September 2019 – My Blog

Centuries ago Aristotle said-

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all“

This is so true, especially in this generation. Most of us rate an educated person by the kind of IQ he/she has, by his/her cognitive skills, by the kind of degrees that person posses. Centuries before wise people like Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca told us about what we call education and whom we can call an educated person.

Unfortunately, we as a generation have forgotten all those and education to us means only the feeding of information to our mind.

The basic qualities of a human being such as empathy, compassion, self esteem, social awareness are no longer necessary to call someone a truly educated person. No doubt that’s why we are becoming less human day by day.

Still, in the chaos of modern-day life and the race to become more educated by having more number of degrees, there are some people who time after time teaches us the true meaning of education.

Saalumarada Thimmakka is one such name among them. I am sure most of you probably have never heard this name before. If you are a very socially active person you might have seen the picture below-

Saalumarada thimmakka blessing Indian President

It’s one of the rare pictures where in an award ceremony, a 108 year old lady blessing the Indian President. In 2019, this remarkable lady got the Padmashree award from Indian President ( fourth highest civilian award in India).

You must be wondering who is this old lady and what she has done?

Saalumarada thimmakka (Aalada Marada Timakka) born in Gubbi in Tumakuru district, Karnataka in 1910. Being from a poor background and due to lack of opportunity, she could never attend school or have any kind of formal education. At the age of just 10, she began working as a coolie.

Some years later she got married to Bekal Chikkayya, a farmer from nearby Ramanagar district, who too hailed from a modest background. Most of their life, the couple spent in poverty. They remained childless even after 25 years of their marriage and for the same reason they had to face criticism from their relatives and neighbors.

The couple was ostracised by her relatives and neighbors for not being able to bear children. To cope up with the emptiness in their life, they decided to plant trees and raise them as their own kid. In the first year, they collected 10 banyan tree saplings and planted them along a four-kilometer stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur in Karnataka. Next year they planted more number of trees. Numbers increased years after year. In one of her interview with Aljazeera, she said-

“One day we thought why not plant trees and tend to them like we would our children”

Soon they find solace in planting and nurturing trees. They treated those trees as their own children, they used to water them, protect them from cattle by fencing around them with thorny bushes. At times, she carried 30 to 40 pots of water a day from nearby ponds and wells to water the saplings.

She and her husband plant saplings in the monsoon session so that there could be adequate water for their growth. Thus, a four kilometer highway, which was devoid of any trees, become green and beautiful due to sheer effort of the couple.

Banyan trees planted by the couple on the highway

Her husband died in 1991 but that didn’t stop Thimmakka’s love of planting and nurturing trees. She continued her passion with the same grit and courage.

In all these years she has planted more than 8000 trees out of which 385 are banyan trees. Just unbelievable! isn’t it?

Saalumarada means ‘rows of trees’ in Kannada language. Saalumarada name was given by people to respect her remarkable work towards planting the trees and saving the environment, and the obstacles the couple faced during the process. Her planted trees are taken care by the Karnataka government now-a-days.

She has done much more work than just planting trees. She is still actively involved in the state and national environmental protection campaign. \

Saalumarada Thimakka has been an active campaigner in circulating the message of afforestation. She believes every human being on this planet should plant trees and it is evident when she said-

“How we planted and took care of the trees, everyone from children to the elderly should plant and grow trees. It will be beneficial for all of us”

Saalumarada Thimmaka has been a role model for environmentalist all over the world. In 2016, BBC included her in their list of top 100 influential and inspiring women. She has won numerous awards in her life for her work including 2019 Padmashree, National Citizens award (1995), Godfrey Philips Bravery award (2006) and many more.

A U.S. environmental organization based in Los Angeles and Oakland, California called Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education is named after her. She has set up a trust for building up a hospital in her village.

Does her life has changed now?

No, all these recognitions and rewards from all over the world haven’t changed her. She is struggling financially and living with mere pension of only Rs. 500 (7 USD). Only thing is now some people knew her and appreciate her work.

Saalumarada Thimmaka had to go through a lot of hardship to achieve whatever she has done for the environment and humanity. According to a study, the total worth of all the trees she has planted and grown in terms of currency is approximate Rs. 17500000 (more than 1.5 million). Despite this, she has dedicated all the trees to the state and has never expected anything in return.

Her work never changed her financial condition. Never did she flaunted about her work. Still, she is unknown to a majority of people. However, all these never deterred her spirit from helping mankind.

Today Saalumarada Thimmakka at the age of 107 lives with her foster son Umesh. Undoubtedly, she is an inspiration for every human being on this planet.

What mesmerized me most about this incredible woman is her determination towards her work. Instead of the fact that people do not appreciate her work always or she is not going to earn money and live a luxurious life, she is relentlessly doing her job. She is still struggling financially, her work deserves much more attention than what she has got. But all these matter nothing to her. It reminds me of one of the famous quotes-

“Destruction has noise but creation is silent“

Saalumarada Thimmakka’s work is a perfect example of this. The true way to honor such a tree mother is to continue her fight. If only we plant as many trees as possible and help to save the environment and humanity, that would the best tribute to her.

