Message...!

A traveller walking through the desert wandered and got derailed. After hours of walk he felt exhausted and ran out of all the water he was carrying. Feeling extremely thirsty he started to look for any source of water, even few drops could have saved his life. The traveller started losing hope as he couldn’t find any humidity as far as he can gaze and the glare of the sun started blinding him. With a dehydrated body and depressed mind the traveller prayed for his life and asked for a ray of hope from the almighty.

As traveller’s eyes were about to close, something flashed from a distance and the traveller, with great enthusiasm, tried to keep his eyes open to focus on what he saw. To his surprise the thing was glittering glass as it appeared from the distance. The traveller pulled himself together and approached the shiny thing with great effort in a time that seemed as eternity. Traveller’s awe had no bounds when he reached the thing and discovered a bottle full of water sealed with a cork wrapped in paper.

When the traveller could set his hands on the bottle, he pulled the cork plug out that made the paper wrapped to it free and come lose in his hands. The traveller was in two minds as he looked at the paper...

‘Should I just throw the paper away and drink the water for my life or should I check the paper first as there might be some message on the paper about the liquid in the bottle...?'

Being a cautious man even in his desperate condition, the traveller decided to read the paper first before soaking his dry throat with the liquid in the bottle. As he unfolded the paper and began to read it, he couldn’t believe what he was reading! It was not just a piece of paper with some rudimentary instructions but almost a manual of life, the traveller thought as he grasped the content and intent of the paper to the extent of his cognitive ability and sensitive empathy.

The paper said that there is a hand-pump installed within 100 steps from the place which would force-out water from its spout when pumped. And there is no limit to the amount of water one can draw as long as the handle of the pump is kept in motion. This simply meant that the traveller need not be content with just a bottle of water but he could refill the bottle he found along with all other water containers he had carried with him and even take a bath to drench himself in abundant water as he would get as much water as he could.

However there was a little star of ‘*Condition Apply’ to this ‘Plentiful Offer’ – The hand-pump must have been dried for being at rest for a long long time, so to set it in motion and make it function to fetch the water from the ground deep down below, it would need some moisture! The only way to add some humidity to the dried mechanism of the hand-pump is to pour the entire water in the bottle in the neck of the pump so that the metal of the machine will work smoothly. This got the traveller thinking.

The piece of glass that seemed to offer solace to the traveller moments earlier, put him in the dilemma now. This was the choice of life... for himself as well for his fellow men that would trail this path sometime in future and find themselves in the same condition as he was in at the moment! So what the completely dehydrated, desperate and exhausted traveller would do? Would he just ignore the message as a prank or something and drink the entire content of the bottle in hand or would he believe every word of the message and follow it religiously...?

What would you do...?

Now are you wondering what is this story about and is there any moral to it? Well, almost everything I share on any platform could be traced to ‘Sustainability’ and 'CSR' in one form or other... so get the hint!

And for the moral of the story... it’s your take to devise a moral of your choice to the story as per your conscious, empathy and understanding of yourself and society you are part of, isn’t it?

A word of caution though... Choose wisely!

Way to go...