The stupid donkey

Once there lived a donkey which was very stupid. But he thought of himself to be very intelligent. One day as he was lying down idle , under a tree he wanted to pick up a fight with someone for fun. 

 

He looked all around to see if he could find someone to pick a fight with. Just then a cow walked past the tree in search of grass. The donkey tried drawing him into a conversation. 

The donkey asked he cow if he knew who the most intelligent animal on earth was. The cow thought for a while and said that the elephant living near the river was the most intelligent animal. The donkey was thoroughly offended. 

He challenged the cow to prove whatever he said just then. So the twosome went to the river and decided to wait there till the elephant came along for her daily fill of water. A little while later the elephant arrived. The donkey and the cow waited for the elephant to drink the water. Then they approached her and explained the situation.

The donkey now challenged the elephant to prove her intelligence. The elephant thought for a while.

She was sure that the donkey was trying to while away his time and the poor cow has been trapped. Now the donkey was trying to draw the elephant into and all of this seemed irrelevant to the elephant.

Soon the elephant hit upon a good idea. He called the cow and the donkey and asked them a question. “Who, between the two of you is more powerful?” asked the elephant. The donkey immediately told that he was the most powerful and that his hind legs were the strongest in the whole world. The cow did not say anything, but silently observed the donkey. He suddenly looked haughty and vain. The cow began to understand that the donkey was simply trying to boast and had drawn them into a useless discussion. The elephant then asked the cow how he would fight his enemy. Taking the cue from the elephant the cow charged at the donkey and hit him hard with his horns. The donkey fell to the ground and as he was struggling to get to his feet, the elephant told the donkey that the cow indeed was more powerful as he did not have to turn and show his back to his enemy. The cow’s power is there for all of us to see.

Gift of the gab

 Narrating stories is as joyous as listening is soothing. Here's a tale of a witty minister who served in the court of King Rajasimha.

King Rajasimha ruled over the kingdom of Simhapura. He believed in ruling his kingdom differently. He had ministers to take care of various activities and report the problems faced by them and the improvements that they have brought about in solving the problem. The King did not believe in a single man rule. He gave a lot of importance to the ministers and trusted their wisdom.

The subjects under him were very hard working and the ministers used to take advice from the subjects in solving their problems. The king's attitude of consulting with his ministers percolated downwards and they consulted with the subjects before implementing a rule.

In the kingdom of Simhapura, there was a very witty and wise food minister, by name Rakshasheela. His name and fame had spread far and wide. Many ministers from the neighboring kingdoms were curious to find out more about him. It was rumored that the king took his food minister's advises seriously and would pass it as law, of course after a court room debate with the other ministers. Surprisingly the other ministers were not jealous of him as they received words of wisdom from him in solving their own problems.  

The king often said that food was an important part of human sustenance. For any kingdom to thrive the subjects should have enough on their plate.

“We cannot preach philosophy if our people are hungry”, he often said. The practical approach of the King made the ministers think logically. The people of the kingdom also participated in the welfare of the state and contributed to its betterment.

One day a minister from the neighboring kingdom visited the kingdom of Simhapura in the disguise of a farmer. He requested the king to allow him to attend one of his court discussions. The king, being democratic in his attitude welcomed the farmer to the discussion.

As usual the discussion began and the ministers started presenting their reports. Soon it was the turn of the food minister, Rakshasheela. As soon as he started presenting his report the ‘farmer’ started shouting.  He screamed for all to hear, ‘Hey, you minster, what about hay?’ The food minister tried to ignore the erring entrant and continued with his report. But the man was persistent. He wanted to know about hay.  Hay happened to be a type of grass or other herbaceous plants. They were further cut, dried and stored for use as animal fodder. It required no special focus, as there were plenty of grass and other plants after harvest.

Rakshasheela explained the procedure of the court to the newcomer. He would be allowed to raise questions at the end of the report and not while he is presenting the report. The ‘farmer’s’ interest in hay did not die.

Rakshasheela continued with his report and once again the man wanted to know about hay.

This time the food minister looked straight at the tantrum thrower and said, ‘Sir, please excuse me, I am talking about human food now. I shall come to yours in a while.’ The whole court room erupted in laughter and the ‘farmer’, having got the reply he wanted made a quick exit!

The power of purity

The author of one of the most translated books is Thiruvalluvar. Thirukkural or Poyya Mozhi or vayurai vazhthu as it is known, can be construed as a book of law. A thinker, philosopher and writer par compare, Thiruvalluvar was married to Vasuki Ammayar. Vasuki ammayar’s devotion towards her husband was very pure. This purity made her a very strong person and there are a lot of tales about her pure devotion towards her husband. 

