There were two frogs.
One frog lived in the sea. He knew vastness, openness and fathomless-ness.
He was so used to bigness that the sea is, that no smallness could trap his
attention.
The other frog lived in a well, not far from the sea. But he knew not what
sea was. He had never seen it—not even heard of it. In his most wildest of
imaginations, if at all he ever imagined, sea was an extended well—or at the
most, a `part' of his well, maybe from `this end to that.
Both the frogs lived in different worlds, though they lived so close by.
One day, however, they both met. They tried to speak on common lines, but
their conversation could not make much headway. They both talked different
languages: the sea-frog spoke of vastness of sea, the well-frog insisted on
the `vastness' of his well.
The sea-frog wondered and smiled, `How could the well-frog compare his
little well to the vast expanse of ocean!' To him, even the very idea of it
was ridiculous, or at the most, sheer amusement. `Sea and a well, where is
even the possibility of a comparison?' he pondered.
The well-frog on the other hand, wondered: `How could there be anything
larger, bigger, than my well? How could one trifle with the vastness of my
well?' He surmised, after he heard the sea-frog describing the sea, that the
sea-frog must be a little out of his mind, or else, how could he talk like
that? Can a well have an equivalent, a match?
The sea-frog understood where the difficulty lay. But how could he convince
his fellow frog of the existence of the sea? He pitied that his fellow frog
never went out of his well, and had remained so small and narrow in his
world-view.
The well-frog lived a cosy and protected life, but at times he felt
something was missing in his life, though he could not figure out what it
was. He had all that he needed, but there came to him, now and then, a
desire to know if there was anything beyond his well. He often recalled the
sea-frog's description of sea, something much bigger than his well. Many
times he planned to undertake a journey, but rarely did his enthusiasm
sustain. His desire to know what lay beyond lacked strength and steadiness.
Then, one day, he knew not how, he climbed out of his well, and began his
journey towards the sea—the place of his dreams. What pushed him out of his
well, and how he could manage to climb out, he could not understand, but he
was happy he was out.
The journey to the sea, however, was far from being easy and smooth. He went
along his path, but at times he slipped off the surface and at other times,
his little feet got stuck in the sand. There were moments when he was not
sure whether he was going in the right direction. It was a challenging
experience—frighteni ng and satisfying by turns. The journey was so long,
arduous and tedious, that he wondered whether there was anything called
sea—until he reached the sea.
Having reached the seashore, he had nothing more to ask. He had no doubts,
no enquiries, no complaints, no regrets.
He stood speechless; he knew the sea-frog was right.
" WHICH JOURNEY WE WANT US TO HAVE..."
No comments:
Post a Comment