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20. On Beauty21. When Trees Hold a Conference What Do They Do?22. Who Cares for Public Property?23. Caring for the Environment24. On Being Afraid25. Feelings26. The Art of Questioning27. Heroes in Our Lives28. Battling with Books29. The Human Spirit30. Getting to Know Our Villages31. On Pressure32. The Sorrow of Division33. A Dialogue34. Ravi’s Quest for the Meaning of Religion35. What Does Progress Mean?1. Naveen in a New SchoolIt was Naveen’s first day at the new school and the day of the admission tests. It was areputed school with more than eight hundred students. However, Naveen liked his oldschool; a small, unknown but homely school. Most of the teachers were kind and theboys were friendly. He would have preferred to continue there but he had been promotedto the eighth class and his parents felt that he ought to pass the tenth out of a well-knownschool, for this would enable him to get admission into a good college. His parents haddiscussed this quite often at dinner and finally decided to take him out of his old school.Naveen never understood their logic but, then, he told himself, there were many thingsabout grown-ups that he could not understand and so he gave up churning his mind aboutthings beyond him.His parents wanted him to go to this big school where students wore sparkling whiteuniforms, with a red tie and black shining shoes and everything seemed to have apolished look. On one occasion his father had said that he would speak to a person ofinfluence who would in turn speak to someone so that he could get admitted to thisschool of distinction. Naveen was offended; he did not like this, for had they not told himearlier that bright students who passed their entrance tests would be admitted? He hadalways stood first in his school and was more than confident he would fare well in thetests but his parents were nervous for some reason he could not understand.On the day of the admission tests he saw more than a hundred students and about fourtimes the number of parents! It was quite bewildering and he was quickly whisked awayinto a small room in a far off corner with about twenty others. He was first given themaths test which he cleared without any difficulty, for maths was his favourite subject. At