Story Review And Character Sketch - The Worthy Successor

I read a story named 'The Worthy Successor' from Cambridge Express Literature Reader Book 3 authored by Cheryl Rao. The story is about a priest who wanted a new priest for the temple in a hill top, that he was taking care of. The priest wanted a new priest because he was old. While he was dying, he asked Gopan, the care taker of the temple to find a new priest. He said to Gopan while dying to make sure that he appoints only a human being as the next priest. By hearing this, Gopan was surprised and confused. On the interview day, Gopan was not happy with many people that came for the role of priest. At last, in the evening, a young man with lots of wounds in his body came. When Gopan asked him, "What happened?", the young man said that he has been busy helping people reach the hill top. Gopan knew that this young man was the worthy successor. 

I like this young man because be believes in helping others even if it is a difficult task for him. He gives importance to other's welfare. He feels so much compassion for people, so he clears up all the thorns in the path to the hill top and helps others reach there. So, he gets delayed. He deeply cares about other's well being and in helping others. 

The young man reminds me about Yudhishtra from Siddarath Kumar Tiwary's Mahabharata. When the Pandavas and Kauravas were young, they all sat down for dinner one night. That time, Pitamah Bheeshma asked them all to eat on condition that they all don't bend their elbow while eating. No one could try their luck until Yudhishtra took a piece of laddu (a kind of sweet) from his plate and fed Duryodana with his own hands without bending his elbow. Yudhishtra is someone who cares deeply about other's welfare. No wonder, Vidura, Bheeshma and Krishna thought that he was the worthy successor for the throne of Hastinapur. 

Likewise, the young man in the story is indeed a worthy successor for the priest's post. Because, he is a well wisher of others. He showed love and compassion to others, he indeed deserved to be the next priest. 

What I learnt from this story is to not only always think about oneself but to also deeply care about others. To take action and make a difference in real life related to what I learnt, I took this simple step. My friends who are my class mates and my akka (teacher) gave me birthday cards for my birthday recently. I wrote a thank you note for them expressing that I deeply care about the time they took to make those beautiful cards for me.