By Rambabu Subedi
A butterfly and an earthworm were fast friends. They stayed together under the soil. One day, the butterfly said, “How long should we stay underground? Come; let’s go over-ground and see the outside world.”
“It’s dangerous outside. Let’s not go. It’s so pleasurable inside here,” said the earthworm.
So, they pressed further inside the soil.
Another day, the butterfly said again, “I am quite restless. Let me look out of the soil.”
“You can look if you want, but do not go far. T here is risk of your life. You should save your life yourself,” the earthworm said.
The butterfly looked out. A few yards away, there was a grasshopper. It was hopping and jumping on its own. The butterfly wanted to go to the place where the grasshopper was, but was afraid to do so. Several voices it has never heard in the past were coming from a distance. She went back into the soil.
After a few days, the butterfly again wanted to come out. She thought, she would meet the grasshopper once and come back. So, she came over-ground. Still quite afraid, she walked close to the grasshopper and said, “My friend, which way are you going?”
“I am on a world tour! What answer should I give you?”
“Can I too go on such a tour?”
“Why not? All you need is courage.”
“Who gave you such courage?”
“Courage is not a thing others can give. You must resolve on your own and set out on the journey.”
“Isn’t it there a lot of danger in such a journey?”
“For a coward, there is danger everywhere. Nothing bothers a courageous one.”
The words of the grasshopper deeply moved the butterfly.
Yet, she returned towards her own home. She relayed her talks with the grasshopper to her friend, the earthworm. Yet, the news did not bring any change in the earthworm.
The butterfly, however, decided to take up the challenge. She took leave of the earthworm and set out on the journey the next day. The grasshopper was only a short distance away. He was so proud that he would rate himself very high, even if he took a short lead. The butterfly soon overtook him and reached quite far. She was thrilled on seeing the outside world.
She could see gardens filled with flowers, waterfalls running down the hills and birds flying in the sky. Some lands she flew over were plain, while some were hills. Ah, how beautiful the world outside was!
The butterfly was still not satisfying with her tour of the world. She thought what lay waiting beyond the hills. She wanted to fly and reach there. Nature favored her; it fulfilled all her wants. It gave her hands. It gave her feet. It gave her wings, and the necessary strength. It also gave her color. With many color on her wings, the butterfly started flying all over the world now.
Poor earthworm! It was now away from its friends. Languished under the soil, it neither got a nose, nor a pair of ears. It did not get ears and wings, either. It did not get hands and legs too. It did not get because it never wished for them. As for the butterfly, she wished for many things and got each of them. Nature happened to give whatever an individual wants.
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Trans: Mahesh Paudyal