Be The Change.

"Little drops of water, little grains of sand,
make the mighty ocean and the beauteous land.

And the little moments, humble though they may be,
make the mighty ages of eternity."

It started as a quiet walk on a beach in Goa on a crisp September evening. Not quite far from me, my eyes caught sight of a little boy perhaps not more than seven years in age. Dressed in a pair of rugged dirt-washed pair of khaki nikkar and gulabi kameez and exhibiting enthusiastic yet dainty movements, he seemed absolutely involved in what he was doing. He was picking up something and throwing it into the sea, again and again. As I approached him and stood right beside him, he did not take notice of it. I realized that he was picking up shellfish as they had been washed up to the beach and was throwing them back into the waters one at a time.

I was rather puzzled.

I asked the juvenile little fellow, ‘ए! तुम्हारा नाम क्या है?’ ('Hey! What's your name?')

‘बंटी’ ('Bunty'), he replied without even stopping to look at me.

‘और तुम क्या कर रहे हो?’ ('And what are you doing?')

‘मै इन मछलियों को समुद्र में वापिस फेक रहा हूँ' ('I am throwing these fish back into the ocean'), he said as he bent down to pick another shellfish.

‘क्या ये खेल खेल रहे हो तुम?’('Is this a game you are playing?')

‘अभी समुद्र की लहरें ऊँची नहीं है और ये मछलियां समुद्र के पानी के साथ किनारे आ गयी हैं | अगर में इन्हें वापिस नहीं फेकुंगा तो ये मर जायेंगी | ('Right now, its low tide and these fish have been washed up by the sea. If I don't throw them back, they will die.')

While I was quite touched with Bunty’s childish enthusiasm, I replied in my own worldly wise way-

‘मगर किनारे में तो कितनी ही मछलियां होंगी | तुम सब मछलियों को कैसे जमा कर पाओगे? इसके अलावा, कितने सारे समुद्र तट होंगे | तुम तो हर तट पर जाके ये नहीं कर सकते | तुम तो हर एक मछली को नहीं बचा पाओगे, बंटी | ऐसा करने का क्या फायेदा? फिर क्या फर्क पड़ेगा?' ('But there are thousands of these fish on the beach, you can't possibly help them all. And besides, there are hundreds of beaches like this, you can't go to all of them to do this good work. What's is the use of doing this then? Can't you see, you can't possibly make a difference?')

On hearing me, Bunty smiled, bent down and picked another fish. He threw it back into the sea and replied, 'इसे तो फर्क पड़ा' | ('Well, it made a difference to that one')

Bunty inspired me from within.

‘Why should I not litter the road when everyone else is? Why should I take the trouble of finding the bin when no one did?’

‘Why should I not cross the red light, when the scooter wallah next to me just slipped his wheeler to the other side of the crossing? He saved his time without any trouble. Why can’t I’?

‘I am done chewing my paan. I will spit it right here.’

‘I have just a two minute job from the grocer across the road. I will park my car just here only.’

I am the mercenary which resides in you too. I am the imprudence in you. These are our very own everyday acts. But then, we believe that our social sense is all trimmed and tailored up when we exclaim that the roads are too dirty, cramped and knotted up with vehicles and so on..

As human beings, criticizing and complaining comes naturally to us. However, we almost never make an effort to improve on the very things we complain about. Rectifying these wrongs around us doesn’t come so naturally after all.

‘What good can my contribution make? There are ten thousands of them who are doing nothing about it except for deriving pleasure out of deteriorating things’, we often think. That our little contributions towards a larger good will be fruitless. That whatever good in atomic amounts is generated will vague out in the long run. But Bunty has proved to the contrary. It is the sum of these little benefactions only which bring about a larger change.

Let’s accept it, we have no control over others actions. We can’t expect everyone to be socially and morally upright. But we also know that a crime perpetuated by a 100 fellowmen doesn’t legalize it. Likewise, a display of impropriety by a good number of people doesn’t make it any acceptable. So the least we can do is be immaculate and guilt-free ourselves and realize that nothing will justify a lack of decorum on our part.

Little efforts are what are needed. As little as keeping a check on ourselves and nothing more. This is the least we can do- throw trash in the bin, cross when the lights turn green, park only in the parking lot, not spit just anywhere, switch off lights when we leave the room, turn off the taps completely when used, (throw any amount of shellfish back in the waters to save them) and so on..

‘Each one teach one’, ‘Each one plant one’- We’ve all heard this since childhood on occasions like ‘World Literacy Day’ or ‘World’s Tree Plantation Day’ etc. If these are implemented sincerely, by each one of us at a microscopic level, imagine the large scale results it can produce at a macro level.

Our little deeds of kindness, love and care can make the earth an Eden like the heavens above. We all want this world to be a better place to live in, so why not little efforts ourselves to make it so? If little Bunty alone can save a few shellfish from dying, we, altogether sure can save our earth from deterioration.

You might wonder who Bunty is. He is more than what I described him here. He is the good that resides in you and me. He is an initiative for a social change. He inspired me. He added meaning to Mahatma Gandhi’s-

‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’