The lessons we unlearn

The fire crackled in the stillness of the night. Akapat sat by the fire and watched the river flowing in darkness. He was still shaken from within, and every time he closed his eyes he felt the water gushing around him.

It will take time to go away, the Falcon said. It was still perched on his right shoulder and watched the leaping flames. The reflection of glowing fire in his eyes made them look ominous.

I could have died, Akapat said, nervously.

But you lived, the Falcon replied.

It was so stupid, so stupid of me to go against your advice tiger, Akapats voice was riddled with guilt.

We have literally crossed the river now, the tiger said, keeping his paw reassuringly on his shoulder. So, there is no point in reliving that moment again.

I made a wrong decision tiger, Akapat was apologetic, and please forgive me for going against your advice.

Hah, the tiger said, what is more important is that you made a decision. And it is only in retrospect that we can say with certainty that what decision was correct and what was not.

You should rather be proud, the Falcon said, that you made a decision, and you learned your lessons.

Yes, i did learn the lesson that I should not go against your advice. Akapat spoke with humility.

No, that is not the intended lesson, the Shake heads spoke in unison. You made the right decision to make the Falcon ferry me across the river. Else, I would have died inside that bag.

Snake, the Falcon cautioned him in a stiff tone, you can keep your opinion to yourself. Right now you are not even a context.

But I am thankful, boy, the snake heads spoke, thankfull for saving my life.

Well, the tiger said, that is one positive side, but the lesson we want to draw your attention to, boy, is not about the crossing of the river, but the uncertainty of life.

Akapat looked at the tiger with bewilderment in his eyes.

At that juncture when you made the decision, the tiger continued, you were certain that going straight was perhaps the shortest way. But it proved to be wrong. What you objectively thought was a long way, may not have been the shortest, was the surest way.

Akapat, kept looking at the tiger. His animated eyes glowed like ambers in the light of the flickering flames.

So what was certain to you was full of uncertainty and what you felt was uncertain was ripe with certainty. This is the dilemma which has always haunted a decision maker. And none of the choices are eminently wrong. The tiger said with stillness in his voice.

If, the Falcon continued, you knew how to swim, your decision would have been absolutely right. Since, you didn’t knew how to swim, it was not so right a decision. Nevertheless you made it. The most valuable lesson to learn out of this is that you must always assess your capabilities with honesty. What you know, you know, what you don’t, you don’t. Miracles usually don’t happen.

And then, the tiger spoke, you thought you were drowning and panic overcame you. You almost gave up before the river gave you another chance.

And you ceased that moment and got your mind back into your grip.

Fear, the falcon said, is normal, and so is panic, especially if you don’t have a previous exposure of the same. What is important here is to keep your faith, in yourself and your ability to fight back. And you did that gracefully.

I am still clueless, what really happened and how, Akapat said nonchalantly, all I remember is that I was being swallowed by the water till I became one with it. Then it made me float and flow towards the shore.

But we saw how hard you fought the water man cub. You gasped for air, you flipped your limbs and you drank the water too.

Shouldn’t you have helped him? The snake questioned the tiger.

We did help him by not helping him. The falcon said.

Yes, it was easy the tiger said, to grab his bag and drag him. But then he would have never discovered his resilience, his ability to fight and most importantly the ability to get his mind under his control in such situation.

What if we would have lost him, the snake said with dissent to the reply given by the tiger.

Well Snake, the falcon said, the water was never so deep to drown him. I had catered for this possibility that he may decide to take the straighter path. That is why we ferried you across, else we would have certainly lost you. Then he took a pause and spoke again, i may not be very much fond of you, but I won’t loose you under my watch.

I am indebted, Akapat said. You not only saved me from drowning but you also saved me from ignorance.

You need to learn this cub, the tiger said, you need to learn all this before you reach the concrete. Then there will be no time to learn.

Their conversation was cut by intense lighting and noise from a far off thunderstorm.

It’s started raining in the mountains, the falcon said.

Yes, the snake said, I can hear the water rumbling down the river. It sounds very very angry.

Yes, Akapat said, that the best decision we made today was to cross the river.

I guess you are right, the tiger said as he removed his paw form Akapat’s shoulder and kept it down.

Then he kept his head on his paws and began to snore.