Golden Flax Tales The Brave Little Parrot - Four Levels of Interactions (Nepal, adapted by Martin) For: BA / BBS First Year (Business English)

Literal Comprehension: The tale “The Brave Little Parrot” has been adopted by Rafe Martin from the Buddhist Legend. Once, Lord Buddha was born as a little parrot. He lived in a beautiful forest. One day, a storm came in that forest. The thunder crashed and flashed so a dead tree struck (caught) a fire and suddenly broke out the fire in the entire forest. All the creatures were trapped. They cried and tried to escape from the trap. The Parrot saw the condition and planned to save them. He flew to a nearby river and dived into the water and flew back to the forest. Then he dropped tiny drops of water to control the fire. He did it several times. His wings were burnt and feet became black due to scorching fire. His eyes were red and lungs ached so he felt dizzy.

He was still doing the job. Meanwhile, some of the Gods were traveling around the forest that saw his work and laughed at him saying that the little parrot was foolish. At the same time, one of the gods disguised himself into a great shinning eagle and went with a parrot. The eagle asked him not to do foolish work. The parrot replied that he didn’t need advice rather he needed his help. After that, the eagle felt ashamed and started to weep. The tears fell down ashes that changed it into new plants. The fire suddenly vanished and some drops of tear fell upon the parrot and his feather and body recovered making him more beautiful than the previous one. All the creatures cheered up seeing the green forest.

Interpretation: The legendary story may be trying to convince us that courage is the most powerful weapon, therefore, on should fight forever or ever try to do something continuously. If we do some work selflessly looking at the target, sooner or later, we will get success whether the target seems impossible. It is our duty to carry out the task. For instance, little parrot got success in his attempt to put out the raging fire and to save the life of many animals so the god also helped him. The story might give us a lesson that work or help is necessary during the problems instead of mere advice or talk.

Critical thinking: This is a Buddhist legendary story to carry moral lesson to the readers. The moral theme is about the idea of service to the needy and helpers ones unquestionably. But I disagree in some points, therefore, I may put forward my questions: Can a man reborn as a parrot? Do the gods exist on the earth? Can the drops of tear flow the stream? These points are unbelievable so the writer’s plot of the story made me disagree. Still, other aspects of this story are truly acceptable. Finally, the ethics of help to helpless and needy ones is very convincing one.

Assimilation: After reading this story, I recalled an incident which took place in my village. There was a young boy who saved an old and helpless woman’s life. Two years ago when I was going to my maternal uncle’s house, I saw a crowd at the bank of the river. I went closer and saw a woman who was diving into the river by struggling for her life and death. Suddenly, a young boy (who was very good at swimming) jumped into the river and took her out from the water. She was in an unconscious state. Later on, she opened her eyes and we thanked him heartily for his courageous work. This event also made me feel to help needy people.