Thimmakka - when motherhood beckons!

Sometimes, I wonder what makes a few among us leave a lasting impression on our society? Why is it that some men and women make a healthy contribution to our environment, while some of us are still stuck making sense of our own little worlds?

This is a story that has never failed to impress upon me, the value of a sincere desire coupled with a strong initiative and followed through with consistent efforts.

Thimmakka and Chikkana lived in the Hulikal village of Karnataka state in India. Early on, they realized they could not have children. Thimmakka wanted to do something to fill this void in her life. Like other women, she truly wanted to be part of creating life and caring for it. Her village was abundant in ficus (banyan) trees. As a small initiative, she and her husband grafted a few saplings of the banyan tree. They then planted the saplings along a road leading to a neighboring village. They also regularly tended to these saplings and looked after them as their own children. They protected them from the grazing cattle by fencing them with thorny bushes. They carried water for them every day until the plants grew enough to live off the monsoon rains. Thimmakka and Chikkanna planted more saplings the following year. They repeated this for several years and lo and behold, Thimmakka is now the mother of 284 huge banyan trees. In this age of global warming and climate change, this is a remarkable achievement for an individual. Thimmakka has received several accolades, but none can match what she so graciously has given to her village and the world.

If we look around, there are several such opportunities awaiting us. Lost in our own duties and plans for our own lives, we have failed to notice these small avenues for us to reach out to our society. Maybe now is the time to act. I believe we will pleasantly surprise ourselves with the outcome.