Prasenjeet Kumar - Quiet Phoenix 2: From Failure to Fulfilment: A Memoir of an Introverted Child

Let Me Tell You A Story....

O nce upon a time, a young Phoenix (born, of course, out of the ashes of his mother) was wandering about in the forest, looking quite lost and forlorn.

A convocation of eagles noticed that the young bird was without his mother and took pity on him. The convocation thought, quite correctly, that the Phoenix Jr. had probably lost his mother and that without proper parental care he would perish in the wilderness.

So the eagles decided to adopt the young Phoenix.

When the Phoenix bird became a few months older, he was sent to an institution where young eaglets were trained to become real eagles.

Not being a natural eagle, the young Phoenix had a very traumatic time at this institution. From the first day itself, other eaglets started making fun of the young Phoenix. Whereas all the other eaglets were dark brown in colour with white heads and yellow beaks, the young Phoenix had a colourful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet. His neck appeared to reflect almost all the colours of the rainbow which the eaglets found disgusting. His beak was in the shape of a rose, which looked timid and too effeminate. His eyes were mild and tender unlike his eaglet counterparts whose eyes were fierce and threatening.

Look! That is one of the ugliest creatures I have seen on Earth, remarked one eaglet.

Yellow, yellow, dirty fellow...., joked another.

All the eaglets started laughing.

The young Phoenix did not know how to react.

May be something is really wrong with me, thought the young Phoenix.

The coaching sessions were equally disastrous.

The young Phoenix was constantly taught to act like an Eagle. The teachers were exasperated that while other eaglets easily took to hunting and eating flesh, the young Phoenix was just not interested in doing either.

Horror of horrors, he liked wild berries.

Why dont you learn hunting like your other eaglet friends, confronted one.

How can you build powerful muscles if you dont get proteins from flesh, scolded another.

Pardon me teacher, but I just dont like hunting. Also I appear to be surviving quite well on wild berries, mumbled the young Phoenix.

Plus in my spare time, I like singing, added the young Phoenix.

This was the most uneagely answer that the teachers had ever heard.

Eagles are not supposed to sing, scoffed one teacher.

The teachers considered the young Phoenix to be stubborn and incorrigible. They predicted a miserable adult life for him which was evident from the fact that he did not appear to have any eaglet friends. Nobody wanted to play with the young Phoenix, simply because he looked ugly, weird and yes, different.

The matter was soon reported to the adoptive parents of the young Phoenix, who were naturally alarmed. The Young Phoenix was not growing to be an Eagle. Worse, any advice that he should behave like an Eagle was proving to be counter-productive.

Meanwhile the young Phoenix was losing confidence and kept thinking as to why Mother Nature had made him the way he was.

Till one day, when he met another Phoenix bird. This bird was older, both in age and experience. The first thing he did was to tell the young bird that as a Phoenix, he was NEVER supposed to be an eagle.

Instead, as the elder patiently explained, he was born with unique powers of his own.

While Eagles live up to the age of 20 years, the Phoenix are destined to live for hundreds of years. In fact, the latter are almost immortal because even after the end of his lifecycle, it was assured that his offspring would rise from his ashes.

The older Phoenix bird then took the younger one out of the Eagle Institution into the human world. He showed him there a school teacher reciting a story about the Phoenix bird to other human students.

Humans considered the phenomenon of rising from ashes as a symbol of immortality or of reborn hope or idealism. The Phoenix was associated with a person or thing that had been restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation.

Humans considered crying of the Phoenix bird to be beautiful. They believed that the tears of a Phoenix bird could heal wounds.

The Phoenix bird is a true legend for the humans, thought the pleasantly surprised Young Phoenix.

Whereas the Eagle has been associated with strength and aggression and has been a prominent symbol of Governments from ancient Rome to the modern day United States of America, the Phoenix legend is bigger, representing undying hope and optimism.

And finally what the elder bird spoke became the lifelong motto for the younger bird:

You are born to be a Phoenix, so stay true to your inner self.

Let Me Tell You Another Story

L et us come to the human world and take up a very common story.

The story is about two friends, or rather neighbours, who used to study in different schools but play together once they were back from their schools. Lets call them Winnie and PJ.

Winnie was the stronger of the two, and thought himself to be more worldly wise. Once Winnie lost to PJ in the hide-and-seek game that they were playing and couldnt control his frustration.

You cheated! Just one of your really bad habits I suppose, Winnie shouted.

What bad habits? PJ asked, a little surprised.

Your sneaky nature. I have noticed, for example, that when others quarrel at the football field, you simply stand and watch. You never join issues or come to support one player over the other, Winnie said, quite out of context.

Really? was all the reaction that the surprised PJ could manage.

And then Winnie took off:

I am saying this in your best interest. You seem so aloof. You should socialise more with others and take interest in other peoples affairs.

You are too Quiet (in a terribly negative sense). You should be like an open book. Share stories, crack jokes.

PJ was too stunned to react.

Here is a tip from me. Never stay quiet among a group of friends. Always say something. Crack jokes, even it means interrupting them in the middle of a conversation. Think of interesting comments, and people will start noticing you. This way only can you become more popular with your friends, Winnie continued.