A Soft Awakening

Once upon a time there lived a king. The king had a beautiful daughter, the princess! But there was a problem. Everything the princess would touch melts. No matter what: metal, wood, plastic, glass, anything. No man dared marry her. What could he do to help his daughter? He consulted his wizards and magicians. One wizard told the king, “If your daughter touches one thing that does not melt in her hands, she will be cured.”The king was overjoyed. The next day, he held a competition. Any man that could bring his daughter an object that would not melt would marry her and inherit the king’s wealth. Three young princes took up the challenge. The first prince brought a very hard alloy of titanium. But alas, once the princess touched it, it melted. The prince went away sadly. The second prince brought a huge diamond, thinking that diamond is the hardest substance in the world and surely, it would not melt. But alas, once the princess touched, it melted. He, went away disappointed. The third prince approached. He told the princess, “put your hand in the bag and feel what is in there.” The princess did as she was told, though she turned red. She felt something hard. She held it in her hand. And it did not melt!!!The king was overjoyed. Everybody in the kingdom was overjoyed. And the third prince married the princess and they both lived happily ever after. What was the object the prince had in the bag? It was a biscuit! Biscuit melts in the mouth, not in the hand.

I stand to ridicule from the learned and the many, who would indeed find it amusing and silly this kid’s stuff introduced in a newspaper column. A fairy tale circulated by Rose Z. Pachau, an office colleague from the Travel Desk, when a much-needed breather was the call of the moment, this simple, yet not-so-simple, kindergarten story , was a cue to a deeper introspection of what has always been blatant but for whatever reason, takes a backseat as a defensive mechanism. To me, it speaks of a lesson, I refer to as ‘failure’; better left forgotten by most of us.

Failure takes any form as we all have experienced at some point in our lives: relationships, unrequited love, ambition, poverty, debts, property, examinations, health and the list goes on. There are those who let it go forever, never to come back. There are those who hid beneath their souls and cringe. There are those who sleep and dream. There are those who give up the boots, never to mention again. There are those who look at it and rise again. It is this that I ponder about; how crucial and significant it is, so it may teach us pragmatic lessons in life for although sweetness is success, it teaches us not so much wisdom as failure does. I take failure as the best tool of learning as it teaches me everything, makes me logical in my thinking, propel my life forward to newer exploits. My failures humbled me. It taught me courage.

I no longer get carried away by the success of superficial encounters or by what I have achieved. I no longer allow the unpleasant to cloud my senses or my judgment. I channel my energies into something worthwhile. I allow others to take the lead and take the role of a follower. I accomplish my objectives with enthusiasm, knowledge and all the skills I know. But one thing I am certain, if I fall again, I will rise again with larger optimism in sight.

John Keats once stated “Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure, is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.”

Thank you, Rose, for this soft awakening.