TRAPPeD!

One day, a person was walking around his fields, enjoying the freshness in the air, and was lost deep in thought. All of a sudden, he stopped; he had just heard someone crying for help. Then he heard it again, it was coming from not far away. He went in that direction and he saw a boy trapped in a well, crying.
Being handicapped, he was unable to help, and since none of his farmhands were around, he was unsure of what to do. Then he noticed a couple of protruding stones that were present along the sides of the well. His advice to the boy to try climbing up the well using the stones as foot holds. The boy tells through his tears that he had already tried once, and the stone had dislodged causing him to fall and bruise himself more.
The man advices the boy to first check each stone with his hand before he climbs it. The boy is still scared and refuses to do so. His crying becomes louder. This angers the man and he threatens to leave the boy in the well along with ensuring that nobody else comes to his aid. This frightens the boy. Finally, he starts climbing up following the man’s instruction. After a lot of slipping and couple of dislodging stones, the boy finally comes out of the well, hurt and bruised but happy.
Does this story sound familiar to you? Consider the boy trapped in a well similar to a person trapped in his own mind and the handicapped man is similar to any presence outside that might not be able to help you in any direct way. The rest should be clear to you by now, but I will say it anyway. Once a person traps himself in his own mind, it becomes difficult for him to come out of it. Nobody else will be able to help him. It is up to him alone to come out of it. Though the route might be difficult and sometimes frustrating, but when he does come out of it, he will always be better. When changes do happen, this is when a person tends to go into a shell and it will become very difficult to come out of it. One needs to be always open to what is going on around him and should be able to adjust to certain changes that might happen.

Seas Of Education

Both are well established systems. One is diverse and multi-cultured, one is not. One is producing more and more top talent whereas the other is adding talent to what already exists there. Wondering what I am talking about? I am just introducing the differences between the American and Indian educational systems.
There have been various things that have been copied from the west and have become part of our daily lives back in India, many of them have been beneficial but many have not been so (of course these opinions differ from person to person).
But, today I am not going to talk about all of the above mentioned points. Only one point is in my agenda and that is about the diversity in education (not people) that exists in the American system which is not much present in our system. From when I remember, there has always been a push right from school that the career for the future is always that of being an engineer or a doctor. So it becomes such that the people who do well in subjects related to these streams will assumingly become good engineers and doctors in the future. But what about those people who struggle in these (above mentioned field related) subjects, they are still expected to become the equivalent engineers and doctors. These compulsions are not exactly unfounded. There are very few worthy institutions that provide good education for other fields, and hence, fewer employers who would employ them. Therefore the employers might go for students who might not necessarily be specialized in that (the company’s) field. This will naturally bring out the standard of work done by that company which acts as a barrier for students who would have thought of pursuing this field. OH! What a vicious circle. Confused? You are not alone.
The solution to this problem would perhaps be for a couple of daring entrepreneurs to set up institution systems with world class teaching for varied fields and in many regions around the country. Naturally if this turns to be a success, this will slowly and steadily spread to other regions. This will clearly open the flood gates for rapid development of our country. The system with such improvements will definitely give lot of choices for students to pick from.
This solution might sound very slow and perhaps implausible, but no solution will change things overnight. Additionally, there are certainly certain top institutions that are there in the country which might already be doing that. But those are very few and perhaps mostly for the privileged. It is time for change and this change will make the vicious circle into a naturally productive one with our country producing not just top engineers and doctors, but also top people from other fields as well.

tree dreamz

This is my first day at my job. It is something for which I have been waiting all these years ever since my uncle Donald (he is a woodcutter by profession) gave me a toy axe to play with. I had always seen people cutting the wood and found it very fascinating. Since then I had decided to become a woodcutter.
After my first day of work, I decided to spend the night in the forest itself as there were hardly any animals, and if there were, they were friendly. I had just put some food in the pot on top of the fire and then sat on the ground leaning against the log thinking of how nicely the day had gone. It had been a very good day and I had enjoyed getting tired as the day had passed. As I was reminiscing with myself, I must have dozed off to sleep.
Suddenly it had become really dark with the moonlight too not visible. I looked around trying to get my bearings, the pot was there but there was no fire. As my eyes got accustomed to the darkness, suddenly I saw some dark outlines in the background. They were there only for a moment and then they disappeared, I was afraid. I called out but there was no answer. Is it possible that there are really things such as ghosts; I hope not? I move towards the spot where I had seen those things, and I see around. Once again I see them; it looks like they want me to follow them. They seem really big, but still my curiosity gets the better of me. I follow them, they start moving faster and hence I begin to run in order to keep up. This seems to be continuing forever and I am getting exhausted. I am sweating a lot and I lift my hand to wipe my brow. When I look again, they have disappeared. I have no idea where I am and have no idea of what to do. My uncle had always told me not to wander too deep into the forest. I feel a gentle breeze behind me and turn around to look; did I see something move? It looks like the tree is moving, it is coming closer and closer, I look around, and ready to run away but all the trees around are converging on me. I lift my axe ready to attack and just swing it to ward off the incoming trees. I suddenly feel a tree hit me on my head from behind, I start swinging blindly and the trees start pushing me and hitting me.

