SEA TO SKYSCRAPERS

Image courtesy Bins Corner

Amit belonged to a very poor family. His father used to work at a scrap yard and mother at a vegetable shop. Both of them somehow managed to earn money just enough for a simple meal 2 times a day .Amit was their only son and they loved him a lot. They wanted him to study well and become a doctor. But their poverty forced them to make their son work in a small tea shop. He used to work during the day and study at night from the retired headmaster who used to teach all the poor children free of cost.

‘Amit, you have written a very good essay. I am very proud of you’ said the headmaster one day. Though only 12 years old, Amit had a deep concern for the environment. He liked spending all his free time near the sea and stare at the waves endlessly .He was happy with the way his life was shaping up.His only secret wish was to go to  a school and study like the other children of the village.

One evening during the classes, the headmaster told him about an essay competition being conducted only  for the school children. The winner was to represent India in a climate summit to be held in Japan the following month. Amit’s happiness knew no bounds. He wanted to participate and make full use of this opportunity. Alas! He did not have the initial registration fee of Rs 100 and knew that his parents would never give him this money. The headmaster sensed his hesitation and decided to pay the fee for him. He did not want a bright student like to miss an opportunity only for lack of money.

Amit had collected a lot of material on the subject of environment from the magazines and newspapapers that his father got home from the scrapyard. After dinner he took out all his material and sat outside to write down. Over the last few days, he’d seen a lot of animals dying due to chewing of polythene along with the grass. This was a cause of concern for the whole village and he wanted to do something about it. He was awake the whole night and completed his essay by morning. During the day he took  some time off from his work and rushed to his guru’s house. The headmaster read the entire essay and corrected the small spelling mistakes . ‘The content is very strong’, he thought. Amit then  rushed to the post office and gave the envelope to his postmaster uncle.

A few days later Amit received a letter from the organizer of the essay competition. Although  his essay had not won the first prize but the judges were very impressed with the thoughts of a young writer and decided to send him also for the summit at Japan. Amit screamed very loudly as soon as he read this and immediately rushed to the  headmaster's house to thank him. After all, this would not have been possible without his guru’s encouragement and constant support.

Today Amit is in Tokyo. The delegates at the summit had been very impressed with this boy’s clarity of thoughts. At a very young age his awareness and concern for the environment was commendable. One amongst them, on knowing about his poverty, decided to provide scholarship for all his studies till college. Amit’s eyes are filled with tears. His parent’s dream of seeing him as a doctor was coming true. But right now all he wanted to do was to stand with his new friends and feel the beauty of the city.