Saandhu

W e, the urbanites as we call, are always busy with our jobs, studies, ambitions, etc. that we never really get a chance to look around the surrounding that we are living in. Why at all should we even care to know about our surrounding, when everything that we ever imagine of is provided to us by the market? At about 5am on Feb 8, 1901 a devastating earthquake shook Coimbatore and not a single building was left undamaged. Almost everyone was in deep trouble. The same occurred when the bubonic plague hit our city repeatedly from 1903 to 1925. Neither our jobs and studies nor the certificates that we hold in our hands as 10th, 12th pass, etc. are going to save us from these natural disasters unless until we know about the place that we are living in. So, when I was entering 9th grade all these thoughts were in my mind. I had two options; one, to go to an urban school where the children knew nothing about their environment and two, to go to a Tribal school where the children knew thorough...

The constant calls of the cuckoos, stirred me up from sleep. It was still dark. The air was moist after the heavy downpour. South-west monsoon had made her way into our mangled, ransacked valley. It was my second day of school, after the long summer break. I was elated to go back, since I had to cross an entire stretch of Western Ghats Mountain range, every day. As I crossed, my soul glided away into the different unknown, endless corners of the dense shrub forests of Anaikatty. After a long and tiring school day, the bell finally rang. It was 4pm. The government bus usually arrives by 4:10, so I had to rush. To my pleasant surprise, my mom was waiting outside to pick me up in her bike. We started heading home. The cold, moist air made me shiver as our bike made her way into the woods. I closed my eyes. Everything went blank. But this time, the constant sirens of an ambulance, stirred me up from my unconscious state. I could taste blood. I wanted to scream out the excruciating pa...