Donkey’s Life
This parable is told of a farmer who owned an old Donkey. The Donkey fell into the farmer’s well, the farmer sympathized with the animal, but decided that neither the donkey nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he decided to get help to haul dirt into the well and bury  the donkey in the well to put him out of his misery.

Initially as the mud came pouring down upon him, the old animal was hysterical! But as the farmer continued shovelling and the dirt hit his back, and slipped to the ground, the donkey stepped up on the heap. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, HE COULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP!. It was repeated torture, with shovels of mud hitting his back. No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old animal fought panic and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

Finally,  battered and exhausted, he stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well as all the mud flung down helped in raising the floor of the well to the brim. ! What seemed like certain death, seem to have been avoided by clever thinking. . . all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

Gyan Guru’s take.

Quite often in life, we are taken for donkeys and surprisingly we get to accept the comparison even if for a brief interval, wrongly blaming ourselves for lot of flaws. In the process we allow lot of dirt to be piled upon us, and carry the burden to our grave.

 
As a farmers we are all aware of lots of ways of burying the donkeys, and as supervisors, we routinely help in this activity a lot. In the more sympathetic ages of yore, the farmers would struggle to bring the donkeys out of the well, tend and care for the injuries that they might have suffered during the fall, and in case they are incapacitated, the farmer would try to maintain the animal as much as he could.

Alas in this harshly competitive man eat donkey world, lesser animals don’t count,  so its incumbent upon the farmer to push all donkeys down the nearest well that they find.

By the way, I sometimes do wonder, did the farmer actually do his maths well. As anyone in the construction industry would know,  even dirt has a cost,  I wonder, how did the farmer, get to lay his hands on such a huge quantity of mud to fill up a well,  in which a full grown donkey could fit in. A rough estimate would be ten truck loads of soil, plus the labour costs. That indeed would have cost the farmer dear, that is, if in the meanwhile, the PETA activist had not landed up at his address.

Well not all donkeys are asses like me,  So lets see what the various breeds of donkeys would have done post this draining experience.

There are donkeys which are great motivators, one of them would come out with various flips to his experience, flooded by invitations from across the globe to various workshops, he would talk at length about what went through him, as the dust came tumbling down,  how thirsty he felt, how his nostrils hurt with all that mud pouring on to him. He would have talked about the turmoil in his head, as he battled the negative feelings for the farmer. He would be at pains to explain as to how none of these emotions clouded his vision during those few hours that it took the farmer to fill the well. He would further elaborate that his determination to succeed in life made him game for any adversity. Not to be found on the wrong side of the table, he would also praise the farmer a lot, and swear on his loyalty for him. he would promise that never ever would he leave the current farm, without caring to explain that ever since that incident, he has been so busy attending workshops that he had clocked not even two continuous days work on the farm.

 As more and more universities, start inviting him to share his experiences, he would think of writing a book, and being a donkey that he is, would deploy a ghost writer to pen his memories aptly named  “Two clever steps to kick dirt the professional way”.

Needless to add, with the world so thirsty for knowledge, the book would become an instant hit, and would sell ten million copies, and our noble author would be pressurised to come out with more sequels to the original book.

The next thing you know the books stands would promptly announce, from the author of the ‘ Two clever steps to kick dirt professionally’, comes another invigorating tale of determination and steady mindedness ‘Two clever steps to lick dirt efficiently’.  So there you are, a donkey made successful in spite of the best intention of the farmer to the contrary.

Then there are those loyal donkeys, who would blindly believe, that the farmer, not finding any other option to save him, had indeed started piling mud on to the well just to save the animal, he would profusely thank his employer, for saving his life, and profess never to leave the farm for life, to the sheer dismay of the farmer.

The depressed donkeys, who go into shock at the turn of small events are yet another group. Not willing to believe in their own worth, they would get so depressed that would start looking for another well to jump in for ending their lives.

None of this could beat, the boastful donkey. He would announce to the world, as to how he beat the farmer at his own game. How he tricked the farmer into piling buckets upon buckets of soil down,so that he could escape. He would declare as to how he knew from day one that the farmer was after his skin, he would talk for hours as to how he had been exploited at the farm, as to how hard he had to work, and as to how low his compensation was, he would announce to the world his intention of joining competition, to beat the farmer at his own game. He would not want to add, that not finding the competition to be his cup of tea either, he would have no qualms about coming back to the employ of this farmer again in a few months time.

So come to think of it, its totally up to you, as to how you take it, if someone decides to bury your donkey. You could take it lying down, you could write a book on it, you could have your little revenge by kicking the farmer hard, you know where, or you could just pat yourself on the back, pick up your belongings, and walk on, unmindful of what had happened, OR,  prove to the world that ‘YOU ARE NOT A DONKEY’.