All of a sudden I open my eyes and realize that I am on the ground. Still I feel something pushing me and realize that it is my uncle waking me up from my sleep. He had been wondering how come I had not come back in the evening and had come in search of me. i was really shaken. i gave up woodcutting in order to take care of my father's shop as my father had always been requesting me to do. Still, whenever i look at the forest, i often wonder whether the trees were trying to say something to me.

The Predator

The beaver family was forced to flee their part of the forest due to the large fire that had burnt not only their home but a large area around. Though they saw certain humans trying to put an end to the fire, little did they know that the fire was caused by a careless human in the first place. So they went deeper into the forest in search of a proper place to live. Once they found a suitable spot, they left the young ones (assuming it to be safe as it used to be in their previous home) and just went in search of some good wood to make a home with. A crocodile which just happened to be passing by sights the infants and decides it is time to have some dinner as it was hungry. The parent beavers sense the crocodile and immediately go to protect their young ones, but the crocodile reaches them first. The beavers try to stop the crocodile in vain as the crocodile uses its tail to ward any attack. But one of the beavers manages to distract the crocodile’s attention, while the other takes the young beavers to safety. The crocodile in its anger swishes its tail and injures the beaver that had distracted it, it now goes towards that beaver getting ready to have its larger feast. It grabs hold of the beaver ready to tear its head off. The other beaver, which was thinking of coming to the aid of this beaver, goes back to its hideout as it senses some other animals around. The crocodile opens its jaws wide open, unaware of what is around it.. Suddenly there is a big bang, and the crocodile stops in its tracks. The injured beaver immediately crawls away to safety. Then they hear voices (of humans). One of the human says “Did you see there was another animal there, do we search for it?” His accomplice shakes his head in disagreement. They come slowly and carefully towards the crocodile, examine it and then take it away.
The question that comes into one’s mind is- “Who actually is the predator, the crocodile that was just fulfilling its natural instincts, or the humans? “

Laugh Please

It is well known that laughing is the best catalyst for happiness. Here is a small anecdote with this regard. There were two children who were sister and brother. It is up to you to assume some names for them. Now it so happened that the brother was a very mischievous and jovial person while the sister was the more serious kind of person. Perhaps all of you reading this will guess immediately who was more successful in education and if your guess is that the sister (who was the elder among the two) was better in studies then your guess is right. She was not only better but was a consistent topper in her class as well. The brother was the more playful kind who played lot of pranks and many times his parents were summoned for his misdeeds. As one would expect, this put a lot of pressure on her little brother because he was constantly compared to her. This made the parents worried and they began to put lot of pressure on him, curbing all his activities believing that it was required for him to succeed.
His results began to improve and soon he too was topping the class. Meanwhile his sister had gone to another place to complete her further studies. In spite of their differences, she had always enjoyed her brother’s company and his pranks too. When she finally came back, she saw a different person in her brother and she soon realized that he was no longer as happy as he used to be and he did not seem to be enjoying himself as he should be. She decided to straighten things out. She felt the best way to do it was to relive their childhood days. So whenever possible she would spend time with him. This was taking time as he had lost his mirth it seemed. Finally she decides to show him a movie which was a very good comedy in the hope it will make him laugh and then things would improve. The movie was very funny and as expected at a particularly funny part, he began to laugh, but then he suddenly shouted in pain. On finding out she came to know that he felt like he had had damaged something in his neck. so when she becomes very worried, he shouts "FOOLED YOU!".
Some might be wondering what was special about that day, it was April Fools Day. He had begun to feel better earlier itself and he had decided he will play the fool with his sister on that day.

My message is clear- do not forget to enjoy life at all times, and in case you have a friend or relative who is in a similar position to the boy, make sure that things are made better for him before it is too late. It is never too late for anything. Never put too much pressure on a person, just making him understand his responsibility will be what is required. Remember to continue enjoying life as it is. Cheers!

Slow Death

 One often wonders as to how the world would have been without the industrial advancement. All advancements have lead to more complexities rather than helping to solve the problems. For us only it has become tough to cope up with these, then what about for the other life forms? With the large amount of deforestation taking place and with the increase in pollution and human population, animals and in general all species are dying a slow death, with life being eked away from them painfully and forcefully. It has become a thing of the past to worry about the after affects of some so called achievements (as in huge construction projects, converting villages to towns and then to cities, etc...). We humans have become so greedy (but foolish) that fame has become the ultimate goal, not stopping to think for one moment its consequences.

It does not mean that if other life forms had been given larger brains and more power, they would have followed the right path and made right decisions. However, being the so called supreme species makes us more responsible for our actions and more answerable to one and all. This is what initial education was based upon and needs to be continually stressed in current education, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Slowly voices are being raised at these atrocities being done day in and day out, but these are far too few and rare. As the saying goes, easier said than done, one should convert his own words into action which is the most difficult part. Only when this is done, will there be harmony in this world.

It perhaps now is too late to bring about such a drastic change in society but it should begin with small changes that we should bring about in our actions, which will lead to benefits later on. One should realize the importance of all species around us; this is when we will get true satisfaction.

Different countries have different rights but these are only for us human beings. Then what became of those basic unspoken rights that are required so as to uphold the balance in nature?? Without these, it can be said that our planet is dying a slow death.