WE at leftright and thoda sa centre are mothers….. We can’t
help feeling worried, actually saddened, at the disruptions this pandemic has
caused to classrooms everywhere. Schools and colleges are shut down, with students
being made to attend online classes. However, our children don’t find them
engaging enough. They’ve also realized
that teachers can no longer keep as close an eye on them, and they’ve taken to
neglecting their study routines, whether it be practicing their poems or
cursive writing, their multiplication tables or the periodic tables, working
out problems or making sentences with new words every day.
When we
point this out to our children, they laugh at us for trying to sound like
prophets of doom. “Just chill, ma…..there aren’t going to be any exams for a
long time to come!” To them we wish to say, please remember that there will
come a day sooner or later, when this pandemic will end. And each passing day is bringing you closer
to that end. Eventually when you get back to school, with all of you in higher
classes and more to study, you will have to struggle a lot more if you don’t
keep up with your daily routines now. Before you start comparing us to the boy that
cried wolf, we’d like to share a story that we heard recently in an online
classroom.
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| Indra: The God of Gods |
It is
said that once Indra, the Lord of the Heavens, got annoyed with farmers on
earth and declared that it would not rain for the next twelve years. Their
fields would not yield any crops. In vain did the poor farmers beg and plead with
Indra to change his mind – he stood unmoved. When he got tired of listening to them,
he told them it will now rain only when Lord
Shiva plays on His dumroo (his small handheld drum), having cleverly taken
Shiva into confidence first. The harassed farmers then rushed to Shiva with
their urgent pleas for mercy, but the latter had nothing to say to them except that He would not be playing His drum for at least 12 years!
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| Shiva and his damru |
The browbeaten farmers now resigned themselves to fate. They had
no option but to wait out the next
twelve years. They thought what’s the point in even going out to their fields;
without rain, nothing will grow. They began staying at home; the soil hardened,
and all cultivated lands fell to rack and ruin.
But there was one farmer amongst them, who decided to keep up with the daily routine of tilling and ploughing his fields, and when the time was
right, he even sowed seeds. The story spread far and
wide among farmers everywhere; and soon he became the butt of much mockery and
rude jokes.
However, he
turned a deaf ear to all the insults and kept up with his daily labour as if it
could rain any minute. To all who tried to reason with him, he had only one
thing to say, “I know tilling, ploughing and sowing are all of no use without
rain. But I am worried that by the time it does rain, I am going to forget all about
farming! Even if I manage to remember, I would’ve definitely put on weight,
become lazier and less prepared to work in the open fields under the scorching
sun. So laugh all you want, but all this sitting around idly for 12 years, is
not for me. Twelve years is a long time – what if I forget and cannot get back
to farming even when it does rain? What
use will that be? No sir, I am going to
go out into my fields every day at the crack of dawn, work as usual, and return
only at sundown!
His words
fell on the ears of Goddess Parvati as she sat beside her husband, Lord Shiva,
on Mount Kailasa. “Did you hear that? I think he’s right…..12 years is indeed a
long period of time. Please forgive me for saying so, but it’s quite possible
that after 12 long years, you too forget how to play the dumroo. Have
you thought of that?”
At first Shiva laughed. He was God; how could He forget anything? But as days passed, he began to feel perhaps there was some truth in what Parvati said. After all, 12 years is quite a long period of time. He began to feel pangs of anxiety. Suppose he forgot? He looked at the small drum in his right hand and felt he should play it – just to test if he remembered. He moved his hand and began to play the drum.
The farmer who had kept his fields all ploughed and sowed with seed, ready for the rain, was rewarded with a bumper crop.
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| The Farmer's Reward |
His fields stood green and golden, fairly bursting with grain. All the other farmers, who had laughed at him for working in the fields, now rubbed their hands in regret. How they wished they hadn’t stopped working in their fields! For if they’d spent that time in getting their fields ready for the rain, today their lands would also be filled with crops ready for harvesting. Instead, their fields stood brown and barren, with the top soil getting washed away by the rain water.
What is the lesson to be learned from this story? This pandemic is definitely going to end – whether in two weeks, some months or a few years – so instead of wasting time in despair or getting disheartened in wondering when it is going to end, let’s shift our focus to that.
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| Don't Waste Time Despairing |
Let’s get to work on preparing ourselves to be ready
for the time when it ends. Let’s read up
the unfinished chapters in the books we have.
Identify our weaknesses; work on getting rid of them; work on
improving/building on what we know; think of ways in which we can become better
than before.
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| Work at Getting Better than Before |
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| How You Can Get Better: Constantly Review your Work |
You never
know when His drumbeats will begin rolling, so hold yourself in readiness.
Practice is the key to improving oneself qualitatively. It’s the secret that lies at the heart of
success. If you want to rise to every challenge, know the answer to every
question when the time comes; keep practicing. Because you see, He can play His
dumroo anytime!
We feel sure this story would have struck
a chord in all parents who are reading – let us know what you felt. Write your
comments in the Comment section. And as
always, everybody please do read, share, follow and subscribe!
Image credits: Google
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