The Bow and The Arrows

As Talha walked towards old storeroom, situated at the backside of his house, Waleed followed him. Waleed was Talha’s best ,or the only friend , with whom he was comfortable upto a good degree , in sharing his views and thoughts, which otherwise remained confined within Talha. Talha was carrying the black, old, and little rusty bow, with few arrows ,similar to bow in description in a bag.

“ Where are you going to keep this bag” spoke Waleed.

Waleed had already recognised the things present in the bag. Talha had showed them to him a number of times, and had also shared different narrations and events associated with them.

“ I will store them in a box, in the storeroom”,calmly answered Talha. 

“ To be taken to museum , later on” happily said Waleed.

“ May be”,answered Talha , very calmly and gently. 

Talha opened the door of the storeroom, and entered, Waleed followed him.

The storeroom was full of old things , with a layer of dust on them. Much of the old things of his family were stored here.

“ Talha , I like this smell, it makes me nostalgic and glad”, emphatically said Waleed .

Waleed was referring to the atmosphere of the storeroom .

“ We always feel joyful and relaxed, remembering our past , but most of the times we worry about the present, and more so about the future”, said Talha , with a smile accompanied with a little bit of anger.

“ But past could also be bitter, it is not sweet from head to toe for anyone”, quickly answered Waleed.

“ Yes, but it always teaches you, provided you want to , said Talha softly.

As Waleed tried to say something, Talha interrupted him.

“ Like the things in this bag , you know about them”. Talha said, while lifting the bag up.

“ Oh, your bow and arrows”, said Waleed with a little sigh.

“ Yes, my bow and arrows”, retorted Talha ,with contentment mixed with pride.

“ But my friend, why are you storing them in this big box, like a hidden map or something leading to a treasure, for some future generation to come”, questioned Waleed in his own style.

“ You are almost accurate in your assessment”,answered Talha briefly.

“ So is it like you are putting something in a time capsule, for you and may be your future generations”, said Waleed with a mixture of humour and awe.

“ May be you may have a lot of memories associated with it, including your late father and late grand father, and also may be you like it a lot, and want to pay it a visit in future , like a monument, or something monumental, but I don’t think your future generations would take it more than a bow and little rusty arrows, kept by their elders, spoke Waleed without giving Talha opportunity to answer.

“ It is much more than you think of it”, said Talha gently.

“ I can understand your association with it , but your future generations may not care much in that sense”, said Waleed in an appealing manner.

“ Yes it is the thing to be kept in the time capsule not only for me, but my future generations, and others who want to draw inspiration , and learn some beautiful lessons of this world” , spoke Talha , as some sage lecturing his student.

“ What kind of a lesson…..”, said Waleed in a hurry .

“ Don’t you remember the things I told you about my grand father and father, using these things” said Talha.

“ Yes I do , but ….”,retorted waleed.

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The narrations Talha had narrated to Waleed about his grandfathers’s and father’s association, with this thing Talha wanted to put in time capsule was ;

When Talha’s grand father was young, his father had bought him this thing as a gift, with money he had saved, as he was a poor man. Talha’s grand father was young and energetic. One day he left with a group of boys , of his age , for hunting in the woods. As they were walking , they spotted an animal behind bushes, at a distance, which appeared to them as a deer or something similar. A member of that group tried to take an aim at that animal, and warned others about interfering him. He started abusing others for no reasons. Talha’s grandfather got very angry, and straightaway challenged him. Then most of the members Sided with that man, as he was feared and some two or three sided with Talha’s grandfather. So the two agreed , to take an aim at the prey one after the other , and the one who hits would be the winner. After drawing lots as, who would aim first, it came in the favour of Talha’s grandfather.

