Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve

Sunday, June 2, 2013

SOME MORE DONKEY WISDOM - Learning from Humor

SOME MORE DONKEY WISDOM

THE SMUGGLER and THE CUSTOMS OFFICER

A Mulla Nasrudin Story

VIKRAM KARVE

Here is one of my favourite Mulla Nasrudin stories:

Mulla Nasrudin was leading a donkey loaded with bundles of straw on its back.

He reached the border post and was walking across the border into the neighbouring country.

An experienced customs inspector newly posted on that border check-post spotted Nasrudin and his donkey crossing the border.

“Halt,” the customs inspector said, “Who are you? What is your business here?”

“I am an honest smuggler!” Nasrudin said jokingly.

“Oh, really?” said the customs inspector, “Well, let me search those straw bundles. If I find something in them, then you will have to pay customs duty.”

“Do as you wish, “Nasrudin replied, “but you will not find anything in those bundles.”

The inspector intensively searched and took apart the bundles, but he could not find a single thing in them.

He had no choice but to say embarrassingly to Nasrudin, “You may pass the border.”

Nasrudin crossed the border with his donkey while the curious and annoyed customs inspector looked on.

The very next day, Nasrudin once again came to the border with a straw-carrying donkey.

The inspector saw Nasrudin coming and thought, “I’ll catch him for sure this time.”

The customs officer thoroughly checked the bundles of straw again. Then he searched through Nasrudin’s clothing. Then the customs officer even went through the donkey’s harness.

But once again he came up empty handed and had to let Nasrudin pass.

This same pattern continued every day for several years, and every day Nasrudin wore more and more extravagant clothing and jewellery that indicated he was getting wealthier.

Eventually, the customs inspector retired from his job after several years of service, but even in retirement he still wondered about the man with the straw-carrying donkey.

“I should have checked that donkey’s mouth more extensively,” he thought to himself, “Or maybe he hid something in the donkey’s rectum.”

Then one day he spotted Nasrudin’s face in a crowd.

“Hey,” the retired customs inspector said, “I know you! You are that man who came to my border check-post everyday for all those years with a straw-carrying donkey. Please, sir, I must talk to you.”

Nasrudin came towards him and the retired customs inspector continued talking: “My friend, I always wondered what you were smuggling past my border everyday. Just between you and me, you must tell me. I am retired now but I must know just to satisfy my curiosity. Please tell me what you smuggling were for all those years under my very nose?”

“Donkeys,” Nasrudin said triumphantly, “I was smuggling donkeys!”

Moral of the Story:

Sometimes you miss the wood for the trees. And sometimes you miss the trees for the wood.

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

NB:

All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Vikram Karve who holds the copyright.

Did you like this story?

I am sure you will like the 27 short stories from my recently published anthology of Short Fiction COCKTAIL
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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer and blogger. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and an anthology of short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional and academic research papers in journals and edited in-house journals and magazines for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

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Email: vikramwamankarve@gmail.com

Twitter: @vikramkarve

Saturday, June 1, 2013

OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES or OLQ - GENTLEMEN AND SNOBS - TWO TYPES OF OFFICERS

OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES or OLQ

GENTLEMEN AND SNOBS

TWO TYPES OF OFFICERS

Musings

VIKRAM KARVE

When I was in the Navy I observed that there were two types of officers:

1. THE GOOD OFFICER

There were the confident type who carried themselves with poise and dignity, were well-bred, polished, cultured and courteous, honest, transparent, fair and upright in their conduct and quite humble, modest and down-to-earth in their behaviour.

These officers did not need the crutches of rank. They had a distinctive identity of their own.

In fact, by their exemplary demeanor these good officers enhanced the dignity of the rank they held and they always put service before self.

They truly epitomized the term: “An Officer and a Gentleman”.

2. THE CAREERIST STATUS CONSCIOUS SNOB

Then there were the insecure type who were excessively rank conscious haughty show-offs who believed in the dictum: “Boot your juniors and Boot-lick your seniors”.

They were unabashed careerists who put self before service because for them their rank and status were everything.

Snobbish and pretentious behaviour is a sign of low self-esteem.

For these insecure types rank, promotion and their naval career was the be-all and end-all of life.

