There lived a farmer. He had his small piece of land on which he cultivated and fed his family. Farmer and his family lived in a big room as his conditions did not permit him to build another room. Although the room was not enough for the nine members of the family, however, they lived happily in it as they had at least a shelter to be safe of the harshness of the weather. At times, a desire rose up from the core of the farmer's heart to build another room but he had to sigh and make the desire to sleep again.
One day, the King came out for hunting and lost his companions. He came to the village, tired and exhausted. The farmer took him to his house and served him in the best possible manner. After some time, companions of king also joined him. King was happy of the humble and sincere services of the farmer. Before leaving, he asked him to come to palace and collect his reward for this.
Farmer was jubilant for this. The desire that was sleeping from many years rose up and started dancing violently. After a few days, he went to the palace where King was kind enough to greet him warmly. But now, King was not in a village, where he was tired and helpless. He was among people who were praising his every word, either right or wrong. He had again become a typical King; sitting high, talking first, giving the final order and feeling superior to all. However, the farmer told about his difficulties in his present single room and expressed his desire to be kindly granted with more land where he could build a bigger house for his family.
In normal conditions, this innocent wish could have been easily fulfilled but then King looked at his smiling and flattering advisors. He thought of doing something smart and appear as the 'man of the occasion'. He rebuked the farmer as not being grateful for his present room as there lived many in his kingdom who lived under the open sky and had no shelter to hide their heads. In the stream of his rage, he ordered a cow to be tied in the room of the farmer and ordered the farmer to live in the room along with the cow. The disappointed and frightened farmer had to return with his head bent down.
The already difficult life became even more difficult to the farmer's family as now they shared this room with a cow tied in it. The dirt and smell of cow seemed unbearable to them but they were helpless. The old days appeared much comfortable to them when they were the soul owners of this room. Now, they realized that their room was not much small and they were living much comfortably, though they had not realized it.
Anyhow, six months passed away and King ordered his men to bring back the cow. The family was greatly relieved. They cleaned the room nice and proper and the room appeared to them much comfortable, hospitable, broad and beautiful. Now they viewed this room with an entirely different angle. Before this, they looked at it as a room not having enough space but now the same room looked absolutely different.
There are many stories in our literature and folklore. A similar story is shared by Saadi in his famous 'Gulistan' that a man who was afraid of water started screaming and crying when he got on a boat. People tried to calm him down but all in vain. As a final remedy, he was thrown into the water where he actually realized the dangers hidden in water.
He went down and emerged on surface of water many times. When he was about to be drowned, he was pulled up into the safe-haven of ship. As he had seen the real danger so now this corner of the ship appeared to him to be very safe and he felt much contented to be there. He then sat quietly in this corner for the rest of the journey.
Our time is a time of competition, a competition which is fierce and brutal. This competition has left us all like a 100 meter race runner. A runner in this race forgets each and everything for some seconds. His breath touches the skies, his eyes appear to be coming out of their circles, eyebrows are strained, and forehead frowns but he keeps running till he crosses the finish line. Luckily, the struggle of racer ends after 100 meters but ours continues and unfortunately gets worse with every passing day.
This race has hurt us in another way as well. We stop realizing our own good and advantageous points and keep our eyes on things which we don't have. This in return, hurts us from two angles. Firstly, we never become able to realize the good things that life has offered to us. Secondly, we enter a situation in which we always feel as if lacking something and thus our days and nights are covered with dark and bleak clouds of uncertainty and disappointment.
It is said that one can never realize the worth of his good days unless he comes face to face with the bad days. Same is the case with all the gifts being offered to us by life. The real value of good health can only be understood by a person who is suffering from a pain-stacking disease.
A man who was complaining of his torn shoes fell down in gratefulness to God when he saw a person who didn't have any legs to wear the shoes.
This is also a common observation that many people leave their beloved country to foreign lands presuming that there would be comfort and prosperity in every corner of other countries but when they reach there, they are greatly disappointed and they sigh in the memory of their beloved homeland.
It is also told in our traditional stories that in old days, sons of Kings and the noblemen were trained with a lot of hardships so that they should best realize the worth of the comfortable life they lived at their houses.
A teacher of mine who was an affluent and respectable member of society used to have dinner of only bread and water with his family once in a week. To his children, the following meals tasted much delicious and tasty.
We have all been bestowed with a lot of blessings and majority of them are free and widely available. Oxygen for breathing, water for drinking, a good health and food (no matter luxurious or simple) and many more are in the reach of everyone.
We look at the life of a person better than us with a different angle, presuming him to be happier or more contented than us, but we don't know that he is also looking at someone better than him, realizing himself to be comparatively less fortunate.
And above all, we have been blessed with a quality to look at the things from a different or better angle. It is never late for a good work. Right from this moment, I am going to look at myself from other's angle and I am sure I will definitely discover many good things that were already in my life but that I had never noticed.