Ultimately...

This is a very old story. It is about a brand new Gold coin. Absolutely dazzling and fresh. It was very happy when it came out of the jeweler’s shop.

It was in fact bouncing with joy when it first came into circulation. As every single person, be a child, youth or elderly was attracted towards it.

The coin felt that it was in great demand. It would sometime have the privilege of residing in someone’s safe, sometime in someone’s wallet and sometime even in someone’s pocket.

Many years thus passed by. In a short span of its life the gold coin managed to witness most of the world. And, as the time passed by it became arrogant. As it didn’t find a single human being that was not crazy about it or who didn’t wish to acquire it.

One day, the gold coin reached the hands of the King. The King went to take a bath in the river. After taking his bath he offered the gold coin to the river.

The coin slowly sank into the deep waters and settled down on the river bed.

Once it reached down, the coin sat up, rubbed its eyes and looked around. There was water all around. A variety of small and big creatures were swimming besides it.

The coin thought that here too he would be treated in the same royal manner and these creatures would be running after him. After a while it saw a turtle coming towards it. The coin became alert. The turtle came closer. The turtle saw the coin, took it into its mouth, chewed it well and then spat it back. One by one all other creatures in the river came, chewed the coin and threw it back on the river bed.

Ultimately, the gold coin got embedded in the marshy depths of the river and drowned into oblivion.

Human being...

Waves have been flowing in the sea for billions of years. They have been witness to different eras; still they toss and turn with the same pace and freshness.

Once, during night time, a wave observed that a boat was floating right in the middle of the sea. However there was no sailor on the boat.

The wave was rather surprised and wondered what kind of a boat that was. He spoke about it to a neighboring wave and that one spoke to a third one and then the third one spoke to a fourth one and so on… After a while, all the waves knew about it and were jumping over each other to catch a glimpse of the boat and were also trying to trace the sailor.

The boat was aimlessly sailing from one place to another.

The waves felt pity on the boat.All the waves collectively urged the sea to bail the boat out of its pitiable state.

The sea glanced at the boat sailing on its breast, and solemnly declared, “My children, you are all very kind to be feeling sad to see this boat in such a sorry state. But perhaps you are not aware that beyond this sea, where creatures named ‘human beings’ reside, there are billions of boats that float around aimlessly without a sailor”.

BILLIONS of boats without a sailor! This was simply mind boggling. The boats were stunned on hearing this. The sea became grim, while the waves were flummoxed and had no clue how to respond. Meanwhile, the boat was still floating about aimlessly here there and everywhere. 

The donkey...

Long Long ago. A washer man once lived in a village. This washer man owned a donkey. Every single day, the washer man would routinely load his bundle of clothes on the donkey’s back and would make him cross the river.

Though the washer man very nice to the donkey. He used to give food to the donkey regularly. Even though the donkey grew fed up of this taxing daily grind of carrying the load. He started exploring of a way out of this, such that he could possibly escape from the washer man’s Custody.

Many days passed by. One night the donkey was left tied up in the backyard of the washer man’s house. Unexpectedly, to the pleasant surprise of the donkey, he realized that the washer man had apparently forgotten to tie him up that day.

The donkey was thrilled to bits. He looked around slyly. It was the dead of night with a pin drop silence, except for the distant chirp of the crickets. Oblivious to all this, the washer man was snoring inside the hut.

The donkey that had been looking for such an opportune moment, slipped out slowly through the courtyard, and once outside trotted away to freedom with lightning speed.

Sprinting away, when he had reached a considerable distance, he stopped and settled down to relax. And soon he dozed off. However, no sooner had he done so, he was rudely woken up. He felt as if someone had sharply struck in his ribs. He got up in haste. He feared that the washer man had caught up with him. Instead he saw two burly thieves holding a huge bundle of stolen goods. One of them dumped the bundle on his back and flogged him along with a stick. The donkey was now feeling sorry for himself. But then what could he do now?

After traveling for a long time, the donkey felt very hungry. He was hoping that the thieves would feed him, but as soon as they reached their destination, they shooed him away. Now the donkey was feeling miserable and hurt.

Over the next few days, his situation had become unenviable. Just about anyone would exploit him and make him carry their burden. Yet, while some threw some food in front of him, most would simply hit him with sticks in return of his service.

The donkey was now in a dilemma. He mused and mulled over it for a long time, and then ultimately decided to return to the washer man.

Freedom...Author; PrabhuDayal Khattar

One night, like any other night, stars were twinkling
high up in the sky. Suddenly a new star up there
caught sight of a star that was glowing low down on
Earth. He was baffled. He wondered what kind of a star
that could be that can fly here, there and everywhere?

The new star inquired from one of his fellow star,
about this star on Earth. He was told that this star
on Earth was also a star like them in the sky, but
then one fine day he escaped and became a firefly.

"Escaped?  How and Why?¡¨, the star quizzed. He was
informed that the firefly had lost his mind to have
chosen the low down Earth while discarding the
majestic realm of the sky.

He probably did not realize his own importance. In the
sky he was visible to millions while on the Earth he
was visible only to a handful of people. The star
pondered on this piece of information. He reflected on
the pleasures and sorrows of remaining up in the sky,
visible to all. For a moment he felt distinguished. He
was new as a star and had only just begun to shimmer
in the sky; still he gradually tried to maintain his
glow in the sky.

Slowly but surely the days passed by and he discovered
a secret that each star while enjoying the pleasure of
glowing in the sky forever, also harbored a hidden
desire of escaping to Earth.

The new star was perplexed at this revelation. Once
again he closely observed a firefly that was freely
flying around here, there and everywhere his little
wings could carry him.

Seeing him fly, the new star desperately felt like
flying too. He tried his best but in vain. It was a
rule in the sky that restricted shining stars from
flying.

The new star¡¦s heart squirmed. It suddenly dawned on
him on why the other stars run away. That very nighthe too left the sky to escape to Earth and became a
firefly.


Translation from Hindi by Ajai Chawla.
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