To Follow or Not to Follow....

We all follow many practices and methods without really knowing the purpose or reason for it. Most of the times we fail to ask the reason and sometimes we bother to ask the reason but seldom end up with a satisfying answer. Most of the times the answer would be my parents/elders used to do, so just stop questioning and follow them; all is for our good.

Here are 2 stories.. guess you can make out the moral from them...

Indian version:
During the olden there was a gurukulam where an old gurukul was raising a pet animal – a cat. The cat was so mischievous and naughty that it will disturb the class. So before starting the class he will ask the class leader to tie the cat. And this became a routine for the class leader. Before every day's class he will tie the cat only then the guru will start the class. One day he passed away. Later his son took his responsibilities. And this habit of tying the cat before morning classes continued. At one point of time, the guru had to leave to other place so he asked his friend to take care of the gurukulam. The cat was still there, it was becoming old too. One day it died. The next day before the new guru was to start the class, he asked the boy to tie the cat. The students said that it passed away. But the guru said it’s a custom to tie a cat before starting the class, so asked the class leader to bring a cat and tie it only then he would start the class.

Foreign version:
There was a young newly wed couple leading a happy life. The husband was so caring and used to help her on kitchen activities, cleaning the house and stuff. He used to share almost all the work that she does. One fine day she wanted to give a total rest for her hubby and asked him to just watch TV or go for a gaming and that she will prepare a surprise meal for both. The hubby chose to watch TV. He was relaxing in the couch watching his favorite sports channel. For a long time he dint hear anything from his wife. So went to kitchen to check on her. He saw her struggling with a turkey meat. She wanted to cut the raw meat into two halves before putting it in the microwave. He offered to help her to cut it. He also tried even with a bigger knife but the meat was too hard and stubborn that it dint slit. He left the idea of cutting it, he asked her "Why don’t we microwave the full meat without cutting?"
She said no it should be cut before cooking. That’s how her mother used to do. So he called her mother and asked why cant the meat be cooked without cutting. She said even she isn’t aware of it. She just followed what her mother used to do. So this young man called her wife's grand mother and asked. The wise grandmother said, those days since she did not have a big vessel she always used to cut the meat and cook.

So we see there are many such habits that are followed blindly. We believe they are done for some reason and its all good for us. Yeah all the habits some of which are today's customs were all followed for a reason during the ancient days. But is the still needed to follow the rules laid way back without even knowing why they were laid out for? Way not try out new methods to do a thing and just not do what every one else is doing? I guess we all have had instances where we have mindlessly followed something with no reason. I have and have got struck more times than one. and I have learnt some valuable lessons from them. I would say that trying out new ways to do a thing may not be an instant success but maybe somewhere down the line you may find a better way of doing the thing than the so called traditional methods. I would like to end this post with this quote from Thomas Alva Edison responding to the idea that he had failed after 10,000 experiments to develop a storage battery

"I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work"