A Rendezvous with Nature

Lesson No.1 from the Seed

Sow a seed. Pour water. Take out the seed daily, check up whether it grows. It doesn’t. Choose a good quality seed. Sow it. Pour water. Pull out weeds. Make space. Wait diligently. Results are Wow!!! You made it.

Moral: Put optimum effort in a good quality seed called life and wait diligently – results are amazing

Lesson No. 2 from Plant & Trees

A torrential rain. Mushrooms grow. No need to sow, wait to grow - use it or not - they live a short span and die (Some good to eat - others poisonous – Beware, its up to you to choose). Shrubs take a little more time to grow, freshen up base greenery, cute flowers and mild aroma!! Did you ask them for their fragrance? Where do those beautiful colours appear in these flowers? Bet you wouldn’t find them in a shade card. Which one of them is the most prettiest? Go for a beauty peagent without a contest. Shrubs live short, but a little longer than the mushrooms, blossoming & spreading their fragrance, peace, and paving way for the new ones – to smoothly fade out. “Whoosh” tall trees threatened saying, forgotten us – the long lasting citizens on earth. They take a long time to grow to reach wuthering heights. It is these trees that spread the fragrance of the small sweet smelling beauties - the flowers through a wild breeze. Did you ask them for that fresh breath of air; any city- bread long for? Name it, you get it, is their attitude – get fruits to timber from them and it is they who prevent a disaster called global warming. Nature’s garden is a culmination of the tall, medium, short and shortest. Each one grows at their own pace.

Moral: Some shoot to fame in a short period like mushrooms. Keats and Beethovens are unforgettable shrubs. Lincohn and Gandhiji are tall banyans. Don’t envy others growth. Your time slot is predetermined and destined. Together we make a garden of life beautiful. Versatility enriches the garden's beauty.

Lesson No.3 from Animals

Have you seen the life cycle of a Butterfly or Moth? Before the all colourful butterfly appears, there is a state of hibernation. A man tampered with a cocoon seeing a butterfly struggling to come out of it. His intention was to ease the struggle, only to find that it had too weak wings to fly. Had it struggled on its own, it would have developed strong wings to fly high.

Moral: Don’t meddle or become upset at adversity. There exists a reason for suffering – Growth and Independence.

Why did “Dhanu” assassinate “Rajiv”? A Behavioural Post Mortem !!!!

Why did “Dhanu” assasinate “Rajiv”? Did she have any personal enmity or grievance against Rajiv? Does her Personality profile reveal any capability of committing such a heinous crime? As far as my knowledge as a Criminologist goes, the answer is no. Well, what’s it that prompted in situ, this woman, to commit such a horrendous crime? One would wind up this discussion coldly and superficially, saying she was part of an organization now banned in India.

Crimes committed by women across the globe hover anywhere between 3.0 to 20.0% according to a world statistical outfit. Why then, would an unsuspecting woman of her caliber, do such a thing? One would dare refute the vehemency with which she ripped up the face of the most charismatic leader of the world. Police and the Press reported the motive behind her assassination, to her victimization by the IPKF and subsequent induction into the organization.

If we were to go by the reports, then in that case, how could a victim of rape, indulge in such a crime. Prolonged victimization or secondary victimization or perception of being subjected to victimization could lead a person to commit a crime. This is what we call the “Cycle of Violence” in Criminology. It has two connotations. One is that the person is subjected to repeated victimization and the other is that a subsequent criminal behaviour follows suit. If one would ask this question, ‘do all persons subjected to repeated victimization commit crime?’ Then the answer is definitely a NO! The inbuilt coping mechanisms of a human psyche - responds to extraordinary stress by restoring normalcy through various defence mechanisms. If not, it exhibits as OCD or PTSD and in extreme cases to cycle of violence.

However, if at the stage of convalescence, when the person is emotionally vulnerable and he or she is subjected to repeated brain washing by an individual or organization, their ability to seek revenge increases. Value systems and cultural taboos are “add ons” to this revenge. This is precisely what seemed to have happened in Dhanu’s case. It is thus imperative for us, to learn from this costly mistake, that it is essential to treat victims better for a different reason too, to nip future crime in the bud. The offence of “Trafficking” a 12 billion dollar industry, is trying to seek first place in the world crime scenario. “Traffickers” are perpetrators of this crime, who were once victims too. It is therefore essential, that we and the law enforcement agency, focus more on victims for two obvious reasons; prevent future victimization and criminalization appropriately.

- Dr.P.T. Uma Maheswari