{"id":548,"date":"2021-02-06T14:45:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T09:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/?p=548"},"modified":"2021-02-06T14:45:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T09:15:30","slug":"old-womans-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/2021\/02\/06\/old-womans-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Woman\u2019s Room"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">One Thursday afternoon, Musa, a farmer, was sitting quietly by a stream. He worked hard, but nothing could take away his sadness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Just then, an old woman walked by. She was thirsty so she stopped to drink from the stream. But the old woman was unable to bend due to her stiff back.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Seeing her discomfort, Musa helped the woman drink from his cup.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Thank you,\u201d said the old woman. \u201cBut I can see that you are very sad.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Yes,\u201d replied Musa. \u201cBut how did you find out?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_550\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-550\" style=\"width: 908px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-550\" src=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-300x257.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"908\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-300x257.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-1024x876.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-768x657.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-480x411.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-584x500.jpeg 584w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 908px) 100vw, 908px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-550\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><em><strong>Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">I have lived long enough to understand things. If you tell me what is troubling you, may be, I can help you,\u201d the woman said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">I am a farmer, but I am very poor. I have a house which is too small to accommodate my family. I work hard but there is not enough to feed my children. My wife is sick. I do not have friends whom I can trust,\u201d explained the farmer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">I have many problems and I want to fix them. But I do not know how.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The old woman convinced Musa to come along with her to her home. Once inside, she led Musa to a room filled with all kinds of stuff.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Sort the things in this room and I will tell you how you can solve your problems,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The room was filled with diverse stuff such as broken furniture, old rugs, utensils and wooden boxes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Musa desperately wanted to do the job in order to find the solution to his problems, but he did not know where to start.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">After a while, the old woman returned. She saw Musa holding his head in his hands.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">I do not know where to start. There is not a single thing I can fix my attention on,\u201d Musa said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The old woman smiled.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Close your eyes,\u201d she told Musa. \u201cThen start with whatever your hand touches first.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">It didn\u2019t make much sense to Musa, but he did it anyway.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">He closed his eyes and the first thing that he put his hand on was a broken chair. He opened his eyes and started putting together all the pieces of furniture.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">He closed his eyes again and groped. Soon, the room started to look organised.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">When the woman came back to the room, she was happy to see Musa had done his job.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Now go home and close your eyes. Grope for one problem at a time and fix it. Soon all your problems will be over,\u201d she said to Musa.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Adobe Caslon Pro, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Musa smiled as he knew he had got what he wanted.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_550\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-550\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-550\" src=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-300x257.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-300x257.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-1024x876.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-768x657.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-480x411.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2-584x500.jpeg 584w, https:\/\/thetoad.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ols-woman-2.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-550\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration by: Neha Kumari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Thursday afternoon, Musa, a farmer, was sitting quietly by a stream. He worked hard, but nothing could take away his sadness. Just then, an old woman walked by. She was thirsty so she stopped to drink from the stream. But the old woman was unable to bend due to her stiff back. Seeing her&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,13,11,8,80,77,79,78],"class_list":["post-548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-children-stories","tag-fairytales","tag-kashmir","tag-kids-stories","tag-mess","tag-old-woman","tag-old-womans-room","tag-problem-solving","enable-dropcap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetoad.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}