These officers had no unique individual identity of their own. Their rank was their only identity.

They knew, in their hearts, that without the crutches of rank they were zeroes

So they went to any extent to get promoted at any cost.

It is this insecure and ambitious type of careerist officers who often get involved in unethical acts and scams, thereby causing immense damage to the reputation of the service resulting in tarnishing of the good image of the defence services.

So, Dear Reader, the next time you meet an officer, of the army, navy or air force, or even of the civil services, observe his behaviour and see which type of officer he is.

One clue - when an officer introduces himself is the emphasis on his rank or on his name?

You will find that good confident officers may not even mention their rank while introducing themselves, while insecure snobbish officers are obsessed with rank, even after retirement.

MORE DONKEY WISDOM - THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION - Humor and Learning

HUMOR AND LEARNING

MORE DONKEY WISDOM

THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Ancient Wisdom - A Teaching Story - Teaching a Donkey How to Read

VIKRAM KARVE

When you communicate, your communication style should depend on who you are communicating with (the audience or recepient of your communication).

Here is a Teaching Story which illustrates this principle:

TEACHING A DONKEY HOW TO READ

A wise man, a renowned teacher, once publicly vowed that he would eradicate illiteracy and he would teach everyone to read.

Some mischievous boys brought a donkey to the teacher and asked him if he could teach the donkey to read.

The wise teacher stunned the students by taking up the challenge and said, “Give me the donkey for a month and I will teach it to read.”

The teacher went home and began to train his donkey to read.

At first he put the donkey into the stable and gave him no food for some days.

Then he found a thick book and put some food between the pages.

In the beginning the teacher turned the pages and gave the donkey the food between the pages.

After a while the donkey learnt to turn the pages with his tongue to find and eat the food by itself.

Each time when the donkey finished the book and found no more food between the pages it would bray: “Eee aah... Eee aah...Eee aah...”

Then the teacher would reward the donkey with some food.

Three days before the one month period was over the teacher stopped feeding the donkey.

For three full days he did not feed the donkey.

The poor starved and famished donkey, after fasting for three days without a morsel of food, was voraciously hungry.

On the fateful day when the whole school assembled to see the miracle of the donkey reading.

The wise teacher brought the ravenously hungry donkey onto the stage.

He asked for a big book and put it in front of the donkey.

The hungry donkey turned the first page of the book with its tongue and when it could not find any food the donkey brayed: “Eee aah... Eee aah...”

Then the donkey turned one more page, and again not finding any food, it cried: “Eee aah... Eee aah...”

The famished donkey kept turning the pages of the book one by one with its tongue and when it could not find any food between the pages its braying grew louder and louder and soon the hapless donkey was turning the pages and shrieking in a loud voice: “Eee aah... Eee aah...” till it reached a crescendo.

Proud of his achievement the wise teacher gave a said to the gathering: “You all have seen that the donkey has turned the pages of the book and he read it.”

One of the naughty students asked: “But we could not understand anything.”

The wise teacher replied: “Of course you could not understand what the donkey said because it was in donkey language. If you want to understand what the donkey speaks you have to learn donkey language.”

“Donkey Language? How do we learn donkey language?” exclaimed the puzzled students.

“Come to me for extra tuition in the evening. I will teach you donkey language,” said the teacher.

Moral of the Story

If you want to communicate with a “donkey”, you have to learn “donkey language”.

When you communicate, for every message there is a sender and a receiver.

For example, when you talk to the donkey, you are the sender and the donkey is the receiver, and when the donkey talks to you the donkey becomes the sender and you become the receiver.

The sender and the receiver will perceive, experience, and interpret things differently.

You cannot take for granted that the receiver will perceive the message the same way as the sender intended it.

That is why for effective communication, it is important that the sender and the receiver “speak the same language” and understand each other.

I always remember this story while “talking” to my pet dog Sherry.

In fact, not only have I learnt her “dog language” but I have taught her my “human language” too.

This helps us communicate effectively.

“Dog language”?

Yes, I will tell you how to do it sometime later in my blog.

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

NB:

All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Did you like this story?

