Seeker and finder !

We have had heavy rains in our area for the last five days. There are reposts of loss of lives and property in different parts of this state. The flooding has left several villages, townships and roadways submerged with rivers overflowing and landslides blocking roads. We suffered without power for a day. 

The bird visitors to our garden were fewer during this week. I noticed a Barbet flying into the Guava tree to find its feed during a short spell of respite from rain.  In a few minutes it arrived at a spot where one Guava looked ripe enough. 

The careful inspection that followed was what caught my inspection. It took time to have a good view of the fruit by inspecting from different angles before it reached out with its beaks for a taste. 

The determination to seek and find was explicit in the Barbet's behaviour! 

Another Barbet arrived shortly after the first Barbet left following a sumptuous feed. 

This interesting sight brought a reminder about the avian behaviour. They seek and find by the habit of overcoming difficulties. 

The old garage adjacent to our cottage has been the office of ASHIRVAD for the last thirteen years since Anna and I relocated to live in our cottage.  The activities of ASHIRVAD in child development and rehabilitation remain confined to publication of books, a weekly on line professional forum for clinical discussion and an on line consultation of neurologically challenged children for the advantage of Paediatricians working in mission hospitals in North India. The other focus of ASHIRVAD on Integrated Living continues with involvement to have seminars on Mid life formation, transition and vocation, Parenting presence, and Life, Living and Learning. Every time there is a long spell of rain, the garage suffers seepage of water. It happened again yesterday. The garage is about seventy years old with a tiled low roof located lower than its surrounding. While I was getting the garage tidy yesterday, it reminded me of the attention the garage needs to improve its sturdiness.  

The interior of the garage is a hospitable place during normal seasons and I find it a place of comfort to spend most of the day doing the writing and reflecting. I have often felt the joy of the transition of a garage to a work place that looks decent and comfortable. I wanted a simple facility which is what I found in the garage. On its wall, there are the pictorial representation of activities of ASHIRVAD for fifty years. They remind me of the journey of seeking and finding. 

One painting on the wall, given to me by a resident, Dr Jayanthi in 2008, when I retired from CMC Vellore, is a moving depiction of my biography. She captured the essence of 'seeking and finding' !

A Barbet seeks and finds its daily needs. 

For Anna and me, the journey has been to seek and find ways to engage in 'Taking sides' of parents and their developmentally challenged children  for the last fifty years!  It was this which became our vocation. We feel that we have been given an opportunity to live fulfilled in this vocation! 

The garden around our cottage brings messages of encouragement and affirmation for which we feel grateful!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A woodpecker's search!

When a Woodpecker looks for its feed in places other than the usual, it can be a message of scarcity of food. It might be a sign of not finding enough food elsewhere. The Woodpeckers are climbers who would climb a coconut palm, feeding along the way upwards till it would reach the top of the coconut palm for gathering more insects. With incessant rain, the insects would have been washed away. 

The avian world is a stressful world. They remain vulnerable to different changes in the environment. 

A technician who came to replace our modem yesterday, which has been erratic for a while, told me how difficult it is to make both ends meet. He was the only technician for about five years in our village. Now there are five others, competing to find job. The breakdown in the cable net work is much less than before with the fibre optic technology. The normal job opportunity has declined. He has now moved on to attend to maintenance requests for Television viewers. Even then he is not able to match with the earlier income. His father who too was in this field has recently taken up a job as a driver for the school bus in our village to supplement the income. 

Is there any limit to extravagant living of those who have enough and more income to live indulgently? 

I was told that there is waiting time for luxurious cars in the market. The life style changes make our environment look artificial.

A neighbour who came with his son, who has had fever for ten days told me that he came to clarify some doubts, as doctors in the hospital appeared to be in a hurry to entertain any questions. At the end of that meeting I felt that people live stressfully and strivingly. 

The Woodpecker reminded me that it too faces the stress of existence. A neighbour told me that his neighbour would loose his house for having failed to pay back the bank loan. 

While speaking to a regular church goer, I felt encouraged by the efforts of that congregation to reach out to people in need, in the neighbourhood during the time of their illness. A taxi driver benefits from the gifts from a company, to pay for the renal dialysis of his wife three times a week. 

This way of living with socially consciousness is what would bring relief to people who feel pushed to stressful states!

Looking out for people in need, is what can make our life neighbour friendly!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)