hidden image

Daring to be Great and Heroic

P. A. Joseph P. A. Joseph
21 Aug 2023

There is a unique kind of bird namely thorn bird. The botanical name is phacellodomus ruber. It is found in some parts of South America like Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. The bird builds a large and complex nest of twigs and thorns. When the bird grows into maturity, it goes in search for a thorny tree, pierces itself with thorns, sings the most beautiful song ever heard, and dies while singing. Some people say it is a mythical bird. Any way its last message of lovely song is beautiful.

Rambai, 106 years young sprinter, took up athletic two years ago, and set world record of 100 m, and 200 m and topped in shot-put at the 18th national open athletic championship  competition held  in Dehradun. After the event, her grand daughter, aged 41, offered to massage her leg but Rambai declined and asked her to serve someone older.

Kalpana Chawla, born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, Haryana, had her school studies in the home state. When she was 20 she pursued her studies in the US, took American citizenship, had her higher studies there and took PhD in her favorite subject aeronautics engineering. She was the first Indo-US woman flying in the space. During her historic flight in the space- shuttle she had respectable and lovely chat with the then Prime Minister I. K. Gujral who invited her and team members to India. She spent 15 days 22 hours and 20 minutes in the space. While returning, she died, along with seven crew members, when the spacecraft disintegrated on February 1, 2003. 

These stories inspire us to have something to believe, something to visualize, to dream, to prioritize, and even to “prayerise”. I should wake up in the morning with a preoccupation to do something planned in the process of my daily schedule.

Nothing on earth is more powerful than the human mind, both mine and yours. I/we don’t lack any idea and the potential. There are tremendous ideas in the universe, only I need to accept them and make it my own. In the process of selecting ideas, I should have the courage to delete all the negative forces, and all dangerous viruses. I do not get glory in doing something wrong. I need to be right morally, ethically, and spiritually. For a right objective, I should not take a wrong procedure. If I sow positive seeds I will gather positive results, and on the contrary if I sow negative seeds I will reap only negative results. 

Recent Posts

From colonial opium to today's smartphones, India has perfected the art of numbing its youth. While neighbours topple governments through conviction and courage, our fatalism breeds a quietism that su
apicture A. J. Philip
08 Dec 2025
Across state and cultural frontiers, a new generation is redefining activism—mixing digital mobilisation with grassroots courage to defend land, identity and ecology. Their persistence shows that mean
apicture Pachu Menon
08 Dec 2025
A convention exposing nearly 5,000 attacks on Christians drew barely fifteen hundred people—yet concerts pack stadiums. If we can gather for spectacle but not for suffering, our witness is fractured.
apicture Vijayesh Lal
08 Dec 2025
Leadership training empowers children with discipline, confidence, and clarity of vision. Through inclusive learning, social awareness, and value-based activities, they learn to respect diversity, exp
apicture Jacob Peenikaparambil
08 Dec 2025
The Kamalesan case reveals how inherited colonial structures continue to shape the Army's religious practices. By prioritising ritual conformity over constitutional freedom, the forces risk underminin
apicture Oliver D'Souza
08 Dec 2025
Zohran Mamdani's rise in New York exposes a bitter truth: a Muslim idealist can inspire America, yet would be unthinkable in today's India, where Hindutva politics has normalised bigotry and rendered
apicture Mathew John
08 Dec 2025
Climate change is now a daily classroom disruptor, pushing the already precariously perched crores of Indian children—especially girls and those in vulnerable regions—out of learning. Unless resilient
apicture Jaswant Kaur
08 Dec 2025
The ideas sown in classrooms today will shape the country tomorrow. India must decide whether it wants citizens who can think, question, and understand—or citizens trained only to conform. The choice
apicture Fr Soroj Mullick, SDB
08 Dec 2025
In your Jasmine hall, I landed Hoping to find refuge, to be free, and sleep, But all I met were your stares, sharp, cold, and protesting.
apicture Dr Suryaraju Mattimalla
08 Dec 2025
Children are either obedient or disobedient. If they are obedient, we treat them as our slaves. And if they are rebellious, we wash our hands of them. Our mind, too, is like a child, and children are
apicture P. Raja
08 Dec 2025