Growing up in a lower middle class family in the pre-Merdeka era must have been a good time for children to be exposed to story telling from their elders. Entertainment as we can imagine must have been scarce. When putting rice on the dinner is a daily struggle, everything else is secondary. Television was not existent - TV Malaysia came into existence in 1963. You have to be born with a silver spoon to have unlimited access to story books.
My sisters and I, born in early Generation-X (1961-1981, by definition), did enjoy a little bit of comfort by our parents' standards in the form of easier access to story books, newspapers and TV . The Penang State library was a favourite haunt for me, besides the class and school library. I use to read Enid Blyton books, mainly. The State library used to be situated in the Supreme Court building but was later relocated to Dewan Sri Pinang. Besides story books, I used to get my cravings for the imaginary world via TV and story telling. Some prominent storytellers were Periya Atteh (with her crocodile who wanted to eat a monkey's liver story), Susila (Amma's adopted sister) and Rajes-Parames and gang with their pati-pati and the children who ate durian and were later assigned to take care of her food and money stories!
Of all the stories we were exposed to, many of Aesop's fables stuck on to the mind like glue. And amongst all his fables, the one that stands out like a sore thumb is the story of the farmer and his donkey. It goes something like this....
Long long ago, the was a time when a land was hit by bad times. Famine and misery was the order of the day. The yield of the land that year was dismal and farmers had it real bad. So, this old farmer decided to sell his last worldly possession, a donkey, at the market place to feed his family.
The next day, he and his young son set foot to the market place. The farmer led the donkey by a leash and the son was following behind. Before long came a stranger who commented, "Are you stupid or what? You have a donkey and you don't ride on it!" The farmer asked the son to ride the donkey and they continued the journey.
Then came another stranger who chided, "What a stupid boy you are, your old father is all drained out and you are riding the ass gallantly!" So, the farmer obliged and both he and his son mounted the donkey!
Then came another wise guy who was an old acquaintance. After finding the reason for the trip, the Einstein proposed that (in order not make the animal appear weary and drained out when it reaches tits destination to be sold) they tie their priced possession by its feet and carry it on a pole to the market! And they did just that with much difficulty of a struggling donkey.
Just before reaching the market place they had to maneuver through a narrow bridge. Of course the struggling animal fell into the river and died. The farmer and his son went home wet, hungry, penniless and melancholic!
The lesson is self explanatory - use your brains, do not follow blindly and above all common sense should prevail! Sometimes what you are doing could be just the right thing to do.
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