Be a responsible tourist...

“I traveled far and wide to collect the rarest of fish breeds,”
The father told his son, fulfilling his boasting needs.
The little son looked hard at the glass case on the stand.
He had seen the fish grow in number on an alien land.

“The yellow is from Africa and the green from New Zealand
Look at the golden fish and that one with a silver band,”
His father had a story to tell about each of his favourite catch.
As they spoke they saw a tiny little fish, from his egg, hatch!

“Dad, these are the lucky ones that have survived your travel,”
The young boy told his father, his voice without a marvel!
“There are a million unlucky ones that must be dead and floating”.
On hearing the little boy’s words, his father stopped gloating.

“Oil from one of the ships you travelled in to make your pick,
Certainly would have left his kith and kin, lifeless or sick!
Other life forms are not a trophy for us to enclose in a case to exhibit,
They too have the freedom to travel the planet as they deem it fit!”

His son’s words brought tears to the grown up man’s hitherto dry eyes.
“Callous I've been, wish you had told me my collection was nice,
And just moved on with your life, doing what other boys your age did.
Your thought for the life around you makes you a very special kid.

I am mighty proud to be the father of a boy as kind as you.
And shall return the fish to the waters and spend more time with you!
I shall do my job of raising my child and leave the fish to its father.
They are the unique property of nature and not mine, I gather!”

Image courtesy:http://response.restoration.noaa.gov

Author’s note:

I came across this image on response.restoration.noaa.gov

As I kept looking at this picture, I felt an urge to appeal  on behalf of animals that do not know why they are dying.

While some of us want to travel around the world to enjoy the boundless beauty of nature, there are some others who want a world around them!

When you travel be responsible. Take care not to destroy the world that was created for them…

Parenting – How Difficult has it become…

 Parenting has become the toughest role for humans inhabiting the vast surface of this only green planet (?) known to mankind so far. The current era in which every awesome technological inventions stays so for a few minutes, only to be replaced or outdated by a newer, more awesome, technology! 

Before the advent of the digital entertainment era, children engaged themselves in benign (I shall pardon you if you read it as ‘dumb’ and if you belong to the technologically marinated species, you will!) activities like sand play (not the sand castle building which has become a more serious profession), drawing, scribbling on the sand, throwing stones in the pond and other water bodies, rolling a waste tyre along the roadside or even kicking stones on the pavement till they reach home walking from your destination.

I am sure for many of us it would bring back some nostalgic moments. To me, it did!

With the mushrooming of cable operators and meteoric rise in number of TV channels, all the idyllic pastimes were stolen by the fluorescent dots that adorned the TV screens.These activities were dying a slow death. But mankind decided to give them a quicker funeral than they deserved. In came the internet cafes. They ensured two things to begin with.

First, people could get all information that they needed and that they did not at all need, very rapidly.

Secondly, if your children are not engaged in positive or creative pastimes, then they are engaged otherwise as benign pastimes no longer exist!

The latter, predictably, has put immense pressure on parents. While parents were engaged in the business of money making that marked the very basic of worldly survival, the children were engaged in collecting information that they needed and that they absolutely did not need too!

As a result the gap between the parents and their offspring widened, further and further, with the older generation absolutely unequipped to face the information overload that their children possessed.

Children assumed themselves to be far smarter even in the by gone era. But in those eras they truly were not as smart as they assumed themselves to be and that defined innocence and was, in a way beautiful.

But now the complication seems to arise because parents are under prepared to face the truly smart children with the limited knowledge offered by the archaic technology (or maybe, even the lack of it)  of the bygone era.

Challenges posed by the electronic and digital entertainment looms large before every parent.

The challenge that looms large before every parent of this digital era is, therefore, to curtail the use of the plethora of entertainment avenues and engage their children productively. 

Here again, there are two hurdles – parents are unable to match up to the intellectual capacity of the children or, in trying to do so are hopelessly addicted to it themselves!

As always, allowing your children to ahead in their path towards future, while staying firmly grounded to the core values, is the way forward. Maybe when you feel the need to push your child, nudge them gently as the eagle does and be sure to steer them in the right direction.

