It was in Class VI (year 1998) when my first feature story was widely acclaimed and I got the 1st prize for a “good writeup”. I was at my heights of excitement to get the gift… “When the world was young”.

I might have confused you with the above haphazard way of starting my new blog post. Let me be clear. The gift that I got was a book titled “When the world was young”. It was a short-story collection with loads of epic tales… a book that is out of the present materialistic nature of human beings and that it well above the curses of a modern life. The book written by Verrier Elwin and published by Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India in 1961 is a collection of Indian fairy tales.

Now you might wonder why I am starting a discussion on a fairy tale book that I was gifted a decade ago! My 2 States book review was appreciated by many of you but I am not that a freak that I come up with a review of a book that I read a decade ago; and nor that I have not read any other book in between.

Many of you might not have gone through that book but in some way or the other the fairy tales are known to all; although it interests none (to be very frank). This book compiles the best of the tales and is set at a time when the world was really young!

Why I am writing this? Why I am saying that the world was once young? Is it old now?

The thought came the day I saw the recent Hollywood flick 2012. It was Friday the 13th (regarded as an ominous day) when the crazy flick touched the screens. Every India TV fan can very truly associate what this ‘year 2012′ is all about! The news channels had cashed in on the “fact” that 12th December 2012 will be our last day. The movie also cashed in on the very same idea and tried showing how dusk will be for us and the dawn awaits the new world! The destruction and finally the special ‘space crafts’ to get yourself survive the situation is all but crazy.

Although the movie focused that radiations from the Sun and resultant global warming is the cause of the of the “2012 earth destruction” (rather will be the cause), it failed to warn the audience about it. India TV, followed by other Hindi news channels tell a different story. They say that some outside bodies will be coming in contact with the Earth’s atmosphere and there will be a big bang!

Whatever the cause maybe and whatever be in store for humanity in year 2012, one fact is for sure and certain that global warming is and will haunt mankind in very near future. Sharp raise and steep fall in temperature is of deep concern. I quote about the book “When the world was young” because it depicts how the humans have adapted to the environment when the world was actually young. But now, can the environment adapt according to our will? Or is 2012 the end of the world…