Ashes fall like snow

April 26th 2010.

Its been 16 years, since the fateful events in the village of Chernobyl near Pripyat in northern Ukaraine (then in the Soviet Union). Existence was brought to an eerie standstill in what is considered the worlds worst nuclear disaster ever, and the comatose state of the region is a shocking proof of it.

For those of you, who don't know or more likely don't recall the incident, on April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, had a meltdown. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including the nearby town of Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, with over 336,000 people resettled.

Four hundred times more radioactive material was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

What happened under the snowy skies that day, is history. The past. Digging up the sad memories isn't gonna help. It will only add to the pain of those who were affected directly or indirectly by it. But that is not the point here. The point is, where and how far ahead have we moved since then.

Today, all the major nations of the world are nuclear powers. In fact nuclear capacity has in one way become a way of identifying the major nations of the world. With various agreements, treaties and pacts, we all might have created an illusion of safety for ourselves, but in reality my friends, there's a thousand barrels of oil laced with gunpowder, and we are sitting on it, with a cigarette between our lips. And worse.

What we face today is a very different threat from what took apart Chernobyl. Its not only the risks posed by nuclear power generation, that we have to face today. We the great human race, have successfully mastered the art of manufacturing means of our own extinction. We truly are a class apart.

But what is different? We had these over half a century earlier too, and we have learned from our mistakes! Yes, but we have learned not to commit the same mistakes again, today we are already geared up to do new ones.

The Nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes, of some countries, are today in danger of falling over to miscreants over the world. Even the so called bigger and peaceful nations, use this as an excuse to continue their nuclear weapons programmes. So where is the end of this cycle? Nuclear Disarmament? Forcing the nations which can be forced, to abandon any chance of a defensive leverage? Or an all out cataclysmic war, that would once and for all, end this nuclear threat, and most possibly all life on this planet?

The answer doesn't lie among these. The answer does not lie with those who call evil bad, but necessary. The answer lies amongst us. Its in our consciousness. Our only hope today, is to wait for those who deem it fit to use such force to get their means met, to live out their spite. We can only hope this strained peace lasts long enough for the malevolence behind it to die out. Our only hope, is us. That we the youth of today, can recognize this threat and realize its gravity soon enough, to be able to shape our minds around the fact that such power is best kept away from tables of diplomacy or the real battlefields. Its in our consciousness to dedicate an entire generation's thought to the common unspoken agreement, of nuclear peace.

However unfeasible or impractical it may sound, but we have brought it upon ourselves to have to put our faith in such a far fetched scheme. If an entire generation awakens to a dawn where there is a common understanding regarding such issues, then its not impossible. After all how different are our minds really? Have we, all of us around the world, not seen enough historical evidence, to see that the path we are on now, is headed to doom?

Let us vow and resolve, to ourselves. Let us make this our mission, to make as many people as we can get this idea straight. Tomorrow is coming, with all of its risks, with all of its promise. With all of the darkness, with the chance to choose light. Tomorrow is coming, and we better be ready for it.