Our domestic helped planted seeds of Beans a few days back in our kitchen garden. The first shoots have appeared. 

I used to go to look for the first shoots every morning. Just in one day the shoots appeared large enough to surprise me. 

To see one seed breaking open the soil to appear above its surface with its cotyledons was a surprising delight to watch. The seed had to die and sprout to give forth the shoots. 

I watched today a photo of a child holding a pencil to scribble. That was the first time the child was able to do it. I sensed the immense joy of the parents as the right hand which was weaker from birth has been gradually recovering through the constraining exercises they were offering to the left hand, to make the child use the right hand more. It is bearing fruits. 

The conversation about this experience of the parents took us to another plane when they told me that the father too had a weakness of the right and since birth and it was his parents who helped him to recover from it. Although he uses the right hand to write, he uses the left hand at work for most the work he has to do at the machine shop. I wondered whether the two had any link genetically of any haematological disorder!

Anna and I felt immensely grateful to the domestic worker for her initiative to sow the seeds and water them daily. That was generosity at it its best to say the least. To me, watching the first shoot emerge, became a symbol of hope in a difficult time, when I feel overwhelmed by some challenges at the work place. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)