Poor Hare....

The tortoise over the years became an iconic image for slow and steady for all the children across the globe. And he was quite amused with himself feeling like an achiever. On the other hand, the hare had his portion of disappointments locked in his heart. He knew his fault that he was not focused and was reckless; for which he paid a price over all these years looking small in the eyes of the children.

This Christmas something happened. The hare thought to make a change to this utter insult attached to his name for the sake of posterity. He invited the tortoise to have one more race to validate last time results. And to his surprise, the tortoise agreed with a clause that whoever reaches home first, he wins.  

On the Christmas day, after lunch, all the animals gathered in the bright sun filled afternoon to see the race. It was not a simple race, rather a race for the next generation. The conditions were read again to make it clear to both the hare and the tortoise that “whoever reaches home will be the winner.” And the race began.

This time, the hare came prepared to be fast and consistent. After few steps, he wanted to check how is he doing against his opponent. When he turned back to see how far the tortoise has come, he saw the tortoise has not moved an inch from the starting point, rather happily nudged himself into his shell as if sleeping peacefully. Then it occurred to him that the condition kept was not to reach the finishing line, but reaching home. He cursed himself getting lost again.

This time, he learnt a bigger lesson. Consistency in effort is not good enough to win. Understanding the goalpost clearly, i.e. where one needs to go; is equally important.