As he aimed at the prey, the member from opposite group, threw a pebble at him, to distract him, and in the meantime the arrow left the bow, and missed its target . He protested, but the members from opposite group overpowered him, and thrashed him badly. As the noise rose, the prey disappeared , which further agitated the opposite group, resulting in further fight. The other group left, and Talha’s grandfather was highly disappointed , he threw aside the his bow and the bag of arrows, in a state of anger. He with his associates took their way towards home, as they didn’t want to hunt further. He left the bag there , and started to walk back home. In the mid way, he remembered that he has left his bow and the arrows behind, and then a thought about his father’s reaction came to his mind. He realised his father would be very angry , if he knew about the bow and arrows. So in a state of disappointment and disguisement he persuaded his associates to walk back and get his thrown things. As they reached the spot, they heard a feeble voice coming from the bushes, and an injured ewe erupted from them. They realised it was the same animal they earlier wanted to hunt, as it tried to run away it fell on ground, with blood oozing out from her legs. Talha’s grandfather was so relived and glad, that he had missed his target, the same thing he had fought and cursed himself earlier. He took the animal home and started healing her. She had a mark on his body, and by that they got to know about its owner. But his grandfather wanted to buy it , as he had taken a lot of care of her. He very hardly, persuaded his father to purchase that animal. After a while, he got completely healed.

And his grandfather used to say, we prospered a lot after purchasing that animal, as she gave rise to cattle and their wealth and fortunes increased manifold after that. 

So it was that a little disappointment, brought with it some thing very good for them.

His grandfather preserved that bow and bag of arrows. He liked this thing a lot after that. Then he gave it to Talha’s father.

Talha had also told waleed about an account of his fathers struggle in archery, he was bullied by his associates as he couldn’t compete with them. After failing and failing , he threw the same bow and bag of arrows ,that his father had given him in a big stream, as he was doing it, his younger uncle was watching. He ran to catch them, as uncle reached the lower end of stream, he saw the bag , containing the things, as he tried to catch the bag, he heard a little boy crying for help, as the water level was very high for the boy of that tender age, there was no one to help that tender soul. His uncle saved both the little boy as well as the bag from drowning.

After this incident Talha’s father thought of that bow and arrows as a preposterous thing, and then he realised his mistake and fallacy.

He practiced hard with the same bow and set of arrows, and after some time he excelled a lot, to the surprise of many.

He passed the same thing, like his father to Talha , as something very Important to their family and its legacy.

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Before Talha could speak out , Waleed said,

“ In this era ,of advancement and technology , to preserve this thing is amazing , it could make your past and memories alive, but your plans are to preserve it for future generations”.

“ They would take it nothing more than a thing , preserved by their fore fathers” , as Waleed said it, a page from the bag fell on Waleed’s feet.

“ What is this”, surprisingly said Waleed.

“ Oh I wanted to show it to you, anyways read it , it is a note from my father ,it is highly inspirational”, said Talha

Waleed lifted the piece of the old quality paper, with a peculiar smell, taking a person in past. The lines written on paper in bold were :

“ Don’t lose hope , patience is most valuable asset with you, don’t throw it away. You are not only the part of universe , you are also the universe itself. Keep on working, with out stopping due to disappointments. Don’t stop don’t. He has a plan for you and this whole, so don’t feel abandoned , you are always in his plan, but you can’t encompass certain things, and you realise some after a certain time . He is the best of planners, and has kept the balance.

This bow and bag of arrows has taught me that, which no man in world could have.”

As Waleed read the lines , he was filled with awe and realisation.

“ These are so inspiring lines Talha, I would write them down”, seriously said Waleed.

“ Even in this age of advancement and progress, the principles and foundations of human life have not changed, and would never, they would remain connected to man and mankind from its birth to death”, said Talha in a very soothing tone.

“ True”, whispered Waleed.

“ So this thing has a lot of worth in my eyes, I want to preserve and remember it, and whenever I need, I would open and touch it, it would give me a lot of hope , a lot, and my future generations would also learn from it if they want to” , said Talha.

Talha left the storeroom, and waleed also followed. As Talha locked the door, it was as if he was storing something valuable and dearer.

Waleed felt , as if, a sense of hope and wisdom, had ignited inside him.

“ Basic emotions and rules associated with mankind, have not and would never change”, said Talha , as they both walked .

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