The Grapes are Sour

We often tell this short story to our kids, that once a fox was passing through a garden. There was a sort of bamboo structure laden with the vine of grapes. The bunch of ripe grapes were visible and were attracting attention. The fox saw and was eager to eat those grapes. But the grapes were quite high. She tried to jump several times but her jumps did not take her near to the bunch of grapes. Finally she gave up saying that the grapes are sour. I don’t like them.

Exactly this is the attitude we adopt towards our own life. We try to achieve something. But when we fail to get it easily, we also give up like the fox and start finding excuses and faults with that. For our own failure, we don’t hesitate to blame others. This is not the right attitude.

In our school days, we had studied the short story of the Spider and the King Bruce. King Bruce had lost his kingdom in a war and was much disappointed over the loss. He was sitting serene. Suddenly he saw a spider. The spider was trying to climb high on its thread. It tried to climbe and slipped. Again it tried and slipped. Like that the spider went on trying and falling several times. Perhaps it was his seventeenth attempt, when the spider finally succeeded to climb to its destination through the thread. The scene gave a new hope to the King. He too decided to fight again to regain his lost kingdom and of course he succeeded.

This sort of attitude is required to be taken in life. If such an attitude is taken, every failure becomes a step towards success.