Lessons Never Learnt !!

I got these colorful and thought provoking mails in my inbox today. I Couldn't resist myself from sharing the mails here, for goodness must be spread and must be shared. I remember the same stories were told long back during my college days by a HR manager of TCS. As with the most homo sapiens,  I have never learnt the lessons . 

family of tortoise STORY

A family of tortoise went on a picnic. They packed food and set out to a place they had selected behind the hills. When they reached the spot, they unpacked their picnic basket. They realized they had forgotten to bring salt. Food without salt is tasteless.They had a conference to decide who should go back and get salt. After a lot of discussion, the youngest tortoise was chosen, as he was faster than the others.The youngest objected on the ground that before he could come back the others might eat the snacks. But they assured him they would wait for him to come back with salt.

Six months passed, but the youngest tortoise did not turn up. So the rest of the family decided to open the basket and eat the snacks. When they opened the snack basket, the little tortoise jumped out of the bushes and screamed, "Look, I knew you would not wait till I came back. For six months I have been hiding in these bushes to make sure you would not eat without me. Now my suspicion has been confirmed, and I am not going to get the salt."

Some of us are exactly like our suspicious tortoise: we waste our own time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. Instead of doing the right thing ourselves, we wait for others to act in ways we expect them to. We waste our time waiting for others to live according to our expectations.

Story of a Starfish

An elderly man was taking a stroll on the beach one morning. Ruthless tidal waves of the night before had pushed out many creatures to the beach, notably, the starfish. There were thousands of starfish lying on the beach, not all were dead. He felt sorry for the state of affairs but continued with his walk, for, there was nothing he could do about it, he felt. 

A few meters away, he saw another man, younger, more a teenager, childlike, bending down, picking something and throwing it in the ocean. 

"What are you doing?" he asked, somewhat amused.

"Oh, I'm saving these starfish. Sun's gonna be up soon and they'll die as the waves are receding."

The old man chuckled and said, "There's miles and miles of beach, it's littered with tens of thousands of dying starfish. Your saving a handful won't make any difference."

The young one reached out to another starfish, picked it, tossed it back in the sea, and spoke, "It made a difference to that one!"

Undoubtedly these stories made my life beautiful throughout !!