It was an assembly of more than 100 people. It was asked of the audience to demonstrate a story with a lovely moral. It was an open offer and I took the initiative in telling the story. I sought permission from the audience to tell a story in a different style and manner and asked a young married woman to come forward and write the names of 30 people who are important in her life.
She started writing the names of all her family members, her friends, relatives, teachers, well-wishers, etc. Now, I asked her to remove five names out of those. I told her to inform the audience who they were. She did so by revealing that they were her friends. I requested her to remove another six from the list. When asked, she revealed that they were her close friends. When I said that she should remove five in the next circle, she deleted the names of her distant relatives. The next three that she removed were her close relatives and finally, the next two were her teachers.
She was left with only 10 names and she became anxious- who should I remove next if I’m asked to? I innocently continued, and asked her to remove three more – husband’s family members were removed. When I said next two, the father- in- law and mother- in- law were removed. She was left with the last 5 and those were her core family members i.e father, mother, husband, her son & daughter. I said next two please, she removed her parents, I said next one please, her daughter’s name was removed. She retained her husband and son’s name. Now, she really became nervous and she wanted me to close the story but I said only one more step, and I will conclude the story.
I told her to remove one out of the two left. While she took some time to eliminate one, I could feel the pulse of the whole crowd. Tension surfaced as everyone was awaiting her decision – husband or son? Finally, she removed the name of the son, and when asked why, she wisely answered that after some years, her son will leave her and the only one who will stay by her side always is her husband. The audience applauded her and people thanked me for a sensitive story.
The beauty was that the assembly was so much involved with the story and started thinking about whom they would have eliminated in the last round – spouse or offspring?
