Individuality

In my school days I used to hear a lot of stories from everyone. One of the stories is “The Snake and the Monk”.

In a remote village there lived a snake which had a bad habit of biting people as and when it wants, so many people died. As a result of this, the people of the village decided to kill the snake and started to chase the snake. During this chase, the snake and the villagers happened to cross the path of a Buddhist monk. Being a noble soul, and seeing the plight of the snake he requested the villagers to back off and talked to the snake.

The monk asked the snake why it is biting everyone unnecessarily. The snake told the monk, “If I don’t bite people then, these people will not be afraid of me and will kill me”. Upon hearing this monk asked the snake not to bite anyone unnecessarily since it results in loss of human life. The snake promised the monk that it won’t bite any human being unnecessarily. Satisfied with the answer, the monk continued his journey.

After few months, the monk happened to pass through the same village. He was astonished to see the same scene again, the snake being chased by a group of villagers. He stopped the chase and inquired what had happened. Soon he learnt that since the snake had stopped biting, people in the village grew less fearful about the snake and started harassing the snake. Looking at the pathetic condition of the snake, the monk asked the snake “why all this is happening?” The snake replied “Ever since people got knew of the promise the snake made to the monk, this has been a daily affair”. Then the monk said “you promised me not to bite, however you can still hiss at people” to show that you still have the venom and can be dangerous”.

Why did I think about this story suddenly? I don’t know. Extending the concept said to human beings, how can a person be assertive but at the same time make sure he is not bordering anger. How can a person make sure he is not treated according to the whims and fancies of other person? How can a human being “Hiss” but yet not “Bite” others. In short how can a person retain his individuality yet be flexible with others.

For now I can think of the following ways, it doesn’t matter what words you are using, what matters the tenor and harshness in the tone, because human being primarily being primates, body language is far more communicative rather than words.

Let me try this out in this open world, since for quite some time I have been branded as an ‘angry man’. If my existing network of people are able to realize a change in me or if the new people whom I may meet don’t brand me, then my solution is correct for my scenario.