December 25, 2004

I came home that day with a sullen face and a broken heart — I had not done so well in my math test and everyone else’s snide comments had made a rough day even rougher. To top it off my other assignments had sunk in a bit too.

It was my beloved granny, of course, who first noticed my long face and called me. After asking about what had happened, she went into a little thought for a while and then smiled. This upset me because I thought she was smiling at my problems. I got up to leave the room but she called me back and patted the empty seat next to her.

That was when she told me a story that changed my life and gave me back my lost confidence.

Once in a wild, green garden, there was a vast pond, as blue as the sky, with wild reeds and beautiful lilies floating on the surface. But in the garden there was also a dried up well, which did not have a single drop of water.

It was in this garden that once a couple of frogs had given birth to their young ones and their family now stretched all over the vast garden — the place was blooming with frogs!

One day Billy frog and Tilly frog were playing in the garden when suddenly their ball bounced off towards the dried up well and fell into it. The frogs exchanged worried looks. After some consideration, they leaned carefully over its walls to try and get the ball back. All of a sudden there was a hard gust of wind and they lost their balance and fell in.

The frogs started crying for help and tried their best to get out of the well by jumping up. Soon their cries of despair were heard and quite a few frogs looked down at them from the edge of the well. They also tried to help them but in vain. As night began to fall the frogs started to leave saying it was quite impossible to get out of the well and that they were to stay their till death found them.

Billy took their words to heart and gave up hope. He slumped in a corner and decided that a painful slow death would be his fate. Tilly, however continued her quest. She kept jumping and with each jump went higher and higher. She had blocked the discouraging words of the village frogs from her mind.

It took her an entire day of jumping but she managed to jump high enough in the end to jump out of the well. She had escaped! She looked down at Billy who looked up at her in astonishment and admiration.

“You can do it too Billy!” cried Tilly hopping around. “Come on, I did it, you can do it too. You must try.” These words of encouragement lifted the spirits of the battered frog and he too started jumping. It was difficult, but Tilly never stopped encouraging him and after a day he jumped straight out of the well.

They went back to playing ball and proved to the villagers that nothing was impossible if you have faith in yourself.

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