In one of my flights back from Kuala
lumpur, I met a person, whose story made me feel some pain. He was sitting next to me and he seemed so
excited and so impatient about when he would reach Trichy airport.
With a little curiosity over his anxiety,
I initiated a casual conversation with him. He told me that he is a native of a
village near Madurai and that he is now working as a labour in an OIL PALM
plantation in Malaysia. He is coming home for a holiday after 3 years, to see
his family. I asked him, what made him
to seek a job in Malaysia, leaving his family and children in India. His reply
was what I expected. He said,” I earn
good money here. I earn about 900 Ringgits a month”. Converted to Indian money,
it is around Rs.12,500/-. He added, “I spend just about 1/4th of my
salary for my personal needs and the balance money, I send it to my family in
India. I have 3 sons and I want all of them to study well and go to some nice
jobs. I don’t want them to suffer like me.” I enquired about his job and he
said that, from morning to evening they work in the plantation. They are
allotted labour quarters which is shared by 4 to 5 workers. In the evening they
come to their quarters, prepare food, wash their clothes, have dinner, watch TV
for some time and go to rest. Their life is monotonous, every day except for
Friday, when it is a holiday. On Friday,
when they go out they call their family and talk to them. Other than that there
is no entertainment. Their life is confined to work and taking care of their
personal chores.
Of what he said, something touched me a
lot. He said, if the next generation has to live a comfortable life, one
generation has to suffer.
When we talk about the life style of
Indians who have migrated abroad, we tend to think only of the doctors,
engineers and IT professionals who have made it big in life. But the vast
majority of the people who have migrated have taken the less aspired path. They
are into jobs, like road construction,
carrying heavy loads, mechanics, nursing and cleaning jobs. No matter how
uncomfortable it is for them, they have decided to take the brunt, keeping in
mind the needs of their family.
Don’t we see similar sort of factory
workers migrating to Tamilnadu, from Orissa & Bihar in search of such odd
jobs. It is because of the extreme level of poverty in the other parts of the
country that they have decided to find a source of living elsewhere to support
their family.
One of the recent tamil movies, “Angadi
theru” was a emotionally powerful portrayal of the hardships of labour who
migrate from rural parts of the country to fend their family. Not being judgmental of the extent of truth,
as shown in the movie, what we undoubtedly know is, it is an echo of a crying
voice, somewhere.
All these people have one thing in common.
They have decided to be the “positive transition person” in their family. They are trying to get their family out of
deep doldrums. They have taken personal responsibility to uplift their future
generation, by providing them with the best education and making available the
best opportunities to come up in life.
If we look behind our own story, we will
find someone in our family, who was a positive transition person. It may be our
father, mother, grandfather, grandmother or great grandparents. If not for their hard work and sacrifice we
would not be where we are today.
We too will be the transition person to
our future generation, to whom we are morally accountable. We have a huge
responsibility to our future generation.
We can be the transition person, who is able to raise the level of our
family, our society and our world, one step ahead.
It is not about saving big amounts of
money so that our children can inherit, lead a lavish lifestyle and get
recklessly spoiled. It is about being the transition person, who makes sure
that you give your children the best education he/ she aspires for, give them a
good exposure to the world, impart them good values by being a living role
model of good virtues and lead an exemplary lifestyle, so that they can follow path.
Talk to doctors and they would say that
most of our diseases, behavioral patterns, temperaments are genetic in nature.
And the good news, in many cases, you can act as shield between your past
generation and future generation, if you make a conscious change in your
lifestyle.
A Native American proverb says,
“We do not inherit the earth from our
ancestors; we borrow it from our children”. Each of us has a responsibility to keep ‘Our World Green’ for the future generations and this is possible
only if each individual contribute our little efforts. You can be a transition
person in leaving this earth a little greener.
As a positive
transition person, you can leave the world a much better place, for the future
generation to live in.
Happy Reading,
D.Senthil Kannan
Article dated July 2010
