A Fairy's Tale

"And then the princess found herself locked in a tower surrounded by a stinky moat with crocodiles and a huge scary giant guarding the door," I read to my niece with lots of expression….eyes wide open and a deep voice….

A routine bed time story activity that we follow…..

Then, I made a sad face and continued softly… "So, the poor princess waited and waited for her prince to come--"

"But, why was she waiting for the prince, mama?!" asked the little girl, impatiently.

Now I became impatient and asked…”Who do you think will come and save her”…

I added…”If you are going to ask such silly questions, I will be forced to stop the story”

But she went on.."But, mama, why did she need a prince to save her?"

I was at a loss of words and completely blank…”Uhh... hmm...to fight with the giant and….”

She continued….."If it were me, I would have fought with the giant and killed him…then rode on the white horse all the way down the hill…through that thick forest….swam across the sea….and reached the palace….and……

"This princess is stupid….I don’t like the story"….. she discarded the book and walked away.

Something about the girl made me extremely happy.

I guess it is time to rewrite the fairy tales……

Modern Fairy Tales: Lets teach the girl child to be self-sufficient and independent rather than waiting for a prince or a miracle to happen!

Right Decisions

A group of children were playing on two railway tracks, one still in use and the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track while the rest played on the operational track.

The train comes, and you are just beside the track interchange.

Now you could let the train go on its way or change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, this would mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed.

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make.... 

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice the lone child. I guess you too might have made the same choice.

Initially, I thought exactly the same way because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was the most rational decision that majority of the people would chose to make, morally and emotionally.

But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was and no one would shed tear for him.

However one of my friends who read this story said that she would not try to change the course of the train because she believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they would have run away if they heard the train's sirens.

If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track!

Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people.

Moral : Life is full of tough decisions… "Just remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."

JUMP

There was a Student who was doing his research on a Frog. He somehow managed to train a frog to jump when he said “JUMP”. 

He now wanted to get much deeper into his research.

As the first step, he cuts off one of the legs of the frog and said “JUMP”

With pain the Frog took the Jump….

He now cuts off the second leg of the frog and said “JUMP”

Though the pain was more severe, the frog still Jumped

He then cuts off the third leg and said “JUMP”

The pain was excruciating and the frog laid there without any movement.

He increased his volume and shouted again “J..U..M..P”

With all its strength that remained, the Frog made it again…

He now cuts off its fourth leg also and shouted “J..U..M..P”

With blood oozing out the Frog lay there without any movement.

He shouted, shrieked and squalled “J....U....M....P”

....yet the frog remained motionless.

Finally he concluded his research with the findings…..

“If one cuts off all the legs of a Frog, then the frog will become deaf”

Our research begins here: Does this reflect the efficiency of this student or the education system that created him.