[Reader-list] A possible thin thread!

[Jeebesh]

dear All,

Recently a friend who is in journalism recounted an encounter.

He went to find out about the land acquisition conflicts in Himachal  
on account of a big skiing resort that is being planned there.  He was  
among many claims and counterclaims. What strongly stayed with him as  
a puzzle was an old man of about 90 years. He gently said that he does  
not see the urgency to move from where he is now. On being asked why,  
as the compensation package was good, he explained that the  
"dhoop" (warmish sunlight) that he is used to for last 20 years in the  
patch where he sits everyday will disappear from his life and that he  
is not keen to loose it.

Now my friend was a bit bemused by the response. It may not come into  
his manifest account of the troubled times but had definitely arrived  
at him as a life long puzzle.

I was trying to understand this strange presence in my friend's mind  
amidst stories of violence and injustice, which he has been  
encountering in his travels within India.

In a landscape overflowing with language of scorn, the gentle remark  
of the man takes our mind to another way of thinking. Elevare.  
Raising. In our culture we have an abundance "tollere" (to take away).  
And Tollere without Elevare is a life gone dry.

warmly
Jeebesh