(KP-6) How a Talented But Caged Parrot Snatched His Freedom From His Master

How to reduce the damaging effects of Tea | About Bronze medal winner Lovlina Borgohain and her coach, Sandhya Gurung | A poem on loving yourself after a heartbreak

Life Lesson

Today, I am going to share with you a fable from The Book of Rumi.

It is about a Persian merchant who kept a beautiful parrot with a lovely voice in a cage in his shop. The parrot would delight his customers by singing melodious tunes. The parrot was in a way a harbinger of financial success for the merchant.

Once it so happened that the merchant has to go to India to get some goods. So before leaving for India, he asked the parrot if he could bring him something from the great country. And the parrot replied that he did not want any materialistic gifts but he urged his master to talk to his parrot friends in India and tell them of his living condition in Persia - how he is trapped in a cage but entertaining people, he is giving others happiness but himself he is not happy. He told his master to ask them how should he reckon his situation.

The Persian did not give much thought to this request at that time and proceeded to India. After purchasing the goods, the merchant came across a flock of parrots perched on a branch of a tree. He told them the story of his caged prized possession. As soon as he finished it one of the parrots started shivering and in a fit of rage fell to the ground unconscious. The merchant was taken aback and felt remorse at what had just happened.

After coming back to his shop, the merchant narrated the whole incident to his own parrot. After listening to the incident, the parrot went unconscious as well and fell to the floor of the cage. The merchant was dumb-struck. He could not make out what was happening. He was utterly despondent that he had lost his prized possession.

In order to bury the parrot into the ground, he opened the cage and pulled the parrot out, and laid it on the ground to dig the earth. And lo behold! The parrot was off in a flash and perched himself high on a branch of the nearest tree. The merchant was amazed and relieved that his prized possession is still alive.

He asked the parrot what had happened to him. The parrot explained that his fellow parrot in India, by falling unconscious on the ground, has given him a sign of how to escape the bondage. He said, “my imprisonment was due to my beautiful song, my talent for entertaining you and your guests. My precious voice was in fact the cause of my servitude! By dying, in the sense of giving up my attachment to my talent, which I prized so highly, I would gain my freedom.”

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Book/Video/Podcast suggestion

This week I have a video suggestion for you on how to reduce the damaging effects of Chai (Tea)

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Feel-Good Positive Story

This week’s story is about the bronze medal winner Lovlina Borgohain and her coach, Sandhya Gurung.

The force behind boxing star Lovlina Borgohain, coach Sandhya Gurung is a former boxer from Sikkim who overcame paralysis to chase her dreams. Today, her efforts helped her ward win a historic bronze at Tokyo Olympics.

Gurung, however, has her own tale to tell. A former boxer from Sikkim, she suffered paralysis following a road accident and remained bed-ridden for three years before she even got into the sport.

Overcoming her paralysis, she began competing in the sport in 2000 onwards in the 68 kg category. Sandhya would go on to become a national-level boxer winning a bronze medal in the National Championships and finishing up her career in 2008 before getting into coaching.

This shows that no matter what happens in your life, what setbacks you go through, the hurdles you face, you CAN bounce back from all adversities.

To read the full story, click here.

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Quote/Poem

Derek Walcott’s Poetic Ode to Relearning to Be at Home in Ourselves After Heartbreak

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.

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