalgia is either a personal hallucination or a savy.

2. One could write only what a society permits today.

3. The success of today’s life is there only where a dulicate of the body’s image and love remains.
4. Both the body and the mind are for others. Not for one’s self. Mind is there to be thrown away like a cigarette packet.
5. One never remains married or otherwise just because he has read poetry. Sexual disappointment would change him in any case.
6. The total experience of today’s writers are nothing but an explanation in book form.
7. Life is an argument.An argument between what is right and what is wrong.
8. Millions of insects remain bold even when they could not defend their life from situations that are beyond their control.
9. Art should not be artistic.It should invent itself in art.
10.Commercial banks are much better than lovers. They show enough magnanimity to send ten or more SMSes.
11.The symbol of male has become rotten everywhere.
12.Writing is an enterprise of the future.
13.Things that are deep still remain unexplored.
14.It is revolutionary to be a real woman.
15.One could remain unwomanish by hating men or refraining oneself from self-sex.
16.Truth can topple down like a tent in the wind anytime.
17.There is nothing called reality. We do create it and we do erase it as needed.
18.There are only expectations in TV, film and the media.
19.A writer has no role to play today. He remains in the boundary of his own passport-size photograph when he creates an award for himself.
20.The unpolitical demands of the politicians are the stumbling blocks of the day.
21.There are different types of ambitions and additions in the air. But nothing is tangible.
22.All love will fall off like the scales of a fish.
23.Copulation is not an emotion. it is a drama.
24.A man is supposed to accept many worlds that are a lot bigger and heavier than the world in which he lives.
25.We may see our long-cherished wonders lying around like wet carbon pieces.
26.Love gets a bigger image than those involved in love in the love scenes of a movie where a love song is depicted.
27.Today poetry has deteriorated into a public opinion and as a conventional public notion.
28. Poetry is a mere repetition. It is a ritual art.
29.Rain is painful like a wail of the thoughts that became indebted and hapless as they fall down from the realms of conscious and unconscious.
30.Flower: A symbol of beauty that had to commit suicide by taking the shape of a plastic flower in interior decorations, from its duty of shouldering the weight of poetry.
31.Meditation is a necessarry characteristic for the praying process that beseech the well being of all the life on earth.
32.A woman who thinks that the advantage of love and sex is for the man, cannot enjoy her own sexual emotions.
33. Butterfly: An insect experimenting how to fly free from the thoughts that bind itself with any after-the-life relationships.
34. Reality: It is another planet within the planet called earth.
35.Tortoise: A humble irresponsible being that does not possess any drive or have any challenge as to walkdown a certain distance in a day, a month or even an year.
36.The world today is not with love. Neither love is with the boy who loves someone.
37.Even Poets do not need poetry. They only need prose.
38.The holistic values of the emtional life of men today is lost for ever.
39.There is no relation between religion and religiousness.
40. Each idea is destined to be holistic.
41.There is only body-relationship among men today. Their inner world has been lost somewhere.
42. In this new age, there is no centre called poet. There is only one who uses words!
43. Human identity is lost!
44.The equality of experiences is what becomes special in today’s world. It has made literature unliterature. These days when everything is dying the only escape is to laugh at one’s self to apply break to the continuity of events.
45.Sky is not just a thought. One can be there in different planes. It is an excellent symbol of friendship.
46.The wind brings in wisdom.
47.A writer’s challenge is to live inside each cell of the experience after scrutinizing them.
48. Our logic, emotion and precious knowledge are all end-results of one or more jouenys.such a journey fails even the galaxy.
49.The meaning of all the words is just the same.
50.Love has become not a commodity to be handled carefully.
51.Life is a loss of memory on another memory.
52.Love is an interaction like the deadly sting of a scorpion.
53.The real poetry is beyond the words in that poetry.
54.A flower falling down is history.
55.Man’s life is neither a story or a book.
56.All stories of writers have turned unbelievable today.
57.The reality of literature has becomevery feebleseveral times than it was what before.
58.The real silence is the dissatisfaction arising out of cumulative thinking.
59.Real writing takes place when blind-beliefs of the past are broken.
60.A writer has to turn himself into a media.
61. Religion is both a temple and the idol.
62.We have no surplus value , when vices engulf us as a fire on dry leaves.
63.Our barren earth begins with us. it grows beyond our body outwards, slowley.
64.Trees create a new language for oneness.
65.Tree is a spirituality to all animals.
66.Night: it is an aesthetic ambience of an unworldly solitude, apprehension , expectation and dread.
67.Literature is the economics of the energy of the relativeness of life that seprates the world from the unknown.
68. Art is the condition of an energy that experiments with the equivalency of images larger than life , generated by dissolving one’s own life in contemplation .
69.There are short cuts in quizz for everything.Life itslef is a big quiz.
70.Being a male means to keep guard on an energy that is being developed more than what is needed.
71. There are no stories in Malayalam. Only film scripts are there.
72. The otherday I watched the speech of Sukumar Azhikode in TV, who is a greatest speaker in Malayalam. That speech was not a speach. It was his many speeches.
73.It needs water to remind us that there is nothing left to remember when it is flowing.
74.The unconditional flow of water is what is called life.
75.Water is a suicide squad .
76.The solitude of the words is the biggest puzzle of today.
77. the existance of man is the silliest in the world. If a wind blows, it falls down.
78.There is no Life anywhere.
79.It is fun to search for stars in a sky which is not existing there.
80.Beauty is not religious today.It is a festival for others.
81. Life is ,at the same time , old and new.
82.It is a good subject to be discussed proudly by everyone when they realize that they have their own deaths.
83. Plant is not earthly.
84.The very look at each object makes a writer lost in words.
85.Unless carefully observed one’s mind, it is lost for ever.
86.Knowledge is like the moult of the reptiles. They are to be used and then to be thrown away.
87.Many knowledge leads one to be aloof.
88.If there is no speed there is no journey.
89.The journey in a man’s mind do travel many times faster than the light.
90.The path is the journey.
91. The journey is the path.
92.Our journeys are not towards one particular destination; they are toward many destinations.
93. Our journeys defeat the Time. In this journey we are only temporary camps.
94.All roads will end at last. The real journey also ends.
95.We carry in our mind more than what our bodies could carry.
96. our paths are getting erased as soon as they are created. That is how the butterfly-journey begins.
97. Those who become victims of their own decisions do feel more boredom.
98.In the new market system, a woman has more market share than a man. Their pictures, sound, the very presence- everything do boost the market.
99. The hands remain worried not knowing what to do when we stand in que or watch a film or even talk with another one.
100.For writers, youth is there to accept disgrace.