It was a fine August evening in 2001. I was at the Elliott beach in Chennai with my friends.
We were having ice-creams from a vendor pushing his ice-cream cart through the sands.A boy in his 3rd grade was busy walking around and taking signatures on a piece of paper from random people sitting at the beach. His doting mom was right behind him helping with what he was doing. She was also doing some of the talking to the grown-ups. It was our turn and the little guy walked towards us, beaming. I still couldn't figure out what he was doing. But all I could think of was that he was going around collecting signatures for a school competition of some sort.
The little guy walked to me and said that he supported keeping the city clean and wanted us to join him. I was dumb-founded. The mother told me that he was not doing it for any competition but it was just something he does in his free time, collecting signatures of people to stop littering in public places. I could not wait to sign his paper. All my friends signed too. The second the little guy walked away, I quickly ran and picked up the ice cream wrappers that me and my friends had thrown just a few minutes ago. From that day onwards, I have not thrown a single piece of paper or garbage in a public place. I have never allowed anyone I knew to throw garbage in public. I have picked up the garbage if someone threw it in front of me. Age does not matter when it comes to being a leader! Experience does not matter when it comes to being a leader! The sense of responsibility that the little guy felt, matters......
He was not the little guy any more but a man already. Lets grow up!
We were having ice-creams from a vendor pushing his ice-cream cart through the sands.A boy in his 3rd grade was busy walking around and taking signatures on a piece of paper from random people sitting at the beach. His doting mom was right behind him helping with what he was doing. She was also doing some of the talking to the grown-ups. It was our turn and the little guy walked towards us, beaming. I still couldn't figure out what he was doing. But all I could think of was that he was going around collecting signatures for a school competition of some sort.
The little guy walked to me and said that he supported keeping the city clean and wanted us to join him. I was dumb-founded. The mother told me that he was not doing it for any competition but it was just something he does in his free time, collecting signatures of people to stop littering in public places. I could not wait to sign his paper. All my friends signed too. The second the little guy walked away, I quickly ran and picked up the ice cream wrappers that me and my friends had thrown just a few minutes ago. From that day onwards, I have not thrown a single piece of paper or garbage in a public place. I have never allowed anyone I knew to throw garbage in public. I have picked up the garbage if someone threw it in front of me. Age does not matter when it comes to being a leader! Experience does not matter when it comes to being a leader! The sense of responsibility that the little guy felt, matters......
He was not the little guy any more but a man already. Lets grow up!
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