KINDNESS

When Annie was brought in the Tewksbury Institute, nobody could do anything with her. Doctors found it difficult to even examine her. She was locked up in a cage. A hospital maid felt sorry for her and baked her some brownies. She walked cautiously to her cage and said, ‘Annie, I baked these brownies just for you.’ Then she ran behind a pillar… afraid Annie might throw them at her. However, Annie ate the brownies.

From that day, they started to be friends… she even got Annie laughing. One of the nurses noticed and told the doctor. They asked her to help them with Annie. This is how they discovered that Annie was almost blind. A year later, the Perkins Institute for the Blind opened its doors. Annie went on to become a teacher of the visually disadvantaged.

When Annie came back to Tewksbury, the Director showed her a letter written by a man about his daughter. She was unruly… almost like an animal. She was blind, deaf and ‘deranged.’ He was at his wit’s end, but he did not want to put her in an asylum. He wanted a teacher who would come to his house and work with his daughter. Annie Sullivan became Helen Keller’s ‘miracle worker’ and lifelong companion.

When Helen was once felicitated, she declared that Annie Sullivan had the greatest impact on her life. However, Annie disagreed. The woman who had the greatest influence on both their lives was a floor maid at Tewksbury. History was changed as one person took initiative triggered by the sentiment of kindness. The sentiment does rise in most hearts, but the situation transforms to be better only when thought leads to aligned action.

Let’s BE BETTER at acting upon thoughtfulness...

History is re-scripted by deeds of kindness!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

EARTHERIAN

‘Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. – Chief Seattle, 1855

There is a committed band of dynamic persons who are connecting to the larger world through their passion for astronomy, ecology and humanism. Their fascination for the earth, things therein and around, eventually breaks all possible barriers and boundaries created by mankind over the ages.

It is pertinent to note that such persons no longer remain Indian, Asian, American, Australian, African or European… they become Eartherians. As children of Mother Earth, they respond as custodians of the common good of all Eartherians including the generations to come of the entire spectrum of the web of life on earth.

To be a better Eartherian, means to shun all prejudice and aligned hatred and violence. It is all about discovering our collective heritage and our common lineage not just with all mankind but also with living and extinct animals. It is about evolving to be better at quest for knowledge and an attitude to involve in sustainable practices. It is about being, both responsible and responsive.

This Earth is ours, and the sky is too…

Let’s BE BETTER Eartherians, me and you!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

SEEKERS OF TRUTH

‘Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it’

– Thomas Paine

On 11 April, 1827, Jyotirao was born in a vegetable–vendor family from the Mali caste, in Pune. His sharp intellect was noted by his neighbours who convinced his father to admit him at the Scottish Mission's High School. Here, Jyotirao Phule was influenced by Thomas Paine's book 'Rights of Man'. He developed an impeccable sense of social justice and grew passionately critical of the oppressive caste system.

His relentless struggle to reclaim justice and equal rights for farmers and Dalits, made Phule the most significant figure in the social reform movement in Maharashtra. Along with his wife Savitribai and others, he initiated positive transformations in the spheres of education, agriculture, caste system and social empowerment of women.

He educated his wife, Savitribai and opened the first school for girls in India in August 1848. He vehemently advocated widow-remarriage and even got a home built for housing widows during 1854. Leading by example, he opened his own house and let all make use of the well water without any prejudice.

He founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) to prevent exploitation and abuse of the Bahujan Samaj by the upper castes. Phule felt reason alone would empower society to be better at reclaiming human dignity and social responsibility. His life remains inspirational in our situation where truth suffers treason in the maze of modern superstition and hatred mongering against humanity itself.

Jyotiba Phule inspires us to BE BETTER at reason…

Humanity is abused when truth suffers treason!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

SEIDLER’S SPEECH

The emotional trauma of the Second World War coupled with the murder of his grandparents in the Holocaust, laid the seeds of David Seidler’s stammer. Attempts at speech therapy failed until he decided that ‘I deserve to be heard’. He was inspired by radio speeches of King George VI. His parents encouraged him, ‘David, he was a much worse stutterer than you, and listen to him now. He's not perfect. But he can give these magnificent, stirring addresses that rallied the free world.’

Later on David went on to study the journey of the King who overcame his speech impediment. David’s research resulted in the award winning screenplay of the film, ‘King’s Speech’. Seidler’s story as well as screenplay is inspirational to everyone who bears the burden of a speech impediment.

Much before his war-time accession to the throne, the King goes to an unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Hogue. They work together on muscle relaxation and breath control, while simultaneously probing the psychological roots of his stammer: a strict father; the repression of natural left-handedness; a painful treatment with metal splints for his knock-knees; a nanny who would deliberately pinch him to make him cry before his parents; and the early death of his little brother.

It is pertinent to note that Hogue has no qualification other than his experience in helping shell-shocked soldiers find their ‘voice’. His highly effective methods are based on getting his learners to be better at believing they have a voice by unlearning all negative strokes from the formative years of childhood. After all, technique would be in vain in the absence of an empowered temperament.

May we BE BETTER at finding our primed voice…

Self-belief helps overcome every impediment vice!

- Pravin K. Sabnis