A hungry rain soaked Asian Koel at daybreak in our garden to feed on guava fruit ! It is not common for Asian Koel to settle for guava fruit from my earlier experience in our garden. They usually feed on papaya, berry and jackfruit. The bird did not look flight ready as the body was dripping with water. Its attempt to feed on guava lasted only a few minutes. It abandoned it and flew away in short laps to the thick foliage of a tall tree.
By then the Bulbuls had arrived at the feeding station.
The Asian Koel did not find its choice feed in the garden. The Bulbuls did find theirs at the feeding station.
This is a life event worth pondering upon. This is a dissociated state of not finding what one is looking for.
A neighbour who is a labourer by occupation having educated his daughter in commerce stream, recently sent her to the United Kingdom to study further. He sold his land to raise money towards it along with raising a loan from the bank. After six months she is yet to get into a stream of learning. She has restrictions on working full time. Listening to the story, I realised how some young people who go overseas aspirationally, do not have their expectations or needs fulfilled. They live in a dissociated state! The lack of opportunities for lucrative employment locally makes the parents think of the prospects overseas. For some it turns out to be a gateway into prospects. For others it is another spell of harrowing experience!
The current mindset of parents is to push children to a professional stream against bottle necks at each stage. But parents who choose a vocational stream for their children struggle less as having a got job, their children will have opportunities to join for evening college or pursue on line learning to advance their skills, which would make them eligible to seek for better job opportunities.
I feel for the increasing distress among young people who are forced to live in a dissociated state- mismatch between their aspiration and current level of gainful engagement !
The reality is that our village has no more young people well employed. Most have left overseas. The homes have elderly parents and grand parents. The social support is minimum for such people when they become dependent. Thanks to the creative response of the new Chief Minister of Kerala, there is proposal for a separate ministry to attend to the social security of the elderly!
We live in an environment when some receive what they are looking for and some others live with unmet needs!
It was the helpless state of the Asian Koel at daybreak today, which alerted me about the woes of those who live with unmet needs! It comes to me as a call for more mindful responses to engage this need!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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