Birbal was walking around his garden. It was early morning.
After his return from Persia ,
this was the first visit to his garden. The birds had
started chirping, and tweeting.He could feel the cool air carrying a
smell of rain from west. There was a formation of clouds on the western horizon
with thunders trumpeting the onset of monsoon. He felt happy at the sight of
the clouds. The guard suddenly appeared in front of him.
“Sir, the boy who came here yesterday is at the entrance”
“Okay, allow him.”
Naushad hesitantly entered and bowed "Good morning
Birbalji” He looked weary and sleepy.
“Did you sleep well, Son?”
“No...I could not sleep. I asked some questions to my uncle.
He suggested me to meet you.”
“You are welcome. Firstly, do not feel uncomfortable or
ashamed to raise questions. Secondly come with your own answers for the doubts,
even if they are incorrect. Don’t worry. But it is important to think over them
and have some of your own solutions.”
“I am confused when I think for apt responses to these questions….. ‘Tell me about you? Then, what are your
strengths and weakness? How do you think that you are fit for this job?’… Are
they not overlapping one another?” Naushad wondered with an unsure look and tone.
“You are right, my boy... Now, let me give a series of assumed information about you. You have to sort and
present them in three ways appropriately according to the questions you face
and the post you apply for. Okay…………...
These are all the
things about you, you can add something more:
Education at
different Gurukulas and schools;
Singing Gazals and
writing Urdu poems from poet near your house
Administration from
your uncle;
Archery and horse
riding from parents;
Accounting from a
merchant;
Chinese from Chinese
traveler;
Warfare and hunting
from a chieftain;
Certifications from
local clubs for various games, contests;
Now imagine that some vacancies are there for a junior minister
for which you have been nurturing a desire for a long time since your boyhood.
Another job is a group captain; apart from these two, there is an accountant’s post
in the palace.” Birbal looked at him and closely observed that Naushad’s eyes were restless and he was
on the verge uttering something.
“Son, always listen to the question completely. The first
job is…..”
Before Birbal finished, the hasty boy began blurting out
“For the first job which is a ministerial post, I think, I am completely fit…”
Birbal, in strong correcting tone interrupted “Stop Naushad,
please. I thought you are quite competent for any job. I didn’t even inform you
about which job you must reply first. You assumed that it is the
post of ‘junior minister’, so you are impatient or over enthused. Now, let me
digress a little. Listen to the story I tell you. Then, you will understand why we should wait till the other person completes his communication”
‘This is a Buddhist story which I collected when I had
visited Himalayas . Once, a teacher from plains
went to a monastery to meet a famous monk. The teacher was an expert in
interpreting dreams. He thought that he had more knowledge than the monk. He was very
much interested in proving this point. The monk welcomed him and told a dream
“I had a dream where both of us had been in a strange situation. I hope you
could explain the meaning of the dream. There were two pots in a dark
cave in a dense forest. One full of dirt and another full of honey! We both entered the cave and
dipped our hands in the pots, of course different ones. I found myself in an
unfortunate position of having my hands in the wrong pot. And you were…” The
monk was, suddenly, interrupted by the over confident teacher. The teacher
commented “The dream indicates that I am lucky enough to get the sweet knowledge of eternity
and you end up in nasty ignorance of darkness.”
The monk continued “My dear friend, you are a bit fast. I
didn’t finish my dream. Let me complete it. We both came out of the cave. There
was a growl welcoming us. The black bulky bear sniffed from a distance and
attacked you to send you to the sweet eternity while it preferred to ignore me, the nasty one. Now tell me the meaning.” He
stopped with a winning smile.
The teacher was astonished and speechless and eventually he
became tamed.’
“Naushad, so please listen
completely and then take a few
seconds to think, sort and then come back with suitable and sensible replies.
Don’t become a laughing stock of people like our teacher in the story.”
Shall we discuss the answers next week?
I welcome readers to help Naushad in preparing the answers for all the three jobs from the suggestions of
Birbal in the following order:
Accountant
Minister
Captain
Question is: How do you think you are fit for the job?
Surely Birbal may also come with his ideas; sometimes we can also excel Birbal.
What do you say? If you come with any solutions, it will be published.
