Sunday, April 26, 2009

Story of 3 Fishes

(Maulana Rumi ki is hikayat ko samjhane main mujhe aadhi umer lag gai - What a wise sufi he was)

"This is a story of the lake and the three big fish that were in it. Some fisherman came to the edge of the lake with their nets. The three fish saw them. The intelligent fish decided at once to leave, to make the long, difficult trip to the ocean. He thought, "I won't consult with these two on this. They will only weaken my resolve, because they love this place so. They call it home. Their ignorance will keep them here."The wise fish saw the men and their nets and said, "I"m leaving."

The half-intelligent fish thought, "I've lost my chance to escape. He mourns for a while, and then thinks, "What can I do to save myself from these men and their nets? Perhaps if I pretend to be already dead! I'll belly up on the surface and float like weeds float, just giving myself totally to the water. To die before I die." So he did that. He bobbed up and down, helpless, within arm's reach of the fishermen. "Look at this! The best and biggest fish is dead." One of the men lifted him by the tail, spat on him, and threw him up on the ground. He rolled over and over and slid secretly near the water, and then, back in voyaging to ocean.

Meanwhile, the third fish, was agitatedly jumping about, trying to escape with his agility and cleverness.The net, of course, finally closed around him, and as he lay in the terrible frying-pan bed, he thought, "If I get out of this, I'll never live again in the limits of the lake. Next time, the ocean! I'll make the infinite my home."

Moral of the story: False sense of comfort - makes one blind from reality till it hits on the face and sometime its too late.

It is the same concept as described in world's bestseller "who moved my cheese" (I strongly recommend you all to read this. Its a small book you can finish in an hour but an extremely important read).

Kabhi laut aayein to poochna naheen dekhna unhein gour se
Jinhein raaste mein khabar hui, keh yeh raasta koi aur hai (salim Kausar)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

sigh...maulana rumi ki hikayat tou alag...mager woh jo shair apne quote ki..I heartttttttt!! : )


Main two three days lagaoungi to understand the fish story :D phir I shall share my own views. ABhi ussi shair kay khayal kay saath back to exams.

aisha said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
mystic said...

Annonymous - Please comment what you think out of this hikayat.

Aisha - Somehow this shair is not in many printed books of Salim Kausar but def. it is one of the the same famous poem (I personally heard in one of the mushaira from him some 18 years ago)

bsc said...

Wow
Unique qsm ka sher hay, balkh nazm hay
Shaair ka naam aj mila mujhay

mystic said...

it is one of the milestone ghazal in recent urdu poetry...

Salim Kausar is indeed a very good poet