Just as I dashed out for a quick snack at the tea counter outside my centre, I felt a sharp pain on my back. It felt like a stone had been thrown at an unimaginable speed. It turned out to be a balloon. A water filled one at that. The impact didn't lead to a splash, as expected by the tiny perpetrators, but it was enough to make me see red. Both Mina, my batchmate, and I ran after the kids but they scurried in opposite directions. Back in the room now, I can't overlook the irony.
WATER -- Such an essential element. There would be no life without it on this planet. On any planet. The human race has achieved so much and we continue to make new discoveries as I type this entry. We feel we are superior to much else and can rule over anything. We make robots, have test tube babies, clone animals, humans being next. We have even managed to go beyond our world. Earth. Yet it takes all of a few seconds to push us back into our perspectives. The earthquake and the tsunami that followed in Northern Japan was a wake up call. Japan is perhaps the most well prepared country for such calamities. Their engineering is undertaken keeping in mind such considerations. Yet, the death toll and the devastation in the island country has been appalling.
And, on this part of the globe, we have both children and grown ups indulging in what I like to call cheap thrills. With the upcoming festival of holi, people get this notion that they have the right to inflict their celebrations on anyone, regardless of cultural and religious differences. I wonder if, during the winter, we went around the city throwing phi on everyone just because it is Losoong, how would they react?
After the events of the past week, a Japanese child may tremble at the thought of water for a long time, whereas the same thought gives rise to mischievous glints on an Indian child's eyes. If this is not irony at its best, I don't know what is.
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