This is entry to Indiblogger: Around The World With Expedia!. It is about Sharma Aunty who told us interesting modifications to story of the Hare and Tortoise and Ant and Grasshopper and made our train journey truly memorable.

“What if the story of Hare and Tortoise had a different end? “, asked Sharma Aunty. She was travelling with us from Bangalore to Kolkata on train. My son loved listening to stories and the Aesop’s fable of Hare and Tortoise was his favorite, a must to end any story session. My daughter replied “Aunty that’s not possible, Hare has too loose and Tortoise has to win as the moral of the story has to be SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE.” “Yes that’s right Aunty”, quipped, college student who had been sleeping in the upper berth since boarding the train getting up just to have food!(Later came to know Yash had just finished his exams and had to catch up on his sleep..), “How can an old age Aesop’s fable change?” Aunty chuckled, “It seem strange coming from the mouth of the rebel generation”.  (Image: From TopCreations)

Hare lost but why

I added “Even the Sai Paranjpye Hindi movie of early eighties,Katha, showed the modern interpretation of the tale in a Bombay chawl. The good guy played by Naseerudin(tortoise) won getting his love played by Deepti Naval against Farooq Shaikh(the Hare)”. Aunty replied “Yes the movie was great, characters real,  and engaging adorable humor without outlandishness, real-life believable situations and a beautiful portrayal of life in the chawl. Wasn’t the song Kaun Aiya Kaun Aiya great. Now-a-days they don’t make movies like that any more.”(Image Courstey WikiPedia)

Katha

“Aunty what were you saying about the story”, asked my husband. He knew how much I like Hindi movies and could talk about it for ages! Aunty asked, “Lets just dig into the story a little, Why did Hare lost? What happened to hare after the race?” My son replied “Hare lost because he slept during the race, he did not finish the race.” “Good one Young man”, replied Aunty, “Buy why did the hare sleep?Was it because the tortoise was SLOW AND STEADY that he lost the race.” My daughter replied “No, that is not true. He had more potential than tortoise. He could beat other hares, animals like deer too!” Aunty asked, “Then why did he not complete the race?If he would have run against another rabbit would he have taken rest?”

“He took rest because the race was not challenging enough and so he became complacent. He had agreed for race where he had everything to lose and nothing to gain. Even if he had won the race he would not have gained anything, However when he lost to tortoise he had lost all his reputation in one day, ” answered my husband. Aunty said “Rightly pointed out, in the race tortoise had everything to gain and nothing to lose. If the tortoise had lost, no one would have ridiculed him because he was anyway expected to lose. Tortoise became an instant hero when he won the race. ” She continued “After that Hare thanked the Tortoise and ran races with other Hares and WON. Lessons that we can learn from the story are”:

• Undertake a task based on what you stand to personally gain or lose. If the potential gain is not significant, ignore that task. Do not waste your energy.
• Pick only those tasks that challenge or stretch your abilities. Otherwise you will quickly lose interest.
• Do not rest till your task is complete for it is no use if you do not complete the tasks!

“Aunty you rock! what a new and awesome way of looking at things!”, replied Yash(the college), “I must tell it to my friends. He opened his laptop and started posting on the facebook”. My son asked, “What about some other story say Ant and Grasshopper”. “What about it”, asked Aunty. “Can we change the end of that story also?” Aunty said,”The grasshopper not enjoying in summer, not saving food for winter and then asking ant for food. Of-course we can”. By that time some more kids, adults had come near our box,  we were all ears to Aunty’s interpretation.

Aunty asked, “How did the grasshopper felt?What would he have said to himself”  Replied my husband “Humiliated, Yes that’s what the grasshopper felt. He would have said to himself I wasted my time playing my guitar whole the others were toiling and making themselves secure. I wanted to enjoy the present without the thought for future. That’s just not done” Yash replied “No not again, my parents keep on telling me that..Think about the future. Let me enjoy the gift of present!”.

Aunty smiled knowingly, been here done that smile. She continued “Grasshopper resolved that he would never put himself in a position where he would need to beg. When the summer came he hung his guitar. No more fun he said to himself.” My daughter seemed disappointed “Aunty you mean Grasshopper spent summer gathering food.” Yash looked dejected “What boring end! Ant must be happy to see Grasshopper toilingm just like my father!” Aunty smiled and said “Hold on guys, picture abhi baki hai(movie is not over). After a while Grasshopper realized that he was struggling to lead an ant’s life. He had to literally drag himself out of bed each morning to go to work. The same work which earlier seemed to be very easy was now turning out to be a major struggle.” A young man,named Rahul, who was in last 20’s and had joined listening to stories”I can identify with that”. Lots of adults agreed.

