An Untitled Fable
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A man travelling through a desert came across an old woman sitting by the side of a dried up water well.
“Why do you sit by this dried up well?”, he asked her.
She looked up at the young man with sad but deeply compassionate eyes.
And replied,
“Once, not a long time back, this well was not dry. It sprang plenty of sweet water and quenched the thirst of many travellers. It gave from its waters generously for many, many generations.
Lovely, happy flowers grew around it. Even the sun pleasingly shone its rays on it as if to bless it.
But one day a dark, evil being that had lost its way passed by this well.
It drank from it to its heart’s content, and rested next to it.
But instead of gratitude the being felt envy and anger at the well, for it could never imagine such generosity. So with all its dark powers it cursed the well, wishing that its waters dried up for ever and it could never again satisfy anyone’s thirst.
After that the water of the well became lesser and lesser. The lovely flowers around it began wilting and looked sadly at the well. They knew that their beloved well had been afflicted by a curse. They could do nothing and felt helpless.
Even the sun, powerless against the dark being’s curse, felt weary and helpless, and hid itself behind some grey clouds.
Soon the well dried up entirely and all the flowers disappeared.”
The woman stopped talking, and stared at the well.
“But why do you sit here by its side today?”, asked the young man.
She stayed silent. Then looked up sat him again with the same compassionate eyes and replied.
“Once, a very thirsty and exhausted man about your age passed by here. This well did not just quench his thirst but filled him with hope. It filled him with strength and courage, and gratitude.”
She paused for a bit, and continued.
“That young man was my son. He is not in this world anymore. This well makes me feel closer to him. So I come and sit by it everyday for some time.”
~ Munaf Husain, An Untitled fable, August 21, 2021
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Author’s Note:
This little story I had written two years back almost to the day showed up on my Facebook page yesterday as a memory. It’s a short fable that seemingly came from nowhere, and which was written spontaneously in literally less than ten minutes. Made me wonder, how and from where these ideas come to the human mind. The particular theme or characters were not on my mind in any way at the time. At least not at a conscious level. Hmmm.
It is not a cheerful or upbeat tale. But hopefully it connects to something deeper within us as human beings. This piece of written work did not come from feeding some data to bots that in turn “generated” a human fable. It came from within a human mind, spirit, and consciousness, with its own humanly learned data and experience. Whatever merit my written piece may have for the reader, I invite them to reflect on one question. What does it mean to be human today?
