As a kid I hailed from a lower middle class family. During the summer days especially in a city like Chennai, it was very hot and humid. We used to run to the terrace and sleep under the night sky to cool ourselves. Life was blissful admiring the sparkling stars and the moon too.

Then as we grew up, finished our formal education and started our career, we split from our families and started life on our own. As a bachelor, I never had the time to go to the terrace to see the night sky again.

We then moved to bigger cities and the stars almost disappeared from the sky. It was not because the stars were not around but we as human beings had polluted the environment so much that there was a layer of dust and pollution hiding the stars from our naked eyes.

The air coolers and then the air conditioners entered our homes making us cosy indoors and we moved further away from the beautiful night sky. Literally we found ways and means to run away from nature. We neither got the clean air to breathe nor the sights of stars and planets.

We have become materialistic human beings. We are happy accumulating wealth and not realising that money cannot buy health or happiness for us. There may be nothing wrong in satisfying our material needs as long as we can afford it. But to forget the laws of nature and respecting nature can be catastrophic for us.

We realise how much we miss our connect with nature only when we visit a hill station or a forest for a vacation. Unfortunately most of the holiday destinations have also become as crowded as a city nowadays. We need to find destinations where we can connect with nature and wander around listening to the song of birds, admiring the movement of the clouds, the sound of the wind or gazing at the stars.

We need to strike the right balance between technological advancement and the preservation of nature. One cannot be at the cost of the other. While technology and development have definitely made life more comfortable for us, it cannot and should not be at the cost of nature. After all nature bestows us with unlimited resources and gives life to our living. We have a responsibility to respect and sustain it.

This pandemic is a wake up call for all of us. We suddenly realised that we have destroyed nature for fulfilling our selfish human wants. A symbolic illustration was recently seen by many of us. We cut trees from the forests and destroyed nature in the name of modernisation and today we are in need of oxygen from cylinders because nature may be teaching us lessons on sustenance.

Life comes a full circle. I would love to go back to the open terrace and have a good night’s sleep on a natural fibre mat under the stars. I would like to commit that I will respect nature in all ways I can. I will give back to nature at least as much as I take from her.

Let us commit to respect nature in all ways possible from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

15th May 2021

I was walking around my garden. I noticed that every flower blooms irrespective of being big or small, healthy or otherwise. Nature ensures that every plant has a space to grow and it allows it to bloom. You can see this while driving through a forest.

However, I realised that we are different. We have our own mindsets, beliefs and values and we want the world to be our way. Till the recent past, an engineer wanted his son or daughter to be an engineer and a doctor wanted her daughter or son to be a doctor too. We were not even willing to encourage our children to be different from us.

Today the world is changing. Even in India, the current generation is willing to think differently. We are willing to take the unchartered path. Our risk taking ability has improved. We are encouraging to let our children choose subjects they are passionate about and not what we think they should take.

This is a positive first step. Even in families, there is an open dialogue and the future generation is willing to change directions in their lives. It is no longer considered necessary to follow the footsteps of parents or other elders in the family. It is perfectly fine for people to venture into start ups and even fail before they succeed.

As a society, we need to promote this spirit in every walk of life. Our educational system needs to get revamped. Every child in the classroom has to be considered a talent. Some may be good in maths while others may be good in arts and crafts. Our system needs to create an environment where every child blooms like every flower in our gardens.

Organisations are no different. The performance management systems are too rigid and straight jacketed. They look at all employees through one lens. It may be helpful to revamp these systems and processes so that every employee blooms like a flower in our garden. Let organisations believe that every employee is a potential talent. By proper nurturing and enabling, they may sparkle in different areas of work.

As a society, we need to believe that every individual can and will contribute to the larger good, if we are able to allow them the space and the opportunity to succeed. We need to challenge age old traditions and beliefs. We need to adapt to changes in technologies and utilise them optimally for the welfare of humanity.

We need to believe that as individuals, families, communities, societies or even nations, we need not compete with each other to succeed. We need to work together to succeed. We need to believe that every individual, family, community, society or nation can coexist and still be successful. We need not succeed at the expense of one another. We can succeed by enabling one another.

While we can wait for the world to change, it may be easier to start from oneself. Let us create an environment around us in our family and community, where every flower can bloom.

It is time to reset our thinking and let every flower bloom.

S Ramesh Shankar

10th May 2021

The festival of “Holi” in India signifies the onset of spring. While there is a story behind the festival, it is celebrated in most parts of India through sprinkling of colours on one another after the burning of Holika and performance of puja.

While the world talks today of DEI ( Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) and most organisations make a fuss about it, India celebrated the festival of Holi over many centuries and celebrated diversity in true spirit every year.

In my view “Holi” signifies equality and equity of all people. It does not differentiate based on religion, caste, creed or socio-economic status. The spirit of this festival is lived in India over generations.

Whether in communities, villages, towns or cities or within the precincts of organisations, everyone is deemed equal and celebrates this festival without any discrimination based on any factor.

I love this festival of colours as it truly represents the spirit of India’s diversity. I have played Holi across the length and breadth of our country. It not only celebrates the onset of spring but also promotes brotherhood and humanism at large.

While some say that the spirit behind this festival of diversity, equity and inclusion may have faded a bit, it is for us as individuals and as a collective to rekindle this spirit and promote the camaraderie in the societies where we live in today.

If we look back at our history as a nation, we have lived harmoniously irrespective of multiple religions, castes and ethnicities, peacefully co-existing over centuries. We have been threatened by invaders time and again and even the British tried to divide and rule but they did not succeed.

Today on the occasion of our 75th year of independence, it is upto us to resolve to preserve and promote this inherent diversity in our society. If there are forces within our society or outside which negate this spirit, we need to challenge them and be proud of our culture and heritage.

I have worked and lived in north, south, west, east and centre of India. I can proudly say that I am an Indian first and then belong to a state or a city. I have lived and thrived in every place I lived and have been respected and regarded by all communities.

Today, we are at a juncture where the world is looking at India and China as the super powers of the future. There could be strategies to derail our growth and development as a nation. But we need to preserve our rich cultural past and create a future of our choice built on this great foundation.

We have 28 states and 8 union territories in India. Each state almost speaks a different language and each of the languages also have multiple dialects. At the national level we use Hindi or English for official communication with the Centre and between states. However, we live and breathe as one nation. This is the spirit of India we can be proud of. Our Constitution guarantees us to live and thrive in any part of India and enjoy our heritage.

Let us continue to celebrate unity in diversity and share the spirit of “Holi” in our everyday lives.

I salute this spirit on the occasion of “Holi” today.

S Ramesh Shankar

7th March 2023