Mystic Mantra: Stay youthful and skilful

Young Dhaval Khatri is a unique painter without hands who had a “brush with death” while flying kites on his terrace. His hands accidentally touched a live electric-wire, and he was flung down, unconscious, half-dead. Timely medical intervention saved his life though both his hands were amputated. Since he was refused admission into educational institutions, his never-say-die parents put a paint-brush into the stumps that were formerly his hands. Today, Dhaval is a skilled painter who says: “I’m not an artist by choice but by chance.”

Today is “World Youth Skills Day” with the UN’s theme: “Skills development to improve youth employment”. There’s great wisdom in the age-old adage: “Idleness is the devil’s workshop.” See the news. While youthful Serena-Sania-Saina are invincible on courts, young criminals are convicted in courts for chilling crimes ranging from rioting to rape, and theft to terrorism. Why do some youth develop skills while others desire to kill? We all have strengths and weaknesses. No one is pure saint or perfect satan. “Grace works upon nature” is an ancient Christian belief. “Grace” is a God-given gift — roughly paralleling the Indic divine daana or Latin Donum Dei — which is given in differing degree but in large measure to all.