THE EXTRAORDINARY TORTOISE

and

THE ORDINARY MAN …ME

and

THEREBY HANGS A TALE

 

SHAKESPEARE   wrote these last four famous words ,if you please, in AS YOU LIKE IT . Later JEFFREY ARCHER named a collection of his short stories AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE. Of course, only coincidence! But this story is not about that story.

 

There will not be anyone who reads this, I presume for all the right reasons, who does not know the famous story of the HARE and the TORTOISE from the childhood onward and everyone one of us will continue to hear and use it in different context to educate, denigrate something or somebody when we refer to time . It is a story , which is philosophical ,since it involves the two great aspects of our life SPACE and TIME. And thereby hangs a tale. I like this two  animals because human ingenuity continues to make these animals teach us lessons . We like stories and hence we can always find a “meaningful story “in everything if we wish so.

 

All of us have heard or read about TORTOISE and because of more exposure to it we normally take the animal for granted. Let us take tortoise as the center of our discussion thought and, in the process, hare may not appear here for because this is the story of tortoise. Please don’t mind it.

 

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Let  us begin the story ,or if you like Once upon a time ..for effect and to have a perspective …

 It happened to be my birthday a few months back . Normally I was not much interested in considering my birthday  a special day because I wished to celebrate everyday with the same emotion. But my grandchildren were told that it was my birthday and they gave me a card with the picture of a tortoise and a turtle sitting side by side with a sentence below “ HOW WE WISH YOU WERE A TORTOISE” Love… and I saw the names of both of them beneath it  .They were very young then.

I was confused but I laughed and and thanked them for their loving birthday wishes expressing a sincere desire to see me as a Tortoise. I thought and thought and I thought of the tortoise in different combinations starting of course with the famous story THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE which was a story embedded in our collective unconscious.

“Grandpa .do you know why we gave you the picture of a tortoise as our birth day present to you? “they asked

I acted as if I did not know much about tortoise.

“No I don’t know but it is a wonderful present and very original. I had never received such a present. “

“Grandpa, we wish to see you live long even for 150 years and we want you and grandma to be with us for many years. Hence this is the best present for you, we thought.”

“But, children, do you know that tortoise bring luck to all in the house if we have one here as our pet. Do you wish to have one .” I held them with both my hands and looked into their surprised eyes

“Oh please Grandpa , let  us get one so that it will live with us for a long , long time even after I die  “

“But why should you die, please don’t. Let us have tortoise and you together in the house. “

“Death is for everybody. But we do not know when. Let us not think about that now .”

“But when will you buy the tortoise for us? “

“We will buy not one but two “

“Why two? “

“One for each. Two tortoise will keep all the members together and happy in all ways for a long time. We will get a black tortoise and a silver tortoise, if possible. All over the world people believe in it. “

“Wow , grandpa you are really great . We would love to have two here.  But when?  “

“ I may not tell you that . Just like you gave me a surprise I will also give you a surprise. OK “

The children kissed grandpa on his cheeks.

“Thank you, Grandpa, let us go to grandma and tell her about this “

“No, not now, let us give a great surprise to your dad, mom and grandmother. Keep the secret with you “

The children went away. But a new thought of living a long life sprouted in my mind and then I went on looking at the picture of the tortoise the children gave me and I put that in my almirah. A prized possession it was for me.

Now and then the children would ask me secretly about the arrival of the tortoise .

Exactly after 3 months the birthday of the twins came.

In the early morning, when they got up I called them to my room and they were stunned to see two small tortoise moving slowly near my bed. They sat by them touched it and were very visibly thrilled and happy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH. I EMBRACED THEM. I WAS VERY HAPPY WHEN I SAW THE HAPPINESS OF THE CHILDEREN

The house was named TORTOISE

“Grandpa, we are going to live for 150 years or even 200 years like our tortoises TOGETHER in the same house. So cute they are. We love them. Thank you very much.”

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Grandpa died at the age of 103. Grandma died at the age of 104.

The WILL of grandpa was opened and the first clause in it was this.

“The two tortoises are our family property and I expect them to be taken care of by all of you in the best way possible. “

The two tortoises lived in the joint family and the first clause of the WILL was carried over in all later wills. The whole family lived together as a joint family for years and years while the tortoises moved around caressed and loved by all .

Tortoise is born with a house but we are not. We have to build one …

 

 

                       AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE

 

Prof. R . B   Varma