merry christmas santa!!!
lets wish our dear santa healthy xmas.
happy christmas santa :)


image credits: allposters.com

Slow Tears

I look up
as a tear rolls slowly
down my cheek
I think about better days
and wonder if I'll feel that way again

you look at me
with those eyes I know so well
always serious, so deep and insightful
as though you're always in control

But not today
not now
Now you look so scared
like for once you don't have the answer

I gaze at you
looking deep into those hazel eyes
Hoping to understand
why you've said those thingsyou did

I wonder for a moment
if this is all a dream
if I shall wake in the morning
and be relieved

you look at me
with a confusion I have never seen
slowly pull me towards you
and wipe the tears from my cheek

Credits:
Martini - www.netpoets.com

nila scribbles

few verses i read, i jotted, I experienced. will keep on updating them. :)

• nobody can win me in my spectacular defeats
• my time is priceless, it has no value.

i am what i am - rebok tag line

INDIA BEATS

India Beats features stories of the unusual, the exotic and the extraordinary every week in The Hindu. This story was inspiring.

Eco vision - A man and his passion

M. Yoganathan, a bus conductor, is on a mission to convince students of the importance of conservation.

Many schools in Coimbatore are familiar with the figure of this man hitching his precious burden over his shoulder and marching in to talk about Nature.

ROUTE number 92 — from Marudumalai to Cheran Mahanagar and back. M.Yoganathan makes the 50-km round trip at least four times a day. He is a bus conductor. Besides the conducting business, he is busy converting young people to his cause, wildlife conservation. Fortunately for him, many educational institutions are located along the route his bus takes — the Agricultural College, Law College, Krishnammal, Hindustan, PSG...

Ever ready

An old slide projector in a battered black bag accompanies him wherever he goes. "You never know when and where I may have to give a talk, " he says. Many schools in Coimbatore are familiar with the figure of this man hitching his precious burden over his shoulder and marching in to talk about Nature. But, none of your lecturing and pontificating for him. "Children will listen if you make it fun and interesting," he says. So, he talks to them about nail polish. "How many of you use nail polish?" he asks. Hands go up and he tells a wide-eyed bunch of girls about the CFC in their nail varnish that threatens the ozone layer. "It is the same with the deodorants and after-shaves you spray on," he is quick to point out to the sniggering boys in the audience, effectively quietening them.

He is convinced that the success of eco-conservation lies in the hands of youngsters. He normally breaks the ice by telling them about how, after mating, the female spider eats up her husband! Or paints a vivid picture of how the Tailor bird fences its nest with thorns to discourage preying creatures and how it brings in glow-worms inside the nest to provide light!

Not surprising then that Yoganathan and his young friends (from 1,028 schools and colleges, and still counting) have planted some 20,000 trees. "At least 15,000 survive," he says with conviction. Yoganathan's mission is not about the mad, tree-planting sprees that have become so fashionable. He keeps track of the saplings that he has planted. And, he vigorously campaigns tree planting by children. Kids often write to him or call him up demanding he provide them with a sapling, which he does only too happily. He goes a step further, and asks them to keep a close eye on their sapling and let him know if it survives or not. If it doesn't, another sapling takes its place. And every tree planting is recorded carefully in a register.

All-consuming passion

Orphaned anteaters, persecuted peacocks, pythons that have lost their way — Yoganathan is a friend to all creatures great and small. Yoganathan's passion is all-consuming and whether it is before, during or after office hours, on Sundays or holidays, he never misses an opportunity to spread his message.

Yoganathan's love affair with wildlife started as a mere lad when he would visit his sister at Kotagiri. There, he would escape into the woods to write poetry. (He loves the Haiku and has composed several, many of them tongue-in-cheek humorous.) In one of his sojourns there, he was pained to note how the Longwood Shola forest was being reduced to a public toilet by the surrounding villages and how it was being ravaged for firewood. He became part of a movement that convinced the local administration to fence off the area and clean it up. More trees were planted and the area is now a haven for various flora and fauna. "The woodcock travels 4,500 Km to roost here," says Yoganathan with some pride.

In the beginning, Yoganathan had neither the projector nor the slides. "I would subscribe to The Hindu, on Sundays, because it invariably carried some picture of nature. I would cut that out and preserve it between plastic sheets and show it to children. Then, of course, the projector came along and some like-minded wildlife enthusiasts contributed their photographs and the slide show became a part of his repertoire.

Generous help

Yoganathan gratefully acknowledges the people who have made it possible for him to pursue his passion. People like Dr. Mailvahanam and T.R.A. Arunthavaselvam for giving him in photographs and slides and Dr. R. Tolstoy, medical practitioner/ wildlife enthusiast/ photographer who quietly replaces his projector bulb whenever it fuses. And, to the owner of World Colour Lab, S.L. Arasu, who generously keeps him supplied with tree saplings. (A conductor's salary cannot take the recurring expense of 300-Rupees bulbs and tree saplings.)

In an issue of The National Geographic, its editor-in-chief, Chris Johns says, "To examine the state of the world's protected areas is a pressing mandate". And he asks, "Will they be there for future generations?" If Yoganathan and his tribe increase, may be the answer to that question would be a resounding "Yes".


Credits

The Hindu

Reporter :Pankaja Srinivasan

Photo: S. Siva Saravanan