The world celebrated International Women’s Day, Holi (divine festival of colors), World Sparrow day, Happiness Day, Earth Hour and many more.
#IWD2017: Recently in Hyderabad I was one of the last to board the aircraft. It was late in the evening, after 2 days’ workshop. Fatigue had set it. Right behind me there was a mother and a little girl.
- Mom told her, in English, ‘that bag is too heavy for you, give it to me’
Girl replied, in fluent English, ‘Let me carry this. It will make me strong, and I will be successful.’
‘Strong’, I can understand. “Successful”!? For a young girl?!
That usurped the attention of other passengers, and all smiled at the child. Another lady enquired, and got some details. They were ‘returning from Vizag, lived in Bangalore, mom was IT professional and the little one was in 2nd standard’. What does ‘success’ mean to a seven year old?
I wanted to hold the child and tell, ‘you don’t need to carry the weight to be successful dear. You ARE successful’.
The underlying belief “to carry burden” can be at the core of IWD?
#Holi2017: With several parts of India facing drought-like situations, there was a lot of (self-imposed to imposed by others) restrictions aimed at water-conservation. At this rate will future generations stop playing holi?!
Going by the impact of deforestation in Bangalore and Kerala, water-less and hence a color-less holi may be staring at us. We got to plant more trees and save lakes, rivers, water-bodies and environment? Shall we, please?
All disasters are man-made!