Sparrows Nest - A small incident in Mr. T.N.Seshan's Life

There is an experience that TN Seshan told in a Management Seminar. He was traveling in Uttar Pradesh with his wife for a picnic while he was the Chief Election Commissioner. On the way, they saw a large mango plantation filled with sparrow nests. Seeing this, they went down there and his wife wanted to take two nests home. The police escort called a young boy who was grazing cows in the fields and demanded to bring the nests down and offered to pay him Rs10. He refused, so Seshan raised the offer to Rs.50. The policeman asked the boy to do it as Seshan was a big officer. The boy told Seshan and his wife ‘Saabji I will not do it for whatsoever you will give.’ He continued, ‘inside those nests, there will be baby sparrows, if I give you those nests to you, in the evening when mother sparrow returns with food for the babies and do not find them there, she will cry. I do not have the heart to see that’. Hearing this Seshan and his wife were shocked. Seshan says my position and the IAS melted away in front of that little boy. I was in front of him like a mustard seed. They gave up their wish and after returning, this incident continued to haunt him with guilt for days. Education, position or social status in never the yardstick for the measure of humanity. Knowledge is to know nature. We don’t achieve anything by gathering a lot of information. Life becomes blissful when you have knowledge, sense & wisdom. #WorldEnvironmentDay 5th June