So, this time the race flag bore the letters - LIFE. The racetrack was a
long treacherous one. It comprised of false traps, ditches, bogs and thorny
bushes. The hare was determined not to fall asleep while the tortoise was, well.... not determined about anything. Just
go with the flow was his genuine motto. He made no extra efforts to visit the
gym unlike the hare who thrived on a special diet and exercised his ass off..
So, again, they set foot on the threshold point, gave a crooked half grin to
the ladies cheering and drooling over them and began at the trumpet of the
elephant.
The hare began with a sprint on the initial straight track. But soon,
thinking about his previous failures, his system started turning rampageous and
he began running like he'd never run before. So, when the false trap hindered
his way, he couldn't pause for a moment to think about getting rid of it and
injured both his legs while jumping over the trap. Similarly, he did the same
with the rest of the danger acquaintances. He blindly jumped into the ditch,
caught a creeper and climbed his way out. The bog just sucked the hare in and
it took 3 hours until he swam around the mud and somehow managed to pull
himself out. Covered in mud, he just ran past the thorny bushes not even bothering
to shred them away.
The tortoise began at a slow speed. He maintained his consistency of pace
throughout. The hard shell protected him
from any injury but he didn't bother to unlock the false trap either. So,
bouncing back and forth, he came out of it eventually. He crawled in the ditch,
and crawled his way out without bothering to build a bridge. Turning his torso
backwards, he swam across the sticky bog. When thorns pricked his paws he
stopped by a clinic to remove it.
The hare, of course was the first one to reach. But few meters before the
End line, he collapsed due to severe bleeding caused by the harsh traps and
thorns. He was admitted in a hospital and was disqualified from the race. The
tortoise managed to reach 8 hours later but by that time, nobody came to hand
over the trophy as the jungle authorities went home, cursing the race and
dreaming about the relishing supper their wives must have prepared by then.
So actually, both the hare and the tortoise couldn't succeed. In this race,
pace had never really mattered. Smart thinking, patience and intelligence had
mattered. While the hare ran without a break, eventually hurting himself, the
tortoise kept strolling mechanically. Had the both of them really thought about
finding alternatives to cross the notorious elements of the race, both would've
saved time. So this actually classifies the people into two categories - The
ones who strive and kill to reach the end but all their efforts are ultimately
in vain and the ones who are too sluggish and yet move on consistently,
achieving success too late when it has lost its value.
So, as you can see I cooked up this weird story. It was inspired by a small
incident that happened yesterday. Mum insisted me to accompany her to the
grocery store. On not finding the original keys to the scooty, she hurriedly
picked the spare ones and went to the garage instead of searching for the old
ones. Turning the key into the lock, she discovered that the lock couldn’t be
opened easily by the spare key. So she lost her patience and told me to get the
old ones itself. At that time, I refused to climb up the stairs and started
making efforts to unlock the Scooty using the spare key itself. It got unlocked
within 2 minutes, just as mum was about to leave for getting the old ones. So,
I gave her a “ I told you so” grin, started preaching her about patience and
stuff to which she retaliated mumbling something about us being a slowcoach. I
told her that she was a person who finished a task perfectly on time per with
imperfection but dad was a person who did stuff perfectly but at a snail pace.
So somehow, I lie in between, faster than dad, calmer than mum. And in some way,
they symbolize the hare and the tortoise of my story, not entirely but up to
some level. I have loads of good things to learn from the way they both carry
out their work. I hope I will. ;-)
