Theme: No one is superior to any other.
STORY 16
The Boatman And The Teacher
The story is based on a Persian tale. It is possible the reader could have heard or read this, several times over. But it is worth reading it once more to link the story with a very useful message.
There are several stories with the same theme in other parts of the world. This suggests that people existed everywhere and all the time with arrogance and false pride.
Society in the east, consider teaching as the most respected among professions, next only to peasantry which produces food for every one in the society. Here goes the story.
A newly appointed teacher comes to a village located on a riverside, for living. He commutes to a village on the other side of the river every day.
He needs to take the boat service every day.
The hero in this story, is the boatman.
The unlettered boatman invited the teacher and offered him a free ride to the other bank of the river where the teacher worked.
The teacher, having accepted the courtesy shown by the boatman started a conversation. “What kind of weather will we have today?”
The boatman checked the direction of the wind, looked up at the sun, wrinkled his brow, and replied, “ we is going to have a storm.”
Horrified by this reply, the teacher made a face and said critically, “ you should not say ‘we is’ but say ‘we are’. Didn’t you ever learn grammar?”
The illiterate boatman responded to this reprimand with nothing but a shrug of his shoulders. “How do I know grammar?” he asked.
The teacher was at his wits’ end. “You don’t know river !”
Just as the boatman had predicted, dark clouds developed on the horizon, a strong wind whipped the waves, and the boat tossed about in the rough sea.
In no time there was lots of water in the boat and the boatman asked the teacher, “Have you ever learned to swim?”
The teacher replied in negative. “No. I did not learn to swim” .
Grinning from ear to ear, the boatman replied,
“Well, in that case your whole life is down the river because our boat is going to sink any minute now!”
The teacher did not live long enough to understand, that the grammar that he knew would not have helped him to survive.
The second story on the above theme, is also told in several ways. After reading these stories, I am sure the readers will respect every profession, equally.