Crackers and sweets have certainly been Diwali’s greatest takeaways. Off late, thanks to the increasing awareness of diabetes and diet-conscious folks, the trend has shifted to gifting dry fruits instead of sweets.

An assortment of dry fruits is packed in trinket adorned boxes to be given away as gifts to clients, vendors, and employees. The advantage of dry fruits is the longevity and expiry-less shelf life! Also, they are tasty and powerful fuels for our body. I’m sure you will agree! 

Like many of you, I too received the “Bundle of Joy”; yes, a variety of dry fruits packed in just the perfect way placed in a decorated box! I actually got two of these from two different people. Since we were travelling I left one of the boxes on the dining table instead of refrigerating it.

Hold on, what I am talking about is the story of the vanishing nut from inside its natural case. 

Yes, this happened. It vanished…literally!

Three days of vacation and I opened the box on the fourth day, the pistachios looked yummy. I opened the shell and it was empty with traces of some powder inside it. Then another and another… so many shells were empty!  I then pondered and took a closer look into the shell and the box.

And lo, an army of ants were marching around the pistachios!

My curiosity doubled and I looked deeper. How could the ants eat the whole pistachio from inside the shell?

Sherlock Holmes streaks passed over me and I got my magnifying lens to see what was happening.

The ants squeezed through the tiny gap [a little bigger than the ants themselves] in between the pistachio bit them into small pieces that they could carry home. They managed to bite through the peel and made a hole inside and left the shell as though nothing had ever happened.

It takes a strong conviction and a resolve to continue to do what you believe in, even after the people behind you have given up.

There is a great sense of satisfaction in returning to a place that gives you a sense of joy. Paranga Vidya Kendra is one such place where each time we visit there is something much more to be had. This “much-more” feeling stays for a very long time after you have returned to the hustle and bustle of daily normal life.

By the way, a little closer look and you will notice that there is no pistachio inside the peel. It’s all hollow in there!

A deep realization struck me and my pen, actually my keyboard couldn’t stop. I had to share this story! Simple creatures such as the Ants have tremendous lessons to teach us. There is a famous saying in Kannada which goes as:

ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಚಿಕ್ಕದಾದರೂ ಕೀರ್ತಿ ದೊಡ್ಡದು-  A small sized creature can also be glorious. Be it big or small, wisdom can arrive from anywhere, it is up to us to gather and apply them!

Let my keyboard take you through some of my Sherlock Observations! 

Pieces of pistachios:

1.       If you want something and it is as essential as food, nature has taught us to get it.
2.       Nature teaches us to work for it and the joy of eating the fruits of labour has its own sweet taste.
3.       The ants wanted the fruit inside two layers of covering, one hard and the other a little softer, so they squeezed through the hard one and bit through the soft one, made little pieces making it convenient to be carried.

The NUT Case:

1.  Understand the problem area. Define your want. Then move towards achieving the goal.
2. Squeeze through the hard times, bite [fight] through the thinner hurdles] and reap the benefits home.
3.  Persistence certainly leads to success.
4.  Never say “I quit”.

I hope this amazing correlation helps you as much as it has helped me understand the essence of life a little better. All of us are cracking our own nut what matters is that we focus on our own nuts consistently and don’t let ourselves down by comparing our paces!

Where there is a will there’s a way and then the NUT CASE can be cracked.