Why paint the Queen?

 Let me begin by narrating an old story that many might have heard earlier. The story of a King who was diagnosed with a disease to which the cure was unknown. Sometimes, I get amazed by the 'exact same storyline with a different climax' clichē in fables and old tales. I mean, how many stories could one possibly make about a King who gets sick? But I guess the earlier people had an exceptional expanse of imagination and that they just lacked the skill to create a new background for it (or could it have been the lack of apt backgrounds?). So, as the story usually goes, they searched far and wide in the country and finally found a very wise person who knew a solution for salvation!

The king had a rare disease that was found only in one in a million people (by the way, how does living in the most hygienic condition possible lead to these diseases?). The only known cure to this disease was to see the colour green and green only for a month and a half. Thus, it was ordered that the entire kingdom be painted green. The palace, the furniture, the floors, the clothes, the servants, the visitors and even the queen herself. A month later, the scholar returned to visit the king. He was wonderstruck on seeing the green engulfment that had overcome the palace. He too was obliged to paint himself if he were to see the king. The king however, now recovering well, rewarded him handsomely. Just as he was about to leave, the scholar turned around and with a sly smile on his face, asked, "Your Majesty, instead of painting your wife, couldn't YOU have worn green glasses?"

The thing that keeps those tales fresh despite the clichē is the message that they hold (then again, you can't blame an old tale for becoming clichēd). Morals are secretly/visibly embedded in almost every single one of them (Disney fairytales excluded). Just like in this one; even though what the scholar said seems quite wise in the ways of the world, it does not quickly ring as to how it can make a difference in our normal lives. 

One could imply that the king was simply selfish. But perhaps he just fell short of ideas when it came to tactful concluding. Not all people are equally blessed. It is all about putting ourselves in the other person's shoes and trying to read a scenario from there. The king too, like many of us, was not bright enough to think of changing himself as a possibility.

Sometimes our life pits us against ourselves. When that happens, we never look for the solution in us. This is because we don't recognize where the flaw is. Whenever things are going left, it need not always be someone else's fault; it may even have been us who caused them to act in a certain way. But how do we sort out where the issue lies? The homo sapien is definitely not the most predictable specie but the most we can do is to try and see the situation from their point of view. 

One simple question, "What would I have done I was the one in their situation?"

The answer to this will not always be easy. Think of it not with your level of comprehension but with theirs. Let's not judge anybody and instead of always complaining, let's try and become a better person for ourselves. 

I don't mean to trigger anybody. Yes, bad people do exist. It is not always us, it can also be them. Truth has several faces. Not all of them can be favourable. Some are bitter but that doesn't make it any less of a truth. Our and the other person's truths may not always match. Theirs may not even be the truth but as long as we don't know of what their truth is, let's not blame them.

(P.S. please do forgive the clichēd fable talk in between. At times, the thoughts of the mind are too loud to be left untold.)

- Fathima Naushad