COCKTAIL ebook

Twitter: @vikramkarve

HUMOR AND LEARNING - DONKEY WISDOM from a Three in One Mulla Nasrudin Teaching Story

HUMOR and LEARNING

DONKEY WISDOM

A 3 in 1 Mulla Nasrudin Teaching Story

VIKRAM KARVE

Here are 3 Mulla Nasrudin Teaching Stories with the “moral” of the stories in blue below each story.

1. HOW TO MAKE A DONKEY RUN FASTER

Once upon a time, long long ago Mulla Nasrudin went to a shipyard.

Seeing a fire, which he had not expected to be associated with the sea, he asked a workman what it was for.

“We make tar,” said the workman, “and cover the cracks in the underside of the boat. That smoothens the surface, reduces friction and makes the vessel go faster.”

Nasrudin went straight home and made a bonfire.

Then he tied up his donkey and melted some tar in a pan and heated it till it was red hot.

As soon as he began to apply the flaming red hot tar to the stomach of the donkey, the terrified donkey broke loose and ran like the wind.

“It works all right!” said Mulla Nasrudin to himself as he watched his donkey flee like a rocket and disappear across the horizon.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Don’t we see it happening all around?

We try to apply the right solutions to the wrong problems and the wrong solutions to the right problems, don't we?

And this mismatch sometimes ends in disaster.

2. DONKEY BECOMES A MAGISTRATE

Nasrudin’s donkey did not return for many days.

An anxious Nasrudin repeatedly kept on asking each and every villager, he asked every one he met, whether they had seen his donkey.

Fed up with him, they told him to ask the ‘wise man’ who knew the answers to all the questions.

“Nasrudin,” the wise man said, “your donkey has run off, turned into a man and has been appointed as the Magistrate in the district town.

Thanking the wise man for the information, Mulla Nasrudin trudged to the district town and entered the courtroom.

There sat the District Magistrate, in all his glory, listening to an important case.

Nasrudin shook his fist at the Magistrate and shouted at him in a loud voice which resonated in the courtroom: “Come home at once, you foolish donkey!”

The Magistrate was furious: “Who are you and how dare you talk to me like that? I am the Magistrate. I’ll have you arrested and sent to jail for contempt of court.”

“Who am I? You dare to ask me who I am? Don't you recognize your Master, you donkey! I am the well-known Mulla Nasrudin from the neighbouring village and you are my donkey.”

“Who told you that I am your donkey?” the bewildered Magistrate asked Mulla Nasrudin.

“The ‘wise man’ in my village told me that my donkey has run off, turned into a man and has been appointed Magistrate in the district town. This is the district town and you are the Magistrate here, so you are my donkey,” Nasrudin said.

“That’s ridiculous. Are you mad? Do I look like a donkey?” the Magistrate said.

Nasrudin drew himself up to his full height and said emphatically: “I prefer to believe the statement of the wise man rather than that of my donkey.”

MORAL OF THE STORY

Sometimes “WHO” said something matters more than “WHAT” is said.

3. LIP SYMPATHY

The Magistrate ordered the police to throw Mulla Nasrudin out of the town.

So Mulla Nasrudin returned to his village distraught.

He was overcome with grief and broke down and started wailing and crying in the village square that he had lost his donkey.

“You may have lost your donkey, Mulla Nasrudin, but you don’t have to grieve over the animal more than you did over the loss of your first wife,” the villagers consoled him.

Mulla Nasrudin looked at the villagers and said: “Ah, but if you remember, when I lost my wife, all you villagers said ‘Don't worry. We will find another wife for you’ - and you did find me another wife to replace the one I had lost. But, so far, nobody has offered to replace my donkey.”

MORAL OF THE STORY

Concrete action to mitigate a loss is more important than offering lip sympathy

Think, Laugh and Have a nice day

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

NB:

All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Did you like this stories?

COCKTAIL ebook

Twitter: @vikramkarve

Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve

Sunday, June 2, 2013

SOME MORE DONKEY WISDOM - Learning from Humor

Saturday, June 1, 2013

OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES or OLQ - GENTLEMEN AND SNOBS - TWO TYPES OF OFFICERS

MORE DONKEY WISDOM - THE ART OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION - Humor and Learning

HUMOR AND LEARNING - DONKEY WISDOM from a Three in One Mulla Nasrudin Teaching Story

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