Wednesday 3 April 2013

God's gift to sparrows


This is the life story of a small sparrow named Chirp-Chirp,  born to a healthy parents , near a lakeside tree . Chirp_Chirp grew up under the loving care and watchful guidance of their parents. As the days passed by , Chirp_Chirp developed a liking for the green scenery in and around the lake , where plenty of fruits , seeds , insects and worms were in abundance. At a time , when Chirp_Chirp was matured enough to live on its own , Chirp_Chirp located a small branch of a green tree and extending into the lake. Being territorial in nature , Chirp_Chirp used to perch on the  small branch , most of the times .  In a few months time , Chirp_Chirp developed lot of friends , which multiplied as the days passed by.


Once during the whole night , it was raining . Next day was a beautiful sunny day , when the rain had totally stopped and there was a damp atmosphere , alround . Chirp_Chirp had tasted a number of insects and worms , which were in abundance , along with fellow sparrows. After a good meal , Chirp_Chirp was sitting as usual on the branch of the tree , protruding into the lake . When the sun set was approaching, it started thinking as to how many  days it will take for all of their fellow sparrows to drink all the water and empty the tank. So thinking and thinking about this , the sparrow lost the grip , fell down and got drowned in the very tank which the sparrow thought of emptying .

When it went up , God enquired about the sparrow , with all the loving care . The sparrow said that it had been thinking about draining the tank , fell down and died. It appealed to God to spare the fellow sparrows from thinking deep about the future , where they do not have any control.

God , with the consent of the sparrow , replaced the fellow sparrows with a very small brain , sufficient to think of only for the moment and then replaced the remaining parts of the brain to remain happy all the time  and live with humans , who have been given the opposite .



Who Decides ?


It happened when I was in Kolkata , way back during the summer 2002. I was accommodated in a spacious guest house of ITC over looking Hooghly River in Chandrahati, Tribeni , during one of the project assignments.

I was fascinated by a full grown mango tree , which had numerous mangoes of similar sizes , which had its branches very close to the guest house room. I was told that the tree was almost 70 years old  at that time , which came up on its own during the British rule , during 1930’s .  All other trees were documented and captioned with the name of the VIPs , who had planted them during different occasions.  This particular mango tree was not documented .


I took a liking for a particular healthy mango , which was on top of all the branches and visible only from particular angles . I kept on watching that particular mango , daily , out of curiosity. I used to watch some urchins aiming at that mango and pelting stones , only to be driven away by the Guest House warden , for the fear of breaking window panes. The Guest Warden himself had a liking for that particular mango.

One day , during the lunch interval I happened to see a group of contract workers , plucking the mangoes , since it was given on lease. The guest house warden had instructed the contract workers to hand over that particular mango , after they have plucked all of them , since he liked that particular mango.  Somehow the workers could manage to give the warden some other mango , since that particular mango was un-reachable and risky. Since we used to have one hour lunch time, I was able to hear all the conversations going on between them.

In the evening , when I returned to my room around 0530 pm , I got the answer. One full grown green parrot , was enjoying that particular mango fruit , which escaped the attention of everyone. I too was enjoying the happiness of the parrot . Around 0545 pm ,I have realized , who had decided ?


I could sincerely and hopefully guess  that un-documented mango tree , would have parted with that particular “last mango” of the season to that green parrot , whose great grand parents , might have dropped that mango seed , which had grown over these 70 and odd years , as a gesture.                                                                  

A true incident

Friday 29 March 2013

Patience pays


True Incident in 1954 in Marina Beach .

We were living in Sydoji Lane , near Pycrofts Road in Triplicane, Chennai . The incident dates back to the year 1954 , when I was 10 years old and I used to go to Marina Beach along with my playmates to play. I do not remember the date. 

I happened to be near the sea around 05:00 pm , when I was attracted by the sight of a lone fisherman remaining still , making small movements from left to right and right to left along the sea shore .  He was clad in just a towel tightly wrapped around his waist and has sensed a big fish being caught , having taken the bite attached to a long nylon rope ,leading to the fisherman.  

Out of curiosity I was very closely watching the fisherman following his  movements . He was almost walking , giving more and more loose rope to the fish , and tightening the rope with utmost caution , without making the fish realise  that it has been caught. His action lasted for more than 45 minutes and he was just moving from Marina Beach along the sea shore , near Presidency College side to the place near the Vivekananda House.  I was wonderstruck  when his patience and skill had resulted in the haul of an unimaginable huge fish.

Soon after the ordeal , I went upto him and congratulated him in simple words in tamil . He has seen me as a lone boy , following him during the past 45 minutes with curiosity , wanting to see the results. He was the happiest man at that moment, while I was with him . I could see a sense of achievement in his face. As he was waiting for his brother to come and sell the fish on the spot for a better price , I struck a conversation with him. He has disclosed his name as Idumban. He just told me that the bait, the hook, the nylon rope and the steel rod are only simple gadgets for the path he had chosen.  It is the skill combined with enormous patience that brings the results .On returning home , I narrated this incidence to my father and playmates. 

A good teacher need not be educated and the best philosophy of life can come from such simple fishermen. 


Rangarajan Bangalore 29.03.2013