To make children strong or stronger? | To make children strong or stronger? | Article by N Raghuraman….News WAALI

On Saturday I was shopping in the busy old market street of Antalya, Turkey. This is the famous Khau Galli, where vehicles are not allowed to enter, but four main roads cross this street. So there are four pedestrian signs for the safety of people going from one restaurant to another for food. Car owners all over Turkey have to strictly obey these pedestrian signals, not only because people like you and me cross the road, but also because many stray animals cross the signal. This is the place to see that animals respect our signal system. I was standing at one of these four junctions and it took 40 seconds for the red signal to turn green. Suddenly something came out from under my feet and pushed me slightly to the left to stand next to me. The Turkish man to my right smiled and moved a little further to the right to give the fat stray cat extra space. He said, ‘Jack, are you coming here again?’ As if they knew each other. The cat lifted her head at the sound of her name, but suddenly focused on the signal, as if she could read the numbers on the clock there. There were still 16 seconds left on the signal. Another cat came in the first row. He waited for the pedestrian signal to turn green. What surprised me was that they both wanted to cross the signal first so they cut the line, but didn’t move an inch from the road. They started moving as soon as the signal turned green and everyone else started moving. If the person in front of me had taken the photo, three people and two cats would be crossing the road in the first row! As I turned around to see how many more animals had passed through such a junction, a restaurant owner across the road offered me a chair and asked me to sit down and watch these funny animals move from restaurant to restaurant. Because the locals here keep feeding them and they also know their eating time. All the dogs and cats in this country are fat, while humans are fit, because humans have to walk more, while animals get free food. Stray cats are beloved animals in Turkey, where they roam the streets freely. Local people fully support them and cats are mascots in many places. Eg Bozi, a stray dog, travels on local trams and is on the payroll of the Istanbul municipality. Similarly, a cat called Uikuku (Sleepyhead) sits on the primary classroom table at Karaolu School and goes to class with interest. Maintenance makes children strong! Surprised? Here is the answer. Basically, Strong means strong people stand up for themselves, while Stronger means Stronger people stand up for others. Cultivate this quality in children by looking after siblings or animals.

N. Raghuraman, Managing Guru [[email protected]]