Saalumarada Thimmakka also teaches us the true way to become an educated person as I said at the beginning of this article. What’s the point of feeding information in our mind, if it’s not able to contribute for the betterment of the world.

If a woman without any formal education can do so much for the world, imagine what we, with years of education can do for the world.

It’s high time we understand the true meaning of education

Have a meaningful week. Until next time.

Joy

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What it’s like to live in extreme poverty

You must have seen those posts on social media which claim to teach you how to become a millionaire.

There are hundreds of books which have titles such as ‘The quick ladder to become a Millionaire’, ‘The Millionaire Fastlane’, ‘How to become wealthy’, etc.

Of course, those books or posts on social media excites us, kicks our dopamine and we strive to become that moneyed person.

Nothing wrong with that. We all should strive to earn more money to make a comfortable living. If you want to contribute to the world for a good cause, having money helps to achieve that.

But there is an opposite scenario also present in our world. There are people who can’t even afford even two meals in a day properly. Yes, you might have not heard about them (especially if you are a from a wealthy country or you are too busy in your small world) but they do exist in our world. And their number is not small, among 7 billion people on earth almost 734 million (1 in every 10 people) people still live under extreme poverty.

You might think, what I have to do with all these? Why should I care?

The most important reason is that we are humans. We have compassion, empathy, love within us. We can feel the pain of other humans to some extent. So it should our morality to help needy people to uplift.

Again, if inequality continuously rises in the world, sooner or later we will see more violence, crime, and barbarity. This planet is home for all of us. If we have to make it more beautiful and sustainable for living we must show compassion to each other.

It’s not only that poor person whom poverty hurts. Poverty hurts the whole world. Poverty means wasted lives—lives of people who could have grown to their full potential. Imagine how many great scientists, doctors, writers, engineers who could have contributed for the well being of the world are we losing just because of poverty. An article I read in this regard might be informative for you.

When we are saying ‘extreme poverty’, whom are we talking about? Is there any way to define them?

World Bank says anyone with earning of less than 2 dollars per day fall under the category of ‘extreme poverty’.

2 dollar(143 INR) per day! It sounds unreal, isn’t it? I mean in many parts of the world you won’t even get a coke with 2 dollars. And almost 734 million people on earth earn less than 2 dollars per day.

How people live with earning of 2 dollars per day?

I know you are thinking about this. It’s even unimaginable for most of us think about their life. Having fancy clothes to wear, nutritious food to eat and a home for shelter, we can’t imagine how it is to struggle everyday for mere survival.

And just like you, I can’t express their story here properly. It would be better if you can hear their story from them. Thanks to Bill Gates and team who have recorded the stories of these people. I am attaching here few of them. Please, here their story.

I don’t know what you are feeling after watching these. But when I saw this, first thing I thought was writing about them.

We all talk about financial freedom and becoming millionaires. Most of us are not even happy with our financial situation. But just for a moment imagine if you have to live with 2 dollars per day. It’s scary right.

We must be thankful to our family, country, and to this world for providing us the food, shelter, and clothes. We must aim to make our life more comfortable, enriched life but at the same time we should also be grateful for wherever we are today. You are reading this article, that itself is a luxury for many people. You have access to the internet. Only 3.2 billion people in the world have internet access.

So, express some gratitude to the world and then aim to improve your life.

What we can do help such people?

First and foremost don’t exclude them. They as much human as we all are. Thus giving them a special category itself is an insult.

Remember when you help a person to get out of ‘extreme poverty’, you are not only helping that single person but contributing in making the earth more beautiful.

I have huge respect for Bill Gates who is trying to make aware people of such paramount topics which are never highlighted in the mainstream media. You can check out his website.

And people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and many others have donated a huge amount of money for eradicating ‘extreme poverty’. But that’s not enough. Few people cannot solve this problem.

Individual country, society, people have to become responsible. China is great example of this. In the 1980s more than 80 million people in China lived under ‘extreme poverty’ but today there are less than 2 million people people live under ‘extreme poverty’. It’s remarkable.

How did China achieve this?

The government became responsible. They build the required infrastructure all over the country so that people can have ease to move from one place to other, so that people can do business more easily, so that people from other parts of the world invest in China. India is also not far behind China in this

However, the situation in Sub Saharan Africa is still worse. At one side the population is continuously booming but the number of people living in ‘extreme poverty’ are not decreasing to that extent. Probably a lot of African countries need to learn from China. Anyway, things are not as easy for Africa as we might think. But if people from all over the world show some concern over global poverty and lend a helping hand, the world can be free of ‘extreme poverty’.

I am no one to advise you what should you do or how should you react to all these. My aim of writing this article is not to suggest anything. All I want is to become aware of this. The mainstream media is never going to show such news on television, as it will not kick our dopamine or excite us.

But this is a reality in our world that more than 734 million people live on an earning of less than 2 dollars per day. Every one in ten people in the world lives under ‘extreme poverty’. How can we call our world beautiful when such a large number of people do not have access to basic necessities.

Next time if you meet such a person, don’t hate him/her. See it as an opportunity to make a contribution to the world, to make the world more beautiful.

Have an amazing week. Until next time

Joy

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