Aunty continued “Grasshopper thought. Can I not lead life that I enjoy, choose work that I love the most, play the guitar? But if I do how will I get my food? Can I be paid for playing the guitar? Was this practical?” He decided to make a living by doing what he loved the most. ” Yash chuckled “Next day ant would have had an heart attack seeing Grasshopper playing the guitar”.  Everyone laughed.  Aunty continued “Ant asked Grasshopper Day off today?” No, replied the Grasshopper. I have resolved to do what I enjoy the most.” Rahul(the young man) “What about the winter. I am sure Ant will not  give him food”.  Aunty said “Grasshopper explained his plan. I would play and sing for you everyday. In return you give me a small portion of food”. Ant thought He was missing the music. It would be fair to pay for music.” and agreed.” “Then what happened” asked Yash, Akash , my husband in unison. (Image From AntGrasshopper.com)

Make your passion your job!

Aunty said “Grasshopper worked hard. He was working during the whole day and into the night. He was putting more hours but he never felt tired. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and was very happy. HE LOVED HIS WORK. He now never has to work for a single day. Grasshopper asked ant if you could talk to other ants too. The other ants agreed. So Grasshopper multiplied his income. He then talked to other grasshoppers who had similar passion for playing guitar. He trained them and they collectively started playing for vast audience in various parts of the forest. His organization kept growing and so did his wealth. Everyone was talking about how lucky the grass-hopper was and the vast fortune he had amassed.”

“3 Idiots(Hindi movie) kind,” replied Yash, “Aunty it is easier said than done! Will you allow your son to become a musician or a cricketer? When it comes to real life parents say Get Good grades, get a job. Hobby, interests just go out of the window.” Aunty said ” In my days we worked regular hours, in the same job till retirement but you people have lon…g hours, job hop.What about the middle path?”  Rahul asked “What about the middle path?” Aunty said “Study what your parents want. Begin your work-life in a regular job, say engineer but explore other options and persist.Yes, the work will be unpredictable, the income even more so—they certainly don’t make for the simple life as defined by your parents but you will have something to fall back on.  Do you have the courage  and the will to follow your heart or Do you want to play safe?” I was reminded of the conversation when I read article on similar lines in Outlookmoney:New Year New Way

Seeing things getting somber, serious my son asked  “Can we have another end to the story?” Aunty’s husband replied “Yes we can.Let’s try. When winter comes, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CNN IBN, Times Now, Aaj Tak show up and provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a film of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. People are  stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Mamta, Kapil Sibal, Narendra Modi make a special guest appearance on the CNN IBN and tell Rajdeep Sardesai that they will do everything they can for the Grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Era of Greed. Lalo exclaims in an interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate that the Ant has gotten rich off the back of the Grasshopper and calls for an immediate tax hike on the Ant to make him pay his fair share.

The Ant sues, but loses the case. The story ends as we see the Grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while he lives in a government house. The Ant has disappeared in the snow.”

Everyone burst out laughing. As the train staff started serving the dinner we just hadn’t realized how time flew. Next morning we were going to reach Kolkata. “I am amazed. Your modification to Aesop’s fable is out of the world.” I told Aunty. Aunty smiled and said “I wish I could take the credit but these changes are from the book GIVE ME BACK MY GUITAR – by POTHARAJU RAVINDRA”.  She took out the book and gave it to my children. While patting on the head she said “Listen, Learn from past , better it and go with times “. Rahul came to Aunty and said “Thanks a lot Aunty for your advice. I blamed my parents for making me give up music and become engineer but I shall use this job to save money and follow my dreams”.

Book by Potharaju Ravindra

Book, that gift of Aunty is one of our family favorites. The book is written in simple language being told by a father to his daughter. It has great modifications to famous stories like Aladin and Magic Lamp, Arjun, Bell the Cat, Town Mouse, Country Mouse.  Reviews on mouthshut. My son often reads it.   “How can we change the story.” is a favorite game of our family. My recent suggestion of having a happy end to “Ek Main Ek tu..” was shoo..ed by my family!  And we still remember the Aunty who made that train journey memorable.  Would end the post with few lines from Hindi movie Apnapan (1977)

“Aadmi musafir hai,Aaata hai jaata hai,

Aaate jaate raste mein yaadein chod jata hai”

This post is for contest on Indiblogger sponsered by Expedia – The one word for travel which helps connect travelers across the world, world’s largest online travel company, with over 30 million customers and 85 offices globally!

Did you like the new endings to Hare and Tortoise, Ant and Grasshopper story? Can you suggest other ends? Which other story would you like to have a different end?