Two Travellers - By Dr.B.S.Patil

Once upon a time, in the planes of India, two persons met on a cross road.  They greeted each other walked a small distance and took a shelter under a huge banyan tree. The sumptuous lunch which they carried themselves and cool breeze on a bright day put them to sleep.

When they woke up after a short nap, they felt embarrassed of spending time together and not knowing each other. With guilt in eyes, one of the traveller asked, ‘I am sorry, I did not speak to you during lunch, may I know where you are going?

Other traveller who was equally uncomfortable replied, ‘I am on pilgrimage; I began my journey today morning. I come from a nearby village’.  The first traveller replied, ‘me too on pilgrimage’. Praising his luck, he said, ‘I was feeling lonely, now I have god sent company’.

After exchange of initial pleasantries, they packed their things and continued their journey. They wanted to reach next village before dawn. During walk, first pilgrim inquired, ‘my friend, what you do with your life?

The other traveller replied, ‘I write, I write on philosophy, politics and economics.’ I am working on a book of one thousand pages’.

To this, first pilgrim replied, ‘oh, such a serious work. I do same thing, but not like you’. 

Other pilgrim looked puzzled.

First pilgrim continued, ‘I write small poems and prose for children as well as grown ups’.

In a teasing voice, other traveller said, ‘your writing is not a serious one, you write to pass your time and others read to pass their time. Your work doesn’t contribute to the society’.

Other pilgrim nodded disapprovingly and said, ‘you write without understanding, others read and never understand. Your work is waste of time’. And he added, ‘at least my work is to pass time’.

First pilgrim was miffed. To settle the argument he said, ‘I will be legend in coming days, people will forget your name.’

Contrary to his belief, the statement didn’t settle the argument; it gave nice breeze to inflame.  Both were ready for next level of fight, they were ready for exchange of blows, by that time, they came across big group of pilgrims, every one greeted each other and continued the journey. In the larger group both got separated and argument was put to halt.

By that time, it was evening; sun was getting ready to rest for the upcoming night. The group reached a village. Villagers welcomed the pilgrims and everybody was invited to be guest of their home. All pilgrims accepted invitation one by one.

Again, both first and other traveller accepted invitation from the same person and they end up sharing a room in a house.

Invariably, other pilgrim wanted to pick up fight from where it was stopped. Emotions were not as high or as hot as afternoon sun, but all good feelings between them were lost.

The argument between them continued. Other pilgrim said, ‘I am not writing for name or fame, I am writing to develop reading habits among people’.

For the betterment of both, the arguments looked to have turned towards merits of each other’s case from insulting one another. And supplemented, ‘without reading habit, your work would not read by anybody’.

First pilgrim, rejecting the argument said, ‘my work is for fashioning better society, I want everybody to read it, more importantly I want it to be read by men who can bring change’.

Other pilgrim, tried to put forth his next line of argument, ‘mother only gives birth to child and physically make it man or woman, my work transforms man into gentleman, and woman into a lady.

First pilgrim argued back, ‘I make gentleman and lady into nobleman and statesman’.

The pitch of the voice was ever increasing. At that moment there was a knock on the door. When they opened the door, they saw man of the house standing there with eyes filled with sleep.

He said impatiently, ‘I heard both of you speaking; you both seem to be intelligent and well read. But both of you failed to see that both of you are doing good work in your own way. Why can’t both of you appreciate each other’s work.’

Principle of Negotiation:

Roger Fischer said, “Always there is an agreement with in disagreement”. Keep your mind open to see and appreciate it.