Li Bla Fi or
The fable of The Little Black Fish
By famed fabulist Samad
Behrangi
A fable that’s sure gonna
change your perspective to life and living, a full 360 degrees, you bet!
Well, that’s the story of the Little Black Fish in a nutshell for us all!
Well, that’s the story of the Little Black Fish in a nutshell for us all!
And this fable is gonna
be that amazing game-changer of sorts for us all, in any many ways!
That said, shall we, dear reader,
move gently into the world, oops… the sea ;-) of the Little Black Fish! - Li Bla
Fi ;-)
Seagulls have been around,
doing the rounds for a long period of time in literatures from across the
world!
Be it for Pushkin, for Tolstoy,
for Chekhov, for Bach, or for the bevy of great litterateurs from across the
world’s eight corners, the seagull forebodes, foreshadows or foregrounds some
real elegant symbolism!
To some, the seagull is symbolic of a carefree
life void of burdensomed nitty gritties, freedom unlimited, and as such an
independence worth the relish and the cherish!
To some others however,
the seagull is a portent symbol too!
To Samad - Samad Behrangi,
eminent Iranian teacher, writer and folklorist, the seagull proves such-much!
One writer who like his Chinese
counterpart Mo Yan, (More on Mo, here!) had the guts to rebel against bigoted
dogmas and prejudiced practices of a repressive system, Samad wrote down such
amazing children’s stories too!
Those of us who’ve specialized
in Children’s Literature, musta sure come across Samad some time or the other!
In fact, Samad is a famed
fabulist who subtly weaves through his fables such intense moral stories that
are Jo-Swift-like in their appeal! Their impact lies in the fact that, they appeal not only to children, but also prove a subtle satire on the political order too!
That’s hence Samad once
famously remarked that,
Children’s literature must build
a bridge between the colorful dream world full of fantasy and illusion, and a
tougher real world full of twists and turns. The child armed with the torch of
knowledge, awareness and guidance must cross this bridge and set foot to the
intense harshness of the bigger world.
Well-said, Samad!
Samad’s The
Little Black
Fish then, is a highly insightful, memorable,
and impactful fable, much akin to Bach’s Jo
Li Sea!
The story line has a lot of
similarities too!
In fact, convergences galore
between Jo Li Sea and Li Bla Fi.
At the same time,
divergences too galore after a particular point-line! And howww!
The storyline to Li Bla Fi doesn’t don the
long page-lines of a Bach’s!
That’s because Samad has a
treasure-trove of other stories too, lined up in this antho!
The introduction to the book
is so beautiful! So intense! So pertinent! Please do read it first before
venturing into the fabulous fable of the fish!
Samad the folklorist and
fabulist who was also a pioneering educationist, is of the strongest opinion
that, education is in fact, the most important and most fundamental need of a society, to ward off ignorance, injustice, discrimination, prejudices and lack
of freedom!
The fable of The Little Black Fish is a lovely
case in point!
This little black fish, is,
like Jo Li Sea, quite a
non-conformist, who is so weary and so woebegone
because of his drudge-like existence in a very small brook! He feels like a
frog-in-the-well, so dissatisfied and restless with his way of life, a life
without any aim, goal or purpose in any way, whatsoever!
So he decides, one fine day, with
conviction, strong and bold, to set out on a venture of sorts! He decides to
take a voyage to the deep blue sea! To get to know about life and living as it
is lived in other parts of the world, their cultures, their rituals, their
habits etc! By this means, he wishes to acquire for himself a first-hand awareness
and experience about other lands and other cultures!
While now on his journey, at each
pitstop, he faces a new situation, a new challenge, a new face, and thereby
learns for himself resilience, strength and resolve! As such, he’s so proud of
his bold and daring decision to set out to the sea! The deep blue sea!
While in Jo Li
Sea it’s the deep blue skies,
In Li Blu Fi
it’s the deep blue seas!
En route, he also gets words
of suggestion and encouragement from a lovely friend – a lizard – who ups his ante,
by encouraging him to go ahead, bold and strong, and to arm himself with a
little dagger for tackling any danger that may befall him on the way!
The ending to the fable
is so touching! So inspiring! You should read it in a solemn, solitary place,
to enjoy the grandeur of it all!
Samad power, you may call it!
Some power-quotes in this
fab-fable are equally lovelyyy! Worth cherishing to the core!
I might face death any
minute now! But I should not put my life in danger as long as I can live. Of
course, my death is not that important, because it will happen anyway. My
purpose is: how will my life or death impact the lives of others.
The fable here is narrated
by a pretty old fish to all her children and grandchildren about a Little Black
Fish!
Well, sadly, since the whole
of the world wide web doesn’t have the fable of the little black fish in any of
its reservoirs, me thought of typing it out for y’all, to help like-minded
buddies and folks to cherish this lovely Samad-presentation!
So here’s hoping to give
y’all the fable in snatches! In regular instalments!
But but but… my only request
for you, dear reader, is this: please have a cuppa coffee in hand, recline regally
on your most favourite sette, and then proceed to relish this Samad-fable! ;-)
Anything less, and your
happiness-quotient on reading the Little Black Fish is sure gonna take a kutty little nosedive of sorts! Ketto! ;-)
Here we go, right into the
fable -
On a chilly night
at the
bottom of the sea, the old fish gathered twelve thousand of his children and
grand-children and began to tell them this story:
Once upon a time,
there was
a little black fish who lived with her mother in a small stream. This stream
was flowing out of the stoney walls of a great mountain and pouring into the
valley below.
Every day, all
day long, the
Little Black Fish and her mother strolled back and forth across the stream.
One day the little
fish was
deeply in thought and spoke very little. Without joy or interest, she swam
lazily behind her mother. The mother thought that her daughter was sick and
that she’d soon be better. It never crossed her mind that the ‘sickness’ of the
little fish had very special causes.
Early the next
morning,
before the sun came up, the little fish woke her mother and said, ‘Mother, I can’t
go strolling any more. I’m leaving!’.
Her mother, still
heavy with
sleep said, ‘But where do you want to go at this hour of the morning!?’
The little black
fish replied, ‘I want to
go to see where this stream ends. You know mother, for months I have been
thinking about it and after all this time, I still haven’t been able to figure
it out. From last night to now, I haven’t been able to close my eyes. I’ve done
nothing but think. Finally I have decided that, I must find the end of this
stream myself. And, of course, in that way, I will find out what goes on in other
places as well’.
But the little
black fish’s mother
looked at her and laughed. But little black fish was quite determined. Says she
–
‘Of course, I’ve
learned a lot from here and
there. For example, I have learned that most fish, in their old age complain
that they have wasted their lives on nothing. They always are nagging and
cursing about everything. I’d like to know if life really means swimming in a
little place, going back and forth until you are old, or if there is some other
way you can live in the world!’
Even her neighbor
chides and
admonishes the little black fish for her bold and daring resolve. Says she, ‘Well
now, little one, when was it that you became a sage and a philosopher and
forgot to let us know about it?’
The little fish said
to her,
‘Madame, I don’t know what you mean by a ‘philosopher’ or a ‘sage’. I only know
that I am tired of all this strolling about and I don’t want to go on with it
any longer. I don’t want to grow up and then open my eyes someday to see that I
don’t know anything more than when I started out’.
Samad-power continues…
image: amazondotcom
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