I often watched a dragon fly on this dry stem, in our garden.
The dry stem is hollow inside and has no attractive features to it. The stem gets noticed because the dragon fly in perched on it. For some reason the dragon flies seem to choose sites which are most ordinary or even ugly.
The following two sites illustrate the fact that dragon flies are comfortable to choose not so impressive sites for their habitat.
In all these three instances, the three dragon flies make 'ugly' sites worthy of attention.
It is now thirty seven years since Anna and I have had an active association with children and families who have struggles to go through on account of the Neuro-developmental needs of children.
Yesterday I watched of an elderly man in the Mathrubhumi channel, in one of its fillers, who is severely restricted in mobility due to the spasticity of the lower limbs. In a conversation he said, that he was like this from his childhood. He lives beside a lake in a hut in the Aleppy district. He sets out every morning around 4 am in a rented boat to gather water bottles floating on water in the lake. He drags himself from the hut by supporting on his knees and using the hands to move forward. In the process he bruises himself. To avoid bruising himself he placed planks of wood between the land and the boat, on which he 'crawls' to get in to the boat. His legs are restricted in the range of movements in the knees and ankles which remain stiff during this movement from the land to the boat. He spends about six hours in his boat moving from place to place, collecting about two to three sacks of water bottles every day. He would return in the late afternoon. He has heaps of water bottles gathered next to his hut which he sells periodically. That is the source of his livelihood. He earns Rs 12 from one Kilogram of the bottles.
During the flood in 2018 and the recent flooding, the water carried away some of his collection. Talking about it, he regrets having lost his income.
I felt moved by seeing the video and hearing his conversation with the press reporter. He appears to be in the sixth decade of his life and lives 'well' by supporting himself by 'scavenging ' the lakes to keep it free from pollution.
What a social consciousness! A fragile person with a high sense of social consciousness and environmental awareness!
As against this, think of all those tourists, who throw these bottles into the lake from the house boats, during the pleasure trip, with no consideration to protect the lake!
This elderly diplegic man is of considerable worth and value, who transcends his extreme limitations to tell us about protecting the environment!
The oft repeated question to me in the recent years is, 'Why did you spend 37 long years with children and families who have Neuro-developmental needs'!
I have reflected on this. Anna and I wanted to explore if children with developmental challenges can be redeemed from their disadvantaged situations and help them to live well and as messengers of hope through their creative expressions ! In a society, which is mad after everything material and prosperous, we need some sane voices like the elderly man in the video, who inspite of adversity, lives vicariously keeping others in mind! Only wounded people can have space for others.
Every time I watch the dragon flies resting on the least attractive sites, I realise that through their presence on 'ugly' sites, they transform them to look different.
It is when some of us can chose to be with children and families who are 'different' and marginalised, we can unfold the worth concealed in their lives. Any investment to make such lives live differently is helping them to come alive, even to make rest of us aware of what we miss in our perception and value system. They unmask our blind spots and introduce us to anew value system.
They are messengers to make us more humane.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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