06252007 - The other moral

This was a story i had read when i was in 8th or 9th standard.. its about a king who was very handsome and was very proud of his beauty. Once a sage comes to his kingdom and instead of welcoming him ( athithi devo bhava ), this kings disregards him. The sage gets very angry and curses him to have a donkeys ears ( to crush his pride ) and leaves the kingdom. The king gets very upset, to cover these ears, he tries everything but in vain. Finally he decides to call a barber to cover up the ear with his(kings) long hair. The barber, notices the donkeys ears but the king warns him that if he says anything about the ears to anyone, he( barber ) would lose his head. Now the barber finishes his job, covers up the ears and gets back to his house, time passes and this barber is very disturbed. He wants to desperately tell someone the secret he knows but he cant because of the fear of losing his head. So he asks his wife for help, and she suggests him to take a plant, plant it, and tell it whatever he wants to say. Since the plant cant talk, his secret would still remain a secret. The barber does as advised. Years roll by and the plant becomes a tree. One unfortunate day, a lightning strikes and the tree is uprooted. A drum maker sees the uprooted tree and cuts it, takes it to his house and makes a fine drum with it. The very same drummer comes to the kingdom of the king with donkeys ears and starts playing the drum. But the sound that comes out of his drums would be -> " Kings ears .. Donkeys ears, Kings ears .. Donkeys ears .... " . The king comes to know about this, he realizes his mistakes and performs penance and the curse will be lifted.

NOW, this is the story, moral -> pride goes before a fall ( or something about pride.. as you might have guessed )

But there is one more subtle point that ppl fail to see in this story, and that is.. the tendency of the barber to share his secret. However subtle this is, its very important. A human tendency very beautifully captured. The point of writing blog is to share thoughts, views, opinions, joy, sorrow, on the whole to share right ? Just like the barber, everyone wants to share.

So blogs / journal help nurture these tendencies and keep us alive( even though its virtual.. it still matters ).

So that was my starter ;)

The whole point of writing this entry was to quote some beautiful statements that i read in a book called " Life of Pi " by Yann Martel , and this reflects many of my thoughts, my personality .. in a nutshell, it depicts .. ME ..  and i am quite sure it reflects thoughts of many other ppl too :).

Quote 1 -

"I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape... It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse."

This statement caught my eyes and i just couldn't let go of it.  To some it might not make sense, but i am quite sure that for ppl to whom this makes sense, they would appreciate the beauty of the statement.

Anyways.. from what i have gathered by reading stories, there are 4 points

1. Elements understood by every reader.

2. Elements understood only by some readers.

3. Elements understood only by the author.

4. Elements not understood even by the author ( this portion is very less.. but it still exists !! )

So if you are a reader and you are judging a book.. your opinion might be biased on the percentage of understanding of these four points in the book.. right ?

So the point i am trying to drive here is, you can judge yourself by judging a book. If the persons observation is good, he might even go to a point of understanding things not understood by the author.. but for an amateur reader the understanding never ventures beyond the second point ( thats the max.. and that too very rare !! )

i would like to end this with another quote from the book " Life of Pi " by Yann Martel ..

Quote 2 -

"The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no ? .. And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? .. Doesn't that make life a Story?"

You are free to answer :)