Natural experiences

Nature can provide many adventures right at your doorstep, and I had the wonderful experience of understanding its role through a turtle walk wherein I got introduced to the beautiful Olive Ridley turtles weighing 50 kilos each. The turtles have played a significant role in keeping the oceans healthy: touching coral reefs, cropping the grass on the ocean floor and fertilizing the world’s beaches and coastal dunes. Many years ago, a group of my corporate innovation participants had used the life cycle of Olive Ridley turtles as an analogy to understand the HR process better. That was when I saw these large, peaceful, lovable turtles, walking out of the sea to lay their eggs. As I watched, fascinated, on the dark beach, I saw them digging the soft sand to create a nest and settle down to lay 50-100 eggs, each the size of a ping pong ball. Students and fishermen would guard them from predators. They would never see their eggs hatch. Many years later, Supraja Dharini, founder of the Tree foundation and I watched baby hatchlings emerge from the eggs on the Neelankarai Beach. They walked fast using their flippers, like swimming champions, on the sand. A single wave swept them into the ocean, where they would live and grow into adulthood, when they would return to the same beach to lay their eggs.

It is essential to get in touch with nature in your lifetime since it has many fundamental lessons to offer us. Just as it nurtures every part of the universe, it also helps you nurture different ways of looking at life and embrace different perspectives. In those little turtles, I saw the energy to take on the unknown vastness of the ocean. So, be adventurous. Reach out and touch life’s miracles!

The writer is the author of Everyday Happiness Mantras and Innovation Sutra