At The Break Of Dawn

An old washer-woman lived in a village. She had a rooster that would crow loudly at the break of dawn. As soon as the rooster would announce the beginning of a new day, the old woman would get up and begin her endless chores for the day.

So mechanical and punctual were the timings of the rooster and the old woman, that you could have matched the accuracy of your watch with them. Everything worked in such a clockwork manner that the old woman believed that the sun would not rise and the day would not commence unless her cock crowed.

One day the village children messed about with the laundry whites that the old washer-woman had so meticulously hung out in the sun to dry. Seeing the dirty stains on the spotless white linen that she had just put out, the septuagenarian was livid. She lashed out angry words at the youngsters and swore that she would get the better of them.

That evening she along with her precious rooster moved, bag and baggage to the adjoining village. She shouted, “Let me see how the day starts here now without my rooster. You shall be made to suffer an eternal night from now on. It serves you right for misbehaving, you insolent people!”

The next day, some villagers from her home village came in search of the washerwoman to ask for their laundry. Before they could say anything, she said, “Ah! So now you have come to beg forgiveness! You could have avoided this, if those good for nothing children had known better. But you have to suffer darkness now. The day shall not break in your village.” The villagers were in splits of laughter at the ignorance of the self opinionated old woman.

Sometimes we are so full of our own importance that we cannot even think rationally. No one is so important that the world would come to a standstill if they weren’t there. Everyday people die, but the world goes on. Ego is a killer disease of which the wise stay clear!