I have been thinking of what to write about and decided to go with the flow of my thoughts…As I walked up the Himalayas and felt the silence , watched the snow capped peaks and the layers of the mountains hugging and folding into each other with tenderness and love….
My thoughts have drifted to the latest batch when 7 teachers travelled all the way from Chettipalayam near Coimbatore and who were teachers in a school for the underprivileged children. Why was this significant?
Well, Barbara and Barbara two friends from Canada decided to invest all their savings after teaching in Canada for over 40 years in a school at Chettipalayam near Coimbatore so that children from the lower strata of society could also have the same kind of education as the elite children. They not only travelled to Bangalore 7 years ago to understand all about Storytelling but invited me to train their teachers and subsequently to evaluate and assess them. We also worked with the IB curriculum and integrated stories into the school curriculum. After retirement they returned and passed on the duty to Mr. Jim to carry on the tradition of storytelling. Seven teachers came for our Academy training this month to Bangalore. I was touched by the dedication and their commitment.
What if our school Heads could think of investing in “Thought processes” and shaping future thinkers rather than counting the commercial returns of education?
As I sat in meditation I wondered am I being judgmental and perhaps I was….. Thought began to wander and I kept trying to bring them back to that one state when it you suddenly feel the absence of any thought and could sense the darkness in my inner eye. Over the years I have also attempted to switch off from work Academy and schedules in my home.
At home too… The sights and sounds are familiar and yet I tried to find and discover something new to find something new to wonder … For a change I began to read Nehru on World History to know how each person views History. He has written it in Goal and I was so happy that I could relate to Greece and Turkey and the wars.
The Greeks fought for their freedom and the Spartans specially Leonidas and his 300 comrades lay dead in 480 B.C 2440 years ago approximately at Thermopylae. They fought hard to defend the pass before the Persians could go ahead. Even today Nehruji mentions that the traveller to Thermopylae may see with tear dimmed eyes the message engraved in Stone of Leonidas and his colleagues
Go tell to Sparta, thou that passest by,
That here obedient to her words we lie.
Wonderful is the courage that conquers Death!
I felt a slight twitch in my heart when I sat still today and thought about the last word Death.
We need courage to look at Death. It comes unannounced doesn’t it?
I remember I had had more than 3 very close encounters with death. Often I forget it and begin to plan and desire things for the future. And then I am reminded of I the fact that I am actually living on borrowed time and how lucky I am.
I know I have drifted again but I wanted to write what I feel at the moment. After a very long time I am writing this blog. If you would like to know more about Thermopylae and Leonidas you could always google.
Tomorrow I have some meetings and then I travel to Mumbai for the Academy course. Well it has become a routine now and I try to look at the small little things that I can wonder and feel excited about. When I was walking up the road in the Himalayas after the Academy sessions I noticed that as the sun set I looked up and noticed three chubby clouds close to each other. One was completely golden the other black and one fully white. How could this be I wondered!! And I saw a beautiful rare bird fly across the three clouds its reflection changing as it passed the three clouds. A tiny drop of water fell and I knew it would soon rain.
The scene disappeared and I was running to take shelter. Hot samosas and tea tasted different here up in the hills and I noticed two ladies walk up chatting casually as they walked with over 40 kgs of grass bundle on their heads. They seemed to walk up the slopes so easily like spider women. I was puffing like a steam engine as I climbed that slope.
I got a whiff of the fresh Earth smell and filled my lungs with the pure clean transparent air.