La cigale et La fourmi

(This is one of my posts from my first blog, I think it's very apt for the title of this blog..)

For those of you who aren't familar with the french language, this story or fable rather is in english known as the cricket and the ant.

This was a fable that was told to us when we were young and in school when our connaissance de la vie (the knowledge of life) was very little. I've been learning french at alliance francaise and i have had the best professor, she's an amazing person who has got a lot of knowledge about literature, paintings and culture, and she's also got a very different point of view about things.

So, talking about the cricket and the ant, what do you remember? probably the same image that came to my mind when we started with this story.. What we learnt was the while the cricket was busy singing away and whiling away his time in summer, the ant was working hard to collect food for the winter. and then winter comes and the cricket goes to the ant for help as he has no provisions for the winter.. so moral of the story being, not to waste time and prepare for the future.

Now you may wonder as to why i have written a post on this, but the fact is, i came across this story in my french class and the thing was that this story written in french has so many nuances that it changes the perspective totally. obviously my prof, helped us see these nuances but once she mentioned them, it became obvious to us all.. so this is what i'm going to share with you'll..

The cricket is shown to be enjoying the summer by singing, dancing and playing in the summer while the ant is shown to be working and gathering food.. the interesting thing is that, if you decided to use these characteristics to conjure up images of people who'll fit them, what can you see ? this is what i saw, i can imagine the cricket as an artist, a painter, a writer or a poet.. artists are people who are expressive of the life within them and they merge that with the surroundings. the summer for the artist is a new life and a time to rejoice and that's precisely what the cricket did, his passion for singing and dancing was fuelled by the atmosphere and the surroundings and he did as he pleased, on the other hand, the ant reminds me of an employee who is tied down by the work that he has to do no matter what. he reminds me of the person who doesn't like what he has to do but does it because it's mechanical and it's needed to.

the cricket lives his life on his terms while the ant strives to exist. in the end, maybe the ant will survive through the winter, but what a life did he live! a life where he never enjoyed a moment, where he never experienced the joy and the beauty of nature.. par contraire the cricket might not survive the winter due to lack of food, but he lived the life he loved.. the artists do that usually don't they, they live their lives in misery and utter poverty only to find that after they're gone, their work is recognised..

i'm leaving you on this note, think, reflechir, because you need to stop and smell the flowers once in a while.....