Croak Croak a little frog was smiling. He was happy to join his colony of uncles and aunts, friends and relatives, brothers and sisters, in a ritual called, ‘Save-the-World’. They held a belief that when ever the world was in need of water, it was their job to bring it on in the form of rain, through their croaking. “We control the rain; louder we croak the harder it falls” said the grand guru.
“So, come on my dears’, let’s do our duty. The whole wide world looks upon us, for its survival”. Little Croak felt very important, as he was about to join the colony for the very first time, in saving the world.
CROAK! the sound travelled in all directions.
CROAK! it reached the sky.
CROAK! the sky responded with a thunder.
CROAK! it rained. As the rain drops fell on Little Croak, his belief was cemented. With his pride intact he grew up into a young beautiful frog. Then one day on his 8th birthday, a tragedy fell on the whole colony. That day as they croaked, it did not rain. “Louder and harder, my dears” encouraged the grand guru. But the sky did not respond. The sun was about to set and each one of them was exhausted from croaking all day.
One day became two, no rain. Two became three, still no rain.
Three gradually progressed to a week, still with no luck. The whole colony was perplexed, first they doubted their own efforts, then they began to blame others and slowly the colony was progressing towards anarchy. The whole world was in danger and more in danger was their pride, their identity, their purpose and still more in danger was their belief. grand guru assured them “I will find out what the problem is” and went to meditate on it. As he was about to settle in a quiet spot, he was startled by what looked like a snake and he jumped up in fright and let out a loud croak. It rained that very instant. From that day on, the whole colony was happily jumping
and croaking, as the grand guru theorised, the sky had moved up; croaking from the ground could not reach it. Thank goodness, the world was safe. Little Croak was not convinced, was a bit sceptical and thought,
“Maybe we croak only when it rains and not the other way around”. When he proposed his theory, everyone laughed and said “what a funny theory”. Only when he persisted with his pet theory, they realised that he was serious about it and his idea was a threat to their way of life. grand guru called on Croak and calmly heard his views. He did not admonish him, for his dangerous idea, but instead allowed him to travel the world and find out the truth.
Croak went from pond to pond, and every where he encountered the same belief, with some minor alterations in their method.
In one colony , all the frogs piled one on top of the other , to get their croaks’ higher. He could judge how high the sky went up, by counting the frogs in the stack; as the sky got higher more frogs stacked up in the stack.
But everyone without exception laughed when he pushed his theory, and now, even he, began to doubt himself. Maybe his theory was flawed, all the frogs in the world could
not be wrong. He had travelled the world and empirically tested his theory. His method was scientific. And now he new for a fact, that as they croaked it rained. Croak took it upon himself to save the world. He decided to travel to places where there was no rain and he would croak to bring it on. Croak, the saviour, travelled from pond to pond spreading the gospel. One day on his journey he came upon a dry patch of land and saw a lot of dead
frogs. He felt sorry, as his early arrival, with the message, could have saved them. When he was about to leave, he heard a faint croak from a frog. He went near and enquired what had happened.
“It did not rain” said the dying frog. “But did you not croak?” “Yes, we did”
“Did you not jump? Did you not stack up?” “Yes, we did all those”
“Then... then...then...” words escaped, Croak. As he was a sad witness to the dying frog, Croak had an epiphany. “Even if I visit all the zillion ponds in this universe, and with all the evidence, I am not going to find the truth. As long as it rained, as they croaked, they live to tell the tale and believe in their beliefs. But a dry pond, with dead frogs, will not stand up for truth, that frogs croak only when it rains and not the other way around”. Croak, the enlightened, now went around spreading this gospel.
The End