I was invited to be Chief Guest at an Environment Day function to be held in Belgaum on 5th June, World Environment Day, where I was to speak on my experiences during the past year. This was surely the crowning event of my one year sabbatical. The invitation came from Dileep Kamat who was one of the organisers of an environment awareness programme, which he and others in Belgaum had organised for school children during the previous month. The programme included painting and essay competitions. The concluding part of the programme was to be held on 5th June where the finalists would give their speeches and the winners of all the competitions would be given their prizes. Dileep, his wife Nilima and their son Partha are family friends of long standing and whenever Uncle Dileep comes to Goa he stays with us. As he explained, the purpose of the environment programme was to inculcate the idea that one can do things on one's own and one has to think out ways and means for this. And so, he said, he had considered the idea of inviting a young person, whom the students could identify with, to speak on the occasion. The Committee had wholeheartedly approved when he suggested my name as I had done something quite unique during the past year; and the fact that my preference was in the field of ecology made me an ideal choice, according to Uncle Dileep. Of course I was delighted and accepted the offer. Who wouldn't be? Uncle Dileep said that all my expenses would be taken care of. I had an uncle (my father's youngest brother, Benjamin) at Belgaum, at whose house I could stay. There was only my bus ticket which the organisers had to pay for. I started preparing my speech straightway as there was only a week left to go and I knew that I had do a good job as this was a big occasion for me. As usual I turned to my mum for help. She helped me choose the points I would speak on, then I wrote out my entire speech which she corrected and I set about memorising it. Public speaking was not a major problem for me nor did I suffer from stage-fright as I had participated in several school competitions and also represented my school in inter-school debates. In fact, I had been awarded the Best Speaker prize in my final year at school. Still, speaking at a competition was one thing and being the main speaker for the day was quite another. My mum gave me several tips on how to address the gathering, what I should do if I felt I could not remember the next line and so on. I rehearsed the speech several times at home and when I left on 3rd June for Belgaum I felt quite confident and well-prepared. Along with essentials like clothes to wear, etc. I carried with me in my haversack my red-eared turtle, and another small turtle found locally in Goa, the croc teeth and photos of myself at the Snake Park, the Croc Bank, etc.