By Naba Bhattacharjee
While visiting a school in the neighborhood recently, the voice of a teacher from a class down the corridor resounded with a familiar line – “The hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race”. And on expected lines, the moral followed. “Slow and steady wins the race”. This is the version of the most popular parable that we’ve all grown up with and one of the most common examples given by both parents and teachers at every possible goof up. This popular fable has survived the test of times. But for how long?
A chain of possibilities, which was related to me a few years ago, chugged through my thought process. The hare of this generation have started realizing that their forefather lost the race only because he had been overconfident. Not one to yield without a fight, he will challenge a tortoise of his age group to another race; run fast and win by several miles. The tortoise not one to give up easily in spite of his innate indolence, in response, may suggest a change of format, fixing the finishing line across a stream. Expectedly, the hare not adept at swimming shall meet his “waterloo”. Finally, better sense will prevail when both decide to run as a team. The hare carrying the tortoise till the river bank and thereafter the tortoise takes over and swims across with the hare on his back and finally reaching the finishing line together, with the tortoise piggy-back riding on the hare. A moral for the present generation – pool resources, work as a team and allow the person with the relevant core competency for a situation to take leadership.
