Monday, 9 March 2020

'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’.

Born to Fly – Part VI

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!

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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