Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
There was once a lazy and a wicked dhobi
(washerman) by the name of Nankau. He had an obedient and a long serving donkey
at home. Whom, he used for transporting all the dirty clothes to the bank of
the nearby river for washing in the morning. During the day he handed over the
donkey to his friend who was a contractor on rent for transporting sand from
the river to his construction site. And in the evening the listless and
obedient animal used to return with is master with bundles of washed clothes on
his back. Apart from making the donkey do all the work without any rest, Nankau
even whipped him for small mistakes and at times he even starved him. But, he never
complimented him for any good work. Rather considered him as the villain of his
life that always brought him ill luck.
One day Gopal a friend of the dhobi
came to stay with him for a few days. During that time he noticed. How Nankau
for no rhyme or reason used to whip the donkey and even cursed him loud and
clear and that too off and on.
One day Gopal asked Nankau. ‘My dear friend,
what on earth is the matter with you? As I always find you quite irritable. And
you often whip this poor soul, and that too in anger for no fault of his. Why
do you do this? Especially, when he is so obedient and does all your work?’
Nankau painfully replied, ‘Arrey yaar!
This donkey has been very inauspicious for me. Ever since it walked into my
life, I have been facing some problem or the other. Enough is enough. Somehow, I
now want to get rid of him. I even tried selling him but no one seemed interested.
Maybe, because, I’ve cursed and criticized him so much in front of people that
no one is ready to touch him even with a barge pole.’
During his stay, Gopal could assess the
worth of the donkey. He told his friend, ‘Brother, just in case you are not
happy with him. You could sell him off to me, and instead buy another one for
yourself.’
Nankau
didn’t want the opportunity to lapse. He readily agreed to the offer and sold his
donkey to Gopal. Who happened to be a kind master, and thereon, he looked after
the animal quite well.
In the meanwhile, Nankau, this time bought
a mule. Thinking it will do more work than the previous animal he had. And, he could
never forget that God forsaken donkey that he had and always cursed him, for
all the misfortunes of his life. But now with the mule around, he was hoping
his luck will improve and he will be a happy man.
By now
he had spent a few months with the newly acquired mule. As compared to the
donkey the mule looked tougher, but refused to do, as much work as the donkey
used to do. And in the changed scenario, Nankau didn’t have his donkey to curse
and blame for his failures, each time things went wrong in his life—so the
villain was missing. For the donkey was now someone else’s property. And the
mule was too new to be held responsible for any ill luck. So, in other words he
had no villain in his life whom he could curse for his misfortunes. And he didn’t
have the audacity to blame and curse himself for his mistakes and this started
worrying him beyond compare.
One day when the mule was transporting sand
from the river to the contractor’s site. The rear leg of the mule got stuck in the
muddy waters of the river and as a result it could not move. Soon it slipped
and fell down and fractured its leg, and within a few days the wound turned
into gangrene and he died.
Nankau was shell shocked at the mishap. He
now had no means to transport the clothes meant for washing, and was now constrained
to do it on his back. But he had limitations, as he couldn’t carry to many
clothes. So he started losing business. And since the mule was now dead he was
also deprived of the daily rent that he was getting from the contractor. So overall,
he was at a loss of a lifetime.
Suddenly, he realized, he had no one to
curse for his misfortunes. Because, the ultimate villain of his life—the donkey,
was sold off, by he himself, and so it was not influencing his life anymore. So,
the big question, now in front of him was who was influencing his life if not
the donkey?
He decided to visit his learned friend
Gopal for answers. Where, in his house he found his villain of life in a healthy
and happy state as Gopal was taking good care of him. Nankau narrated the
sequence of events to him.
Gopal, first gave him a patient hearing and
then said, ‘Dear Nankau, when I visited you last time. I knew you were a victim
of your own circumstances. But you always wanted to play the victim card for
every misfortune that you came across in your life. For which you always wanted
a villain whom you could blame and where this speechless donkey came in handy.
But the real solution to life is to look for
the hidden donkey within you, before you start cursing any other donkey. And above
all you are just a human being, who is bound to make mistakes. So, if at all,
you want to blame someone for your own mistakes, blame the villain within you. And,
for that, keep the villain in you alive, so that you don’t have to look for a
villain outside, like this donkey.
Nankau had got the message of life. He
patted the donkey and returned home.
*****
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