There once was a boy living with his family on a prosperous farm in northern India. Vinood was a happy and carefree lad of 10 years and just about to enter puberty when one day while working out in one of the families fields he was bitten by a cobra. Being bitten by a cobra in India is considered both a blessing and a curse. Vinood lingered on deaths doorstep for 3 days and 3 nights then he gradually started getting better until after a month he seemed fully recovered. However, in the village he was no longer called Vinood. He was now called, “The boy who was bitten by the cobra” and everyone in the village including his friends and relatives started treating him differently. Not better or worse, just as someone different. Someone who had been bitten by a cobra and who had survived death.
Everything went okay until all the boys his age had gone through puberty. While all the other boys had grown taller, he had remained the same height as he had when he was bitten, about 5”4”. This was a real disaster. The village he lived in was made up of tall people, some of whom were the tallest in the region. In fact, there lived in the village a man who was over 2 meters tall and was the tallest man in the entire area. He was a great source of pride to the village. Whenever any other tall man came into the village he was immediately taken over to the tall mans house and measured up. No on had ever been taller. Now Vinood was looked down upon by the adults of the village and taunted not only by the other village children but by his friends as well. Only his family seemed to accept him. Since Vinood now had no friends he now buried himself in his schoolwork. When the other boys had a cricket game, he learned English, while they played soccer, he studied math and when they flirted with the girls he stayed home and read books.
Within a year Vinood became the top student in his class but he was not happy especially when he found out that he would never marry. No family in the region would ever consent to allow one of their daughters to marry such a short man. In India this is considered very bad. If a man cannot marry and have children then he will never be anything more than a boy. Even your own family will be ashamed of you. Vinood spent the next few years either working on the family farm or studying or going to school. Since his peers would have nothing to do with him he was mostly alone and lonely, and always wishing that he could be normal.
On day a travelling Yogi came to his families farm asking for alms. Being that his family was pious they welcomed the Yogi to stay for dinner and to stay the night in the animal shed if he liked. The Yogi consented. That evening the Yogi entertained the family with tales of the Gods and of his travels to other far away parts of India. After supper the Yogi retired to the shed and, after performing his nightly ablutions, prepared for sleep. However, Vinood having been enraptured by the Yogi’s tales decided to unburden himself. He slipped out of his bed and into the shed. There he told the Yogi of all his misery and woes. The Yogi waited until Vinood was finished then patted Vinood on the back and chuckled. This made Vinood very angry.
Here he had told the Yogi his deepest feelings and fears and the Yogi was laughing at him! Vinood told the Yogi that he was sorry for wasting his time. When he got up to leave the Yogi told him to sit back down because he wasn’t laughing at Vinood problem but at the fact that it was such an easy affliction to overcome. Intrigued Vinood sat back down and asked what he meant. The Yogi asked Vinood why didn’t he just move to a village where all the people were the same height as he was? Vinood sat there dumbfounded. He had never in his entire life considered a life outside of his village. It was quite simply, an unfathomable idea. To leave his whole world behind and live in a foreign place, a place without his family? He couldn’t even comprehend such a thought. Why, who would look after him and his needs? Who would he talk to and interact with? Where would he work and what would he so? It was so incomprehensible that it was scary and he told the Yogi this.
The Yogi said to him that his choice was very simply. Either he stay in his village with his family where he’d probably never amount to anything, or he strike out into the wider world and see what his fate had in store for him. Vinood, incredulously asked the Yogi where this place of short people might be? The Yogi told him that there was such a village of short folks less than 300 kilometers to the west. Why, Vinood could be there in a week of walking or in only a day if he took the bus. Vinood wanted to ask the Yogi more but the Yogi was tired and told Vinood to leave. After all, the Yogi had more wandering to do as soon as the sun came up tomorrow. Vinood went to his bed but did not sleep. He lay there thinking about what the Yogi had said to him. To leave his village and his family? Could he do such a thing?
Vinood thought long and hard about it. In fact, for the next year he thought of little else until one day while working in the field with his Father, he broached the subject. His Father after a long pause, and to Vinood’s surprise, told him that he thought it might not be such a bad thing. If Vinood did stay in the village he would never be given any respect for being so short even though he was a good worker and the top in his class. Vinood then asked his uncles and brothers. They too, thought it might be for the best. When he asked all his other relatives, only his Mother and his favorite sister told him that he should stay with the family where he was loved and accepted. Vinood then decided to leave his family and village and travel to the village of short people the Yogi had told him about. When he told his family his decision they gave him a going away feast and a little money so he could take the bus. Bright and early one morning Vinood said good bye to his family and village and boarded a bus.
He rode all day and that evening just before sundown he reached the village the Yogi had told him about. When he disembarked the bus he looked around and was happily surprised. Just as the Yogi had promised, everyone around him was just about his height. Sure. there were some that were taller but there were plenty who were shorter too, including most of the women. Vinood sat down on one of the bus benches where, since he had very little money, he planned to spend the night. Right away some of the other boys about his own age who were hanging around the bus station and acting as touts, came up to him and struck up a conversation. Who was he? Where was he from? And what were his plans? Vinood told them. One of the boys said Vinood could come home with him where he could partake of his family’s evening meal and then sleep with him and his brothers on the roof of his house. Vinood gladly accepted.
Within a short time because he spoke some English, Vinood got himself a job at a tourist hotel as a roomboy and within the year he had been made night manager and hotel bookkeeper because he was not only good with numbers but he was honest too. He never tried padding the books for his own benefit or overcharging the tourists. My lover Kelly and I met Vinood years later where he told us his story. He was still working at the same hotel except now he was the manager, the bookkeeper and the procurer. Plus, he had married a local girl who was not only shorter than he but had born him a son. Vinood was considered such a success that even when he visited his family and his old village everybody there was proud of him and his accomplishments. Everyone was happy to see him.
So the moral of the story is: If you’re not satisfied with your life, you can change it. After all, what have you got to lose? You might even find happiness.