Again, as always, easier said than done…

Pause for a noble cause...

For those of you who wish to make a difference to the lives of orphaned/destitute girls, here is an appeal from Mangaiyar Mangalam, a social service organisation in Kanyakumari District.

Help build a better nation by supporting the cause of these women who have taken it on themselves to build this home for their sisters-in-need.

Your contribution will help in strengthening their cause. Let us join hands in serving these girls who are waiting to blossom into responsible and good citizens. 
 
For more details regarding their work, please visit:

http://www.dejaswee.com/contact.html

Medical Camp

Daily Activities at the home...

...in search of a better tomorrow

The clouds were gathering over the rather gloomy firmament. Vishal couldn’t keep his mind on the meeting and his team was able to detect the lack of his usual presence of mind. He kept glancing at his watch and at the clouds that were visible through the curtains of the meeting room. The team called for early closure of meeting and realizing that he had been caught red handed, he smiled weakly and muttered a thanks before running back to his cubicle.

He hurriedly took stock of the work that he had to complete and he was mentally calculating the time required to complete the tasks assigned to him. He consciously left the laptop on the desk. It brought unnecessary mishaps if carried along. He didn’t need any extra weight on his back or his mind when he cycled up the mountains. 

It looked like the mountains were making fun of him...

Vishal always told his friends that it looked like the mountains were making fun of him and the thunder he often heard sounded like a war-cry to him, calling the beast inside him for a duel.

He checked and rechecked the to-do list before he picked up his bag with a beaming smile that betrayed his enthusiasm and energy for the activity planned. The security guard walked past an animated Vishal, noticing the energy level of the youngster.

Vishal looked at him and smiled pleasantly. It is only on Monday mornings that Vishal is usually low on energy and as the week progressed, he somehow seemed to gain energy until on Friday evenings he is at his peak form. The guard, recognizing the Friday smile asked, “Where to, this weekend?”

“Cycling”, said Vishal with a wide grin to the guard. On hearing this reply the guard simply shrugged his shoulders and announced aloud to the almost empty office, “I come to office by cycle every day, and so what’s the big deal? I can’t understand youngsters these days.” And he gave Vishal a smirk, and went off.

Vishal chose to ignore the comments. Just as he stepped out of his cubicle, he saw Chandru, his senior manager walk towards him. Vishal prepared himself for a defence. This guy never walks up to an employee directly unless there is some thing he wants to be done with ‘business priority’! As much as Vishal hated this guy for the tricks he played to get people to work mercilessly, he was known for his benevolence on hard working and talented guys like himself. And this was not the first time Chandru approached him.

“Tomorrow there is a presentation that will boost up the sales and hence the image of the company. I want you to come along. This will be a great learning experience for you, and this is business priority, Vishal.”, said the boss in his usual calm but firm voice, emphasizing on the last part.

“But Chandru,” began Vishal, “I have already planned something for the weekend and it’s too important to call off” said Vishal with a slight hesitation.

Chandru looked bewildered on hearing this. “At your age I never got an opportunity like this. I would have made it bigger had someone handheld me and guided me like this” he said placing a firm hand over Vishal’s shoulders.

Vishal gently pulled himself away from the senior’s grip and stood facing him. “Chandru, I know that such opportunities are difficult to come by. But I do not want to spoil my present in search of an elusive glorious future.”

“I work hard to earn my livelihood and I know my responsibilities. I may not reach your level by the time I have lived that many number of years, but that alone will not define my success”, he said much to the astonishment of his senior and walked away, adding to his mental to-do list, a task to defuse the tension once he returns.

Chandru called out to him as he stepped outside the office. Vishal was in no mood for any advice from him. Yet he had to oblige. As he hesitantly approached his senior,  Chandru asked him if he had any plans for the weeks ahead and if he could join Vishal in one of his treks.

Vishal couldn’t believe his ears and he smiled a big grin, evidently relieved, and walked out without a word, picking up the laptop on the way out.

"I have already planned something for the weekend..."

Fine-tuning credit:Vivek Ramanathan