5 more minutes!

While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground.

“That’s my son over there,” she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.

“He’s a fine looking boy” the man said. “That’s my daughter on the bike in the white dress.”

Then, looking at his watch, he called to his daughter. “What do you say we go, Melissa?”

Melissa pleaded, “Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes!”

The man nodded and Melissa continued to ride her bike to her heart’s content. Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his daughter. “Time to go now?”

Again Melissa pleaded, “Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes!”

The man smiled and said, “OK.”

“My God, you certainly are a patient father,” the woman responded.

The man smiled and then said, “Her older brother Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I’d give anything for just five more minutes with him. I’ve vowed not to make the same mistake with Melissa.

She thinks she has five more minutes to ride her bike. The truth is, I get five more minutes to watch her play.”

Life is all about making priorities, what are your priorities?

Give someone you love 5 more minutes of your time today!

One man's waste is another's Resource

A creche, second home for toddlers, is recycling haven.

Keyboards on the ceiling, bicycle pedals to play with on the door and a second hand bath tub to splash in!

Mixed & matched odd-shaped pieces of Kota, Jaisalmer, Dholpur, Granite and mosaic to create a trendy flooring! these have been picked up from construction sites declared waste...

The floor also has motifs of Sub, Moon, Flora and Fauns while a dash of local mud  mirror craft makes a wall glitter!

The ceiling is a collage of glass bottles and clay bowls stuck into concrete while door has cycle parts, wheels, axles, chains, handle and pedals set in a grid of scrap iron bars.

A colorful rooftop pavillion is made od cloth rags and torn bamboo mats sandwiched in fiber reinforced plastic.

Fly ash bricks, a waste product of thermal power plants have been used in construction. They also keep the rooms Cool...

"We've tried to bring beauty with what was available" says Yatin Padya, architect and urban planner the master mind behind the Creche for slum dwellers in Ramapir no Tekro in Juna Vadaj, Gujarat, India.

Source: Report in TOI on 22 Apr 2009