In this technological world, we have already started missing a lot of things. There have long been talk and discussion on climate change that is now making an impact on the monsoon. First of all, I often wonder/doubt what happened to the rainbow – a beautiful phenomenon in the sky caused by rain and sunlight. To be frank, it has been long since I last observed the rainbow in the sky. I remember seeing the rainbow in the sky over my native areas of Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, India, on various occasions especially during my schooldays.

Ironically or unfortunately, is the scarcity of the rainbow something related to the climate change? And here comes my personal experiment on something amazing that everyone is missing now. For all of you, I herein recollect the fact that the tribal communities were once dense in South Asia, now they are almost nil if I am not wrong. I still remember the beautiful days of coming across those tribal people in my native areas of Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, India. As a schoolboy, then in the early 1990s, I was often astounded by the natural charm, the physique and the language style of the tribal communities. Those days they were often out on the street, selling their skill and technique like herbal medication – which is, for example, nowhere in sight now. They could even handle the snake bite cases, mostly venomous, without difficulty. Right now the responsibility falls on the head of the powers that be in matters of finding the missing tribal communities and setting up the habitation in the larger interests of those charming people.

P. Senthil Saravana Durai, Mumbai

Pageantry

Confidence will always be the key to winning the crown, be it Miss World title or any other beauty pageant title. And without it, you will not succeed. Pretty gowns are what people think about when they think about pageantry but what happens beneath the surface of the contestant has greater transformative beauty than what people see on the stage. Although confidence is the key to the crown, it is not required initially. A beautiful girl can join a pageant being filled with self doubt and insecurities but the same girl will inevitably come out confident in who she is both from the inside and outside. What pageantry does for a person is to give them confidence that they can achieve anything. Going through days of training, months of exercising and healthy eating and knowing current events give the contestants a huge confidence that ultimately determines if they can win the coveted title that requires both brain and beauty. They need to inculcate a remarkable sense of endurance and believe that they can do anything. Pageantry is not about the pretty faces that people see; instead, it is a contest that shows you that whether you win or lose, you are beautiful.

Theone Litan Abalos, Canada