The Story of Watermelon

I am from the village of Parra in Goa, hence we are called Parrikars. My village is famous for its watermelons. When I was a child, the farmers would organise a watermelon-eating contest at the end of the harvest season in May. All the kids would be invited to eat as many watermelons as they wanted. Years later, I went to IIT Mumbai to study engineering. I went back to my village after 6.5 years. I went to the market looking for watermelons. They were all gone. The ones that were there were so small. I went to see the farmer who hosted the watermelon-eating contest. His son had taken over. He would host the contest but there was a difference. When the older farmer gave us watermelons to eat he would ask us to spit out the seeds into a bowl. We were told not to bite into the seeds. He was collecting the seeds for his next crop. We were unpaid child labourers, actually. He kept his best watermelons for the contest and he got the best seeds which would yield even bigger watermelons the next year. His son, when he took over, realised that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest.

The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even small. In watermelons the generation is one year. In seven years, Parra's best watermelons were finished. In humans, generations change after 25 years. It will take us 200 years to figure what we were doing wrong while educating our children.

A Story by Manohar Parikh

Power of Sharing

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn.......Every year he won the award for the best grown corn.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.

The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors..........“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So is with our lives...... Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.

It's the same with successful people, they share their path to success to their fellow people so they can also become successful people.

True Leadership shares knowledge and leadership skills with their team members so new leaders are created.  True Leadership creates legacy that's is carried on down the line and is perennial.

And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all...

-Call it power of collectivity...
-Call it a principle of success...
-Call it a principle of leadership, motivational and team building....
-Call it a law of life.

The Fact Is, None of Us Truly Wins, Until We All Win!!