Every time when Manveer goes to bed he listens to a story for sure. Either I used to read a story to him from the book or make up one on the spot. All my made up stories were always pointed towards any one nuance from life that I wanted him to understand.
Our bedtime ritual of storytelling and finding moral of the story is something I cherish so much. Most of the time, the stories I chose revolved around one particular nuance of life that I wanted him to understand.
So there came a phase when he started acting on everything his friends asked him to do, without pausing and thinking the rights and wrongs of the action. So I just thought of sharing one story with him revolving around this idea.
It is a story that we had heard while growing up. Here is how the story goes (only just to remind you):
A man wanted to go to a city to sell his donkey to earn some extra money. Along with his son, Marc, he set off to the city. Both of them walked along with the donkey. A passerby remarked, “Such a silly father! Why doesn’t he let his son sit on donkey?”
Hearing this, the man decided to let Marc ride the donkey and then moved on. After sometime, another person looked at Marc and said sarcastically, “what a selfish son! Making his old father walk while he himself enjoys the ride!”
Now Marc decided to let his father ride the donkey. Again another person passing by remarked, “How silly these people are! Why don’t they both sit on donkey and go?” Hearing this both of them sat on donkey and rode on.
Here is when a person crossing them looked at donkey with pity and said, “Don’t you have any feelings!! Look at the poor donkey; he is dead tired carrying you both!!”
Now both father and son got down and decided to carry donkey on their back. They tied the donkey’s legs with rope and then hung him upside down from the pole. The donkey was very uncomfortable and started fidgeting. They somehow tried to manage the load of donkey and his fidgeting. While crossing the river, the donkey became so frightened that he started moving a lot. Due to this, they lost control and the donkey fell in the water. The donkey drowned in the river along with it the man’s hopes of earning some extra money.
Now I turned towards Manveer and asked him, “You understand the moral of the story?” He looked at me intently and said, “Mama, jab hum bridge cross karte hain toh zayda hilna nahin chahiye.”
I looked at Jatinder and burst out laughing. Such an answer was miles away from our imagination and we were rolling with laughter for so long.
This is one such moment that whenever I remember it, I just smile and think about the innocence that he possessed and how sweetly and sincerely he expressed himself that day.
