Reflections II : That's The Way It Is

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It was a small town. Not so small that one would be expected to know everyone else in the town. But yet, small enough that one would know names of the neighbours at least.

Here lived a young boy, 5 or 6 years of age. He had dreamy eyes and was a good student. He was the kind who would come home from school and want to finish the homework before eating lunch or watching TV or going out to play cricket. Not the kind who liked to sleep in the day, the little guy was unusually perceptive & philosophical for his age.

One fine day, it was a pleasant summer afternoon. The boy was in his lawn when he noticed a herd of buffaloes passing by on the street. He also noticed that the cowboy had a cane in his hand, which he used to whip the trailing animals whenever he wanted the herd to speed up. This would cause them to nudge the ones ahead of them to speed up.

He ran inside to his mother and described his observation to her. Then he asked her whether it was fair of the cowboy to punish the ones near him, when it was actually the ones at a distance who were causing the whole situation. Astonished at first with such a question coming from such a young boy, she told him that this was the way of the world. You either learn this or you fail.

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