The sick deer

When I was a little boy some 60 years ago, one of my good teachers wanted a hand written page from every student in class every day. This was for improving penmanship (this applies to both males and females).

Being lazy I wrote the same passage every day from my favorite story book. After writing the same thing over and over every day I found that the teacher did not cared less about what I wrote. The only thing he cared about was penmanship.

After writing the same passage over and over I found that I could write the passage without having to look at the book anymore. I had unintentionally memorized the passage.  I got used to writing it within 5 minutes after getting ready to go to school.

Now coming to the rest of the story:

The passage was about a sick deer.  I never figured why I selected that passage for my penmanship.

The friends of the sick deer having heard about its sickness started visiting it almost daily. The sick deer (I guess it did not have a wife) treated them with food that he had collected for a rainy day. Finally the deer died.

After the post mortem it was found that the deer died not because of any illness, but due to lack of food.

The punch line in Sinhala goes like this (antimedee muva male asaneepayen nova aahara  hinga kameni )

Morale of the story:
1. Don’t eat from the sick person’s food collection when you visit the sick.
2. Take some healthy food to the sick person if and when you visit a sick person.
3. It is ok to write the same passage to improve the penmanship, but select a passage that will haunt you through the rest of your life!!! The sick deer still haunts me after 60 years….

Written on 08/01/09