Highly Commended Story - The Secret of Satisfaction

“The Secret of Satisfaction” by Trisha Sarin, Rustomjee