> *The story of watermelons by Manohar Parrikar:*- As shared

> *The story of watermelons by Manohar Parrikar:*
>
> *And a response by a Veteran*
>
> I am from the village of Parra in Goa, hence we are called Parrikars...
>
> My village is famous for its watermelons...
>
> > When I was a child, the farmers would organise a watermelon-eating contest at the end of the harvest season in May...
> >
> > All the kids would be invited to eat as many watermelons as they wanted...
> >
> > Years later, I went to IIT Mumbai to study engineering...
> >
> > I went back to my village after 6.5 years...
> >
> > I went to the market looking for watermelons...
> >
> > They were all gone...
> >
> > The ones that were there were so small...
> >
> > I went to see the farmer who hosted the watermelon-eating contest...
> >
> > His son had taken over...
> >
> > He would host the contest but there was a difference...
> >
> > When the older farmer gave us watermelons to eat he would ask us to spit out the seeds into a bowl...
> >
> > We were told not to bite into the seeds...
> >
> > He was collecting the seeds for his next crop...
> >
> > We were unpaid child labourers, actually...
> >
> > He kept his best watermelons for the contest and he got the best seeds which would yield even bigger watermelons the next year...
> >
> > His son, when he took over, realised that the larger watermelons would fetch more money in the market so he sold the larger ones and kept the smaller ones for the contest...
> >
> > The next year, the watermelons were smaller, the year later even small...
> >
> > In watermelons the generation is one year...
> >
> > In seven years, Parra's best watermelons were finished...
> >
> > In humans, generations change after 25 years...
> >
> > It will take us 200 years to figure what we were doing wrong while educating our children...
> >
> > Village Tales...
> > Manohar Parrikar
> >
> > 
> >
> > -----------------------------------------+
> > Response by a Veteran
> >
> > Dear Manohar Parrikar Sir,
> >
> > Read your story. Interesting, meaningful and logical. You are no more a kid. You are Defence Minister of India today, and I hope you can see the parallel that I am drawing between Defence Minister of this country and that farmer's son.
> >
> > Just like that farmer's son, Def Mins of the country have been saving money by accepting the downgrading of Defence Services in pay panels. Sure you save money, sure you push up the bureaucratic services in hierarchy of protocol, post, pay perks and privileged, but every time you do it, just like watermelon seeds you compromise on the quality of your armed forces.
> >
> > Till now you have managed without facing much of the problem because the original quality of watermelons was good, and it is still ok, but soon you will reach the point when quality of your watermelons (hope you understand that I am talking about contentment in armed forces) will go down to unacceptable levels and they won't sustain your business anymore.
> >
> > Hope you learn from your own story and save your best watermelons. Choice is yours
> >
> > Yours faithfully
> > A Concerned Veteran