The Father, the Son and the Donkey!

This writing is not my original work, unlike most of my previous ones. I’m writing, in fact re-writing a story, which I learned as a lesson in one of the languages that I studied in my third grade. I’ve been a big fan of this story and I have not only led my life by the teachings of this one, but have also recommended it to many of my friends. May be if you have known me well enough, you might probably have heard this from me sometimes. Another reason I am writing this story here is because I felt it was inapt to study this lesson at that age. People would find it practically beneficial when they go past 20. So, the story goes something like this…

Once, a father and his son go to a market to buy a donkey. They reach this market walking nearly 40 miles from their hometown. Once they purchase a donkey, they decide to use the donkey as the mode of transport and start riding back home. One their way, most of the people who come across them criticize the father-son duo for treating the donkey without compassion and for overburdening it. So, after riding for 10 miles they decide, they will walk the remaining distance along with the donkey. After having walked a distance of another 10 miles, they recollect that people this time had called the duo foolish for not making appropriate use of the available resource. Then the father realizes that their earlier choices were wrong and asks his son to ride on the donkey and he decides to walk along with them. People this time criticize the son for being selfish and insensitive to father’s needs. So, another 10 miles later, now it becomes the father’s turn to ride on the donkey and the son’s turn to walk along with them. This time the father faces severe criticism for being selfish and not caring about his young son. Now they get puzzled as to what might be the appropriate combination to opt for as all the combinations, duo riding the donkey, the duo walking along with the donkey, the son riding the donkey while father walks and the father rides the donkey while the son walks, had exhausted.

It was at this point in time when they were yet to travel a distance of 6 more miles; they come across a sage and consult him for his advice. The sage listens to the entire episode and gives a quite chuckle before he speaks. He asks them, “Having tried all the options did you both avoid criticism. No! So, what you must do… is a very simple option, if you answer this question.” Eagerly the father-son duo says “Yes”. The sage asks them, “Among all the options which one did you find the most convenient?” Both of them reply in unison, “The first option, when both of us were riding on the donkey”. “Then what is the need to be confused! Just do that. But remember, you have wasted 60% of journey, by trying to avoid criticism from the public. Had you not cared about it, by now you would have reached your destination happily”

Bitter truth is that many of us continue to waste 60% of our lives bowing to criticism from the public and end up doing what is NOT convenient to us. May be all of us should follow the sage’s advice in each and every step of our life. Because the choice is simple; Put yourself in discomfort, there will be criticism. Make yourself comfortable, there will be criticism. Why not go for the second option when we are sure of not being able to avoid criticism?