This is inspired by bina gupta's blog "Smart Fisherman - wisdom comes with age."

A fisherman was sitting in his boat, waiting after having cast his net wide when a voice from the water said, "Pick me up."

He looked around but could not see the source of the voice.

"Pick me up," came the voice again.

This time when he looked around, he did see a frog that was sticking to the boat with its front limbs and using his hind legs to peddle and keep balance.

"Who are you?" asked the astonished fisherman.

"Pick me up first and I will tell you," said the frog in clear human voice.

The fisherman picked it up and placed it on the back of his wrist.

"Now kiss me," said the frog.

The fisherman recoiled at the prospect. "Why should I kiss your mucousy mouth?"

"Hey, did you not hear that story in your childhood? The one where the man kisses the frog which then metamorphoses into the most beautiful woman and marries the man?"

The fisherman recalled that he had indeed heard the story.

"So, what are you waiting for? Kiss me and we would become the most beautiful couple on earth."

Overjoyed that the fairy tale was really happening to him, the fisherman kissed the frog.

Boinggggg!!! The next moment the fisherman found that he was looking at the frog from a totally different angle. Till the moment he kissed, the frog was sitting on his wrist and appeared very small. Now suddenly the frog appeared considerably bigger and was sitting alongside him on the floor of the boat..

"How did you get so big suddenly?" he asked the frog.

"I have not become any bigger," answered the frog. "You have become a frog and so I appear bigger."

"But you said we would become the most beautiful couple on earth," the fisherman-frog protested.

"Yes. You are the most beautiful man frog around and I am the most beautiful female frog," explained the frog-frog. 

You see, situations are always ambivalent. History does repeat itself. But never think that it will repeat exactly the same way it happened the last time around. It may happen in the reverse manner. 

There is another thing that I always wonder about - the early bird gets the worm. This is an adage that many people repeat mindlessly and follow. Everytime I think of it and want to be an early bird, I become horrified by the flip side of the adage that possibly no one has heard - the early worm is gotten by the bird. 

Now, when you venture out early, who is to decide that you are the early bird or the early worm? 

There is another adage, this time in Hindi - Jab siyar ki maut aati hai to woh shahar ki taraf bhaagta hai. (When the death wish is upon the jackal, it runs towards the city.)

My problem with this is simple. How do I find out whether I am running towards the city or away from it? Every action that I take - it can be like running towards or away from the city. One only finds out the direction when one has reached the city and faces the sticks and the stones.

The same is true about vinashkaale vipareet buddhi. (When the time is bad, your mind will lead you into bad decisions). With this too, only after you have been destroyed do you find out that the decision you took was wrong.

The best example of the above was given by Kapil Dev in an interview. The incident was India's loss to England in the World Cup semi finals. We were doing well - not so well, but well. And then kapil gave a heave and got got caught just inside the boundary and the direction of the match changed decisively. The media blamed Kapil for his suicidal shot. Had he not attempted it, they said, India would have had a chance to win. There was no need for the shot and blah de blah de blah.

A year or so later kapil was asked by an interviewer whether he regretted the shot. To this Kapil replied, "No. One does things and one does not regret it. Had that shot landed beyond the boundary, you would all have been singing praises about my shot-making abilities and about the decision to hit that shot which finally led India to victory. But because I got caught, you say that it was a bad shot and made India lose. Now how does one know beforehand, what exactly is going to be the result? And if there is no way of knowing it, one may as well go out there and do what one thinks is good to do and live to face the consequences. No regrets."

I like this approach. You see, you can't see even the tip of your nose. Anybody trying to pose as a wise person, knowing what it will be in future, is either a charlatan or a severely mistaken person. So, one should do what one thinks is correct under the circumstances and leave the rest to chance. 

Let destiny reveal whether you would be the most beautiful couple because you become a handsome male frog or because the frog turns out to be the most beautiful female. Let time tell you whether you have been a jackal running towards the city or away from it. Don't regret when after the Vinaashkaal is upon you, you find that your buddhi was vipareet!  




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