LET THE WIND BLOW

Sudha Murthy’s story, ‘HOW THE SEASONS GOT THEIR SHARE’, has a share of depth of understanding for all her readers. In spite of being a story for children, it has in it material to set ticking the minds of adults too. The story in brief mentions about God having six sons namely, Day, Night, Summer, Rain, Winter and Wind. He instructs them to live together peacefully and divide themselves to share the world. So the boys get down to work immediately.

Day and Night being twins, decide to take turns of twenty-four hours each. So for the first twenty-four hours, Day begins to shine and the world remains sparkling with his bright light for all that time. The next twenty-four hours Day goes to rest and Night takes over his duty. Night’s darkness envelopes the earth and the people are left to rest and sleep under the black blanket of nature. The twins feel happy with their decision and believe their plan to be amazing. Then the other brothers, Summer, Rain and Winter decide to take a year each. However, all of them ignore their youngest brother Wind. They simply keep him out of the turns they take, and poor Wind keeps away silently without any demands. Their plan is to allow each brother to take one year completely in his charge; and so begin the seasons on the earth. The first year, Summer heats up the planet to the extent that everything almost gets burnt and dries up. The people of the earth long for some relief from his heat. After a burning hot year, Rain takes charge and pours down heavily to the respite of one and all. Initially, the people who have suffered immensely from the heat of his brother Sun, feel good; but when the downpour continues ceaselessly, they realise that it is not all that blissful. There are floods everywhere and everybody has to remain locked up in their homes without any food since all the crops have got destroyed due to water logging. So for another one year the scenario is painful. Then comes Winter’s turn. This cold brother comes with all his iciness and the people begin to shiver in spite of all the warm clothes they wear. The earth trembles and her denizen are terrified of what has been happening around and in a state of helplessness, they pray to God for a change.

 When the brothers see the unhappiness of the people, whom they were supposed to help as instructed by their father, they begin to worry. They wonder if they have made a mistake in their decisions and get together for a change of plan. After all, they had no plans to harm the earth people! Their new decision therefore is to divide the year in parts with their presence. So Summer being the eldest brother, takes charge for a few months and begins warming the earth. The earth soon begins to grow crops and everybody is happy, for food is being generated. Rain then takes over and drives away the thirst of all the people and helps the growth of crops with his showers. Soon Winter arrives and the crops begin to bear fruits for all and the world is now largely contented. Now when the twins see how their other brothers are sharing and caring, they too decide to share the day. So for twelve hours, Day shines bright and the next twelve hours Night showers his cool light on the earth.

However, a problem still continues to linger. The brothers have not yet teamed up with their youngest sibling. Wind continues to be left out. Because of their keeping him away, Summer’s heat continues to be unbearable without any breeze, with Rain the water continues to fall unevenly on the earth, whereby only some patches of ground get the water and the others stay dry and arid. Even during Winter’s turn, the earth faces a similar problem.

The brothers then realize that the youngest among them whom they had ignored thinking him to be of no use, can in fact be their saviour. They now become aware of his qualities which till now they have left unexplored. Soon they go up to him and repent and bring him into their plan of work. Wind too feels better and joins his brothers without hesitation. It is to be noted that Wind has no pride or strife.

He begins to blow and easily gives relief to the people on earth during the time when Summer lets the sun shine. Also when Rain begins pouring buckets full of water on earth, Wind helps to evenly direct him to different areas and there is equal amount of water on the planet. Winter’s arrival this time, gives joy to the people when Wind touches their nose and makes them feel pink.

The share of understanding I spoke about in the beginning is that, if only in our lives too, we would not ignore the breeze of kind and gentle words, which have the power of understanding to blow away strife of arguments in the summer of anger, we would have a beautiful life. Wind would then blow away the sweat of antagonism leaving us free from the hot sting of bitterness.

The breeze of quiet and kind lips would be a blessing during periods when our lives could be flooded with displeasure and hostility.

The biting cold of violence in moments of aggressive mood, could be lessened with the refreshing breeze of words of affection and love which would give warmth to cold hearts like the comfort given by woollen garments.

Isn’t it after all the winds of charity, sympathy, affection, trust and mercy which help us to approach one another to change painful circumstances everywhere? What a story indeed! Though written for children, we adults too could gain a lot from it.