BED TIME STORIES

BED TIME STORIES J K SIVAN

6. THE SECOND FROG

Siva Thatha was singing one of the hymns of Thirumoolar and enjoying within himself the great philosophic thoughts of the saint when the door was ''thudded'' Children barged in and as usual surrounded him. He was not annoyed or angry with them for the disturbance but took immense pleasure in playing with him. They all unanimously asked him to tell a story.

He asked if any of them could name the five sense organs of human body.

Radha told ''Thatha I know, only today our teacher taught us this. It is fresh in my memory. The five sense organs are '' eye, nose, skin, ear, mouth''

''Good'' Can you tell me how they perform

''Babu interrupted I will tell you Thatha, ''The eyes see, the nose smells, the skin feels,the ear hears, and the mouth tastes''

''Is Babu correct in his answer?''

'' Yes said the children''

''No the mouth has another function of talking also besides using its tongue for tasting''

I will tell you a story how we should use the tongue which need to be controlled and used with utmost care.

Once , in a village, a group of frogs during rainy season, started moving towards a forest. On the way they found a big pit which, was not filled with any water. It was dark and the frogs did not notice it. Two frogs fell into the deep pit and began croaking (the sound made by frogs).

The other frogs which were safe gathered around the pit and began instructing the two frogs which fell into the pit.

''You cannot get out. Try to live as long as possible because death is certain''

''Dont Jump'' You will lose energey and die soon.

''Try to look for something to eat in the pit and live there, it will keep you both alive for sometime atleast''

''Wait until someone finds you to shift you out' but there is no one living here. Wait until death as there is no chance for you to get out.

The two frogs which were in the pit however, ignored the advices and comments and tried to jump up out of the pit.

The other frogs kept telling repeatedly to stop jumping. as they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took the advice and stopped jumping. It died. .

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs shouted at it ''You idiot see the other frog. It jumped and jumped and lost its energy and died. Stop jumping '' But the second frog in the pit kept jumping harder and harder and caught hold of some grip everytime and began moving up and after a long struggle it was successful and finally made it out.

When the successful frog got out, the other frogs asked him, "Why did you continue jumping. Didn't you hear us asking you to stop jumping?"

The frog explained to them that it was deaf and could not hear what they were telling. It therefore thought hey were encouraging him the entire time to keep jumping and try to come up''.

My dear children, this small frog story has two lessons for you:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

An encouraging word helps greatly for survival and gaining strength and self confidence in one's efforts.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can have disastrous effect. It would destroy him and almost kill a person. The Mouth, particularly the tonge has a strong power and you must be careful of what you say. Express always positive and helpful thoughts using your tonge and save many from disaster.