Camel and the Drummer boy!

Long ago in Persia, farmers used to teach their children how to play the drums. This helped scare away small animals and birds which would have otherwise eaten away the crops in the field. Little boys enjoyed playing the drums and used to play all night sitting in the fields. One little boy called Nasir had been learning how to play the drums since he was three-year-old. He used to love the sound of the drums and used to enjoy scaring away the birds and animals.

The Sultan of Persia, Mahmud was a conqueror king who led several military expeditions. Once, he set up camp with his army near Nasir’s family farm. The king also brought with his army a camel on whose back was an enormous war drum. The army drummer used to play the drum during the times of war, for the whole day. As a result of this continuous drumming, the camel was almost completely deaf. The camel could not hear any other sound except the sound of the large war drum. As the sultan’s army spread its camp in that area, the camel happily grazed on the green grass in this fertile area.

On the second morning after its arrival, the camel happened to stroll across Nasir’s family farm and started eating the green crops. Nasir thought that here was his chance to play his drum and scare away the animal. He picked his drum and started playing as fast as he could. The sound of the drum started spreading to nearby fields also. To Nasir’s surprise, the sound of the drum made no impact on the camel and he happily continued to eat the farm’s crops. The camel, being almost completely deaf, could hardly hear the sound of the small drum that Nasir was playing.

Nasir had been playing the drum for hours and the farmers in the nearby fields were getting annoyed by the sound. Once of the farmers walked over to Nasir’s farm and after having seen the camel enjoying the crop, understood the problem. He walked over and put an arm around Nasir’s shoulder and asked, “Nasir, are you playing the drum to scare away the camel?”

Nasir nodded, without stopping for a moment. The farmer replied, “Do you know the camel belongs to the army? The camel carries an enormous war drum on its back. This camel is almost deaf due to the loud noise coming out from the giant drum. He can’t hear the low sound of your small drum. He probably hasn’t noticed the sound of your drum even once. Young man, not every drum can scare away every animal. Your drum can only scare away small birds and animals, not an army camel!”

Nasir heard everything with rapt attention. He realized the futility of his effort and stopped playing his drum. Silence spread over the fields again.

The END

Learnings

1: Many times we are like “koop-mandook” which means a frog in the well. We only know the well as our whole world and do not know what is happening outside. The boy, unaware of how the camel has been trained in his Army life, is doing what he does best, the beating of his drum but it is not creating any effect on the camel.

2. No matter how passionate and sincere we are, if our effort is incompatible with the task at hand, it will not help. The boy plays the drum for hours together and nothing happens. This emphasizes the important of understanding any problem completely and then find a solution commensurate with the size of the problem, One cant fight the nuclear weapons with swords!

3. This is a story which brings out the importance of how relativity affects everyone. When we are accustomed to our own way of work, we see our world as per our own point of view. Sometimes our view is limited and when we keep repeating our current ways, we see that the results are not coming! At that point, we ought to seek advice from outside. We might be missing something in the larger picture. In the story, the farmer came to the boy and advised him but in our real life, when we do not see the results (despite our efforts ) , we should seek advice from someone whom we think has a larger view point.

3: When we are following a certain practice but results are not coming, we need to look at why that is happening. Working hard is not enough, working smart is also needed. Many times in our life, we might be feeling stuck and we might not also be so lucky like the farm boy (like the farmer who came and helped him). For that, we need periodic introspection and see where we are acting in our old ways and look for new ways (when our old ways may not work for every problem we have been using them for). We advise our readers to stop for a moment and see the areas where they have been following their old ways and have not been able to get a breakthrough. It is advised that we should seek help from someone whom we think has a larger point of view of the situations and may help you to overcome your current predicament

4: Life and suffering makes some of us deaf to new ideas and suggestions. We are so impacted by continuous suffering that we are immune to small pleasures and joys of life. The camel here is an example of a free spirit who is enjoying a good graze irrespective of his own condition and his nearby surroundings. The camel who has been accustomed to the toughness of army life and has became deaf, seems to be unaffected by small drums being played by the boy. This shows how adversities toughen us and make us strong to face small worries easily in the common daily life. So rather than decrying mis-fortune in the life, we should embrace it and try to see how it can toughen us and make our personality strong to become better in our lives.

STORY CREDIT: This story has its source in the six volumes of Masnavi by Jalalu'din Rumi, translated by Maryam Mafi