A Story by Papa
My father came to sip tea with a story, he had recently heard from someone.
Drenched with tea, one of the biscuits, fell on the floor, and I guess it somewhere reminded him of the story he had heard quite some minutes back.
With a smile, he started:
(Aj ek aadmi ne badi mast kahani sunai)
(translating it to English)
One fine day, God gathered a man, an Owl, a Crow, and a Donkey.
God asked the donkey: “Is 40 years enough for you to live?”
The donkey replied, ‘I only need 20.’
Next, God asked the same question to the man: “Is 40 years enough for you to live?”
The man said: ‘No, it’s way too little.’
God allocated the remaining 20 years of the Donkey to the man.
God then moved to Crow, and even Crow asked for just 20 years.
The remaining 20 were assigned to the man.
At last, God asked the Owl; influenced by the words of the Donkey and the Crow, the Owl was also content with 20 years.
The remaining 20, again, fell into the account of the man.
Age Card
Donkey- 20 years
Crow- 20 years
Owl- 20 years
Human- 100 years
Deciphering:
A human being truly lives his/her life for 40 years.
In the next 20 (from 40–60, gained from the Donkey), humans hustle to feed the family.
Another 20 (from 60–80 years, gained from the Crow) humans spend cawing.
The last 20 (from 80–100 years, a gift from the Owl) humans spend silently staring at a place.
Not sure if the story is true, but it left me thinking.
