Mona Mehta
According to a fable, Akbar once drew a line on the wall and asked his subjects to make the line shorter without touching or removing any part of the line. All failed except Birbal who drew a longer line parallel to the first line, making Akbar's line appear shorter. Here is a story that illustrates this: A teacher lived on a hill with his students, who would often compete, even cheat, to outdo each other to be in their teacher's good books. Each time someone was caught undercutting another, they would complain to the teacher. He would say, "Instead of erasing the other person's line, make your line longer." However, no one ever paid heed to the teacher's advice. To teach them a lesson, the teacher instructed them to go and live in the dusty plains. It was summer, and in their search for shade, they could only find the vilaiti keekar tree. Its medium height, crooked branches and sparse feathery canopy barely provided any shade. After walking for days, when they came to a large cluster of vilaiti keekar trees, the teacher said to his students, "This is where we will make our new home, and your task is to make this place habitable. "The students protested; "Not a single bird can nest on its thorny branches, nor can any vegetation grow beneath it, for the leaves it sheds release toxins that destroy seeds on the soil. What will we grow, what will we eat?" Also, the vilaiti keekar is known to edge out all other tree species growing in the area, starving them of water and nutrition. In response, the teacher said: "Let’s make our line longer." Until then, the nearby village was to be their temporary abode. "Go, set up a nursery to grow saplings of tall and leafy trees of this region," he said. Over the next few months, the students dug a well, created a nursery and grew plants from the seeds of local varieties of trees. When the saplings grew 4-5 feet high, and the rainy season was coming, the teacher said, "Go plant the saplings around the keekar trees. "The students pointed out that the saplings would not survive the onslaught of the keekar's leaves, as nothing can grow under them. "Saplings that you nurture with love and care will withstand any toxins. Make sure that you create a big enough hole in the keekar's canopy to allow sunlight to reach the saplings below," said the teacher. Soon enough, the saplings grew into tall and leafy trees with wide canopies. They cut through the keekar canopies and reached out to the sky, blocking the sun in the process. Thus denied direct sunlight, the keekar trees started to die out while the student’s trees gave flowers and fruit, attracting birds and animals back to the woods,
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Mona Mehta
Mona Mehta
According to a fable, Akbar once drew a line on the wall and asked his subjects to make the line shorter without touching or removing any part of the line. All failed except Birbal who drew a longer line parallel to the first line, making Akbar's line appear shorter. Here is a story that illustrates this: A teacher lived on a hill with his students, who would often compete, even cheat, to outdo each other to be in their teacher's good books. Each time someone was caught undercutting another, they would complain to the teacher. He would say, "Instead of erasing the other person's line, make your line longer." However, no one ever paid heed to the teacher's advice. To teach them a lesson, the teacher instructed them to go and live in the dusty plains. It was summer, and in their search for shade, they could only find the vilaiti keekar tree. Its medium height, crooked branches and sparse feathery canopy barely provided any shade. After walking for days, when they came to a large cluster of vilaiti keekar trees, the teacher said to his students, "This is where we will make our new home, and your task is to make this place habitable. "The students protested; "Not a single bird can nest on its thorny branches, nor can any vegetation grow beneath it, for the leaves it sheds release toxins that destroy seeds on the soil. What will we grow, what will we eat?" Also, the vilaiti keekar is known to edge out all other tree species growing in the area, starving them of water and nutrition. In response, the teacher said: "Let’s make our line longer." Until then, the nearby village was to be their temporary abode. "Go, set up a nursery to grow saplings of tall and leafy trees of this region," he said. Over the next few months, the students dug a well, created a nursery and grew plants from the seeds of local varieties of trees. When the saplings grew 4-5 feet high, and the rainy season was coming, the teacher said, "Go plant the saplings around the keekar trees. "The students pointed out that the saplings would not survive the onslaught of the keekar's leaves, as nothing can grow under them. "Saplings that you nurture with love and care will withstand any toxins. Make sure that you create a big enough hole in the keekar's canopy to allow sunlight to reach the saplings below," said the teacher. Soon enough, the saplings grew into tall and leafy trees with wide canopies. They cut through the keekar canopies and reached out to the sky, blocking the sun in the process. Thus denied direct sunlight, the keekar trees started to die out while the student’s trees gave flowers and fruit, attracting birds and animals back to the woods,
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Mona Mehta