The Danger Unknown

A farmer and his wife where they had pigs, goats, hen and many other animals along with a small mouse. All the animals were friendly with each other.

One day the mouse peeped through a small crack in the wall and unintentionally saw the farmer opening a small package. He was curious that it may contain any food item which could be shared amongst his friends but to his horror he found that it was a mousetrap. Yes A mouse trap to catch him indeed!

The mouse got panicky and breathlessly ran around the farmyard warning all his fellow members of this forthcoming danger.

First of all he met the hen. He nervously blurted out to him in despair, “We should be careful as there is a mousetrap in the house!” But the hen seemed to be pretty cool, he answered with triviality: “It doesn‘t concern me, as this is a danger for you and not for me. Why should I bother?” The mouse was shocked. Without wasting time, he raced towards the pig and then the goat to tell them about the mousetrap. To his further disappointment, the pig and the goat too did not show any concern with the new he parted. They consoled him and said that there was nothing to worry about and in return promised to pray for the mouse. The mouse felt sad and lonely. He was depressed by the ground reality he had faced in the need of this hour of danger.

In the night the farmer‘s wife heard a sound of a mousetrap. She hurried to see what was in it, but due to the darkness she did not see that it was a poisonous snake, whose tail was caught by the trap. Unexpectedly the snake bit her and she fainted. 

The farmer rushed her to the hospital where they treated her for a few days. Later, when they returned home, she still had fever. The farmer’s doctor had told him that chicken soup would help his wife to regain strength and her fever would subside, so he went to his farmyard to bring the main ingredient and that was the chicken, his hen in the farm.

However her sickness continued for which many friends came to visit her. The farmer butchered the pig to prepare lunch for the visitors. Unfortunately, as time passed, the farmer’s wife became weaker and weaker and one day she succumbed to her injuries. Many neighbours, relatives and friends arrived to attend the funeral. The farmer had to slaughter the goat to feed all of them. 

The mouse was a silent spectator to all that was happing with unhappiness as he could do nothing for those who once said were his friends as this was destiny.

Remember, when we see that someone is in difficulty or danger, we all are at risk. The nature of danger is never depicted, therefore it is better to help and encourage the one in need rather than leaving him alone to face that problem. 

Moral: There is nothing more dangerous than a closed mind. 

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THE IMPORTANCE OF MANNERS

Manners play an important part in the life of a human being. For success in any field of life, a man must possess pleasing manners so that his behaviours inspires dignity and respect. 'Manners makes a man' is a true saying. By manners we mean proper and respectful behaviour towards all with whom we come in contact with. Manners have more value in cities than in the villages where simple living still has its own charm and decency but in the cities where the standards of living are high and good manners seem to be vanishing.  Today, we are living in an age of sophistication where modern life is complex and complicated and simple living of olden days has almost become a legend. 

In this world of complexity and artificiality, most of the people pretend to be sophisticated, there good manners are very important. You cannot move in society unless you are well behaved, otherwise you are not welcome or acceptable anywhere. However honest may your intentions be or however innocent your behaviour is, it is your decency that makes you acceptable amongst others.

For this one must maintain a good personality along with a good power of speech and conversation, a certainly should be a good listener. These qualifications are important for success in any walk of life as their importance is pervading in modern times. Gone are the days when simplicity, innocence, honesty and any such similar traits of this kind dominated the society.

Good manners are a sure passport to success in life as it endears us to others, helping one to win the confidence of others. A polite answer turns away anger and a kind word uttered in time saves a man from many troubles. It is politeness which succeeds while ability fails. Even a good action will lose its value if the person doing favour utters impolite words. An ill-mannered man, on the other hand, is disliked by everyone and has no chance of success in any walk of life he joins.

Good manners come naturally into a man who is bred-up in a cultured family and are indeed a sign of pleasing personality. A child born in a cultured family will learn to be respectful to others because he will see his elders behaving gently. A child born in an uncultured family will be disrespectful because he sees his elders behaving badly towards others. A child will learn whatever he is taught. So a little carelessness on the part of the elders is likely to spoil the child and that shall be difficult to reform afterwards.

 Most parents spend far more time ferrying their children to extracurricular activities or supervising homework than encouraging them to engage in conversation with adults so that small debates within the family help the child in grooming into a good personality. The importance of being polite and well-mannered makes the people you interact with feel valued which reflects one’s own personality. Such deep internal values can only be inculcated in children from their very childhood only.

In such an advanced digital era of today where children are communicating through a coded vortex of social media and smartphone screens rather than face to face, it’s especially more important for parents to devote time to inculcate such etiquettes within them which shall polish them accurately while communicating with others. The biggest problem today is that the youngsters are highly ambitious and overachieving which leads them to overconfidence. But, of course where on one hand qualification is important, there on the other hand how you present yourself and interact with others is equally more important.

Manners and etiquettes add charm and grace by which one can win the hearts of others. They are most precious gifts of civilization. The extent to which one can influence others and the extent to which one can earn love, affection and the good wishes of others, depends upon the good manners and etiquettes. In other words: ‘Manners are the shadows of virtues, the momentary display of these qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect, if we strive to become, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered as a useful guide to the perfor­mance of our duties.’

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