Konganavar muni had a lot of pride in himself and his powers, was walking through a forest. As he walked past a tree a stork sitting on one of the branches dirtied the muni’s head with its excreta. 

The sage only had to look angrily at the bird and the bird turned into ashes. This made the rishi prouder still. With the newly acquired power he strode towards the hut of sage Thiruvalluvar. As soon as he reached the hut he asked for food and Thiruvalluvar’s devoted wife was serving her husband and took some time in coming out to feed the rishi. The rishi got very angry and stared angrily at Vasuki Ammayar. Amazingly nothing happened. The rishi was astounded. He had such great confidence in himself that he had not expected this. 

Meanwhile Thiruvalluvar’s wife who saw the astonishment on Kongannavar’s face, smilingly asked the rishi if he thought of her as the stork that he had earlier burnt to ashes. The rishi was shocked and understood that he was up against no ordinary woman and bowed before her. 

The purity with which Vasuki served her husband was her strength. Such was her devotion towards her husband, that one day while she was drawing water from the well in a pot her husband called out to her. She left the pot and ran inside. The pot, instead of falling into the well hung from mid-air! Just by performing her daily duties to the best of her abilities, she grew in stature and commanded respect even from great rishis. 

One of the five great epics of Tamil literature is Seevaga Sinthamani. In this the poet talks through the heroine’s character about the greatness of sanyasam or renunciation. He opines that renunciation does not lie in sitting in a forest in front of fire and giving up on earthly desires and bondages. The greatest saint is one who performs his duties towards everyone around him, beginning with his parents. In doing this he may have to give up his own desires to keep others around happy. He who does this will be called a true munivar or sage.

In this sense Vasuki Ammayar can be called a true munivar.

The deaf donkey

 Once there lived a deaf donkey. He would bray so loudly that people around him used to get disturbed all the time and did not know how to quieten him down.

Though the villagers used to complain to each other about him, no one found a solution to the problem. 

One day as luck would have it, or would you say bad luck (for the donkey) would have it, the donkey fell into a dry well and could not climb out. He brayed and brayed with all his might (you can well imagine the noise that would have emanated from the well!). Slowly, the villagers gathered around the well and as is the usual human mob mentality, the crowd that gathered was polarised in their opinion of whether to help the donkey out of the well or not. Soon a section of people were debating on whether it was worth the effort and cost involved. One bespectacled ‘know-it-all’ opined that the whole operation would not be cost effective. After all, what is one donkey less to the world! Soon the voice of an animal activist boomed loud and clear. The donkeys are an endangered species and it was the duty of humanity to save the donkey. 

The poor donkey fell into a dry well...

As the argument continued a group of self-proclaimed intellects were seen with candles in their hands, taking a peaceful march. There was yet another group of fitness freaks, who had donned ‘Save the Donkey’ t-shirts and had organised a half-marathon.

While the drama outside was mounting, there were still some locals around the well who had now started writing the donkey off and jeered at him and threw fistfuls of sand into the well. If you are wondering where the shutter bugs were all this while, a monkey was trapped inside a house in the neighbouring village.

When word got around that the stakes were greater on the donkey, the paparazzi turned its light on the donkey. Flash bulbs, microphones and reporters who knew every single word available in the language that they were speaking and would not hesitate to show off their knowledge surrounded the well. 

The poor beast in the well did not know what was happening. He saw people throwing sand and mud and then lights, more people, more light and the confused beast sat in one corner not knowing what to do. Meanwhile the reporters had promised a live coverage of the whole drama and also promised to take an exclusive interview of the donkey which also would be relayed live.

The reporters had promised an exclusive interview of the donkey...

In a while the donkey stood up not knowing what to do with the microphones that had by now dropped into the well. He even chewed up the wire and parts of it and had to spit out the entire thing as it did not seem edible to him. He then pondered, and stepped on the bund of sand that had by now created a small step on one corner of the well. As people around started throwing more mud and sand he kept stepping on the sand. He was delighted to see the crowd above and thought,"How nice these people are! They are throwing mud and sand so that I can step on it and escape from the well." It helped that he could not hear their comments. He kept stepping up gleefully and eventually came out of the well.

In some time normalcy returned. The donkey went about his usual business of braying (now a wee bit louder, to show his gratitude to the people who had saved him). The villagers spoke about the whole episode for a few days until the burden of their everyday living took over the memory of the melodrama. To me, the positive attitude of the deaf donkey and the trust that he placed on the people around him were the real winners. When you trust people, even their negative actions can spell success! And of course turning a deaf ear to negative criticism makes you a winner all the way!