It’s been rather warm and sultry, rather very dull and uninspiring weather this past month and I stare at the sky for inspiration. It sure is mildly cloudy, few gravid with rain but they seem to have no intent of showering their blessings on us. I also receive a message from my friend, an avid sailor, halfway around the globe from Austin, Texas that there has been no rain for some time and the lake levels are depleting. Global warming sure is a reality and a tough one that needs to be addressed and understood soon by all of us.
It is predicted that by the year 2030, the most precious commodity on planet earth would be clean water – not diamonds, nor gold, nor oil. My imagination goes haywire when I hear this. Many of us read and are led to believe that certain power hungry countries wage wars for oil, imagine waging war for drinking water. I shudder at the sheer thought and reach for my glass of water
Back home, there is a lot of jubilation in the air on a new landmark bridge adorning the city’s seafront apparently conceived to reduce automobile commuting time. Have we reduced commuting time or pushed the traffic jam a few kilometers further is certainly a matter of big debate. My take on urban planning later but I have a personal anecdote on the sea link bridge. I call it - Building Bridges.
Circa early 2001- Our company gets business enquiries from the main contractor of this sea link bridge. We were required to liaise with engineers of one of their specialist overseas sub contractor’s for specifications and drawings. I knock on the door and enter the room of the specialist lead engineer from overseas only to find a man who looked like one of us and not the overseas gora that I had expected. A few sentences and a handshake exchanged, I note that he speaks like us. A couple of probing personal questions asked and I learn that he hails from our now estranged and much maligned neighbour country. Delving further, I learn that he belongs to the same region where my maternal grandparents lived before partition and the country where my mother was born. I take a natural affinity towards him as we speak the same regional language, have similar cultural bonding despite our religious differences. I took upon myself the responsibility of local guardianship and helped him find an apartment for his family and a school for his children.
My new found friend, from our so called ‘enemy’ country, lived in India for over three and half years and had an important role to play in the design of this landmark bridge. It’s been over five years that he has left this country and has since then help build bridges and metro rail projects in four other countries but a country still special and dear to his heart is India. Many reasons – we accepted him and his family without bias. His children and wife felt safe in the school, malls and the neighbourhood. They made many friends and were awed by the healthy multi religion social fabric of our country. Not to say the least, they were blessed with their youngest child, a pretty daughter who yearns to visit the country of her birth. I called up my friend in his new country of posting, yesterday. He had read the news on the inauguration of the sea link bridge and shared that his heart swelled with special pride on his association with this bridge and we chatted on the warm memories he nurtures of the time he spent in India.
Go on my friend and build bridges of concrete and steel but what the world needs more today are human bridges – people who bridge gaps and you my friend are doing both symbolically and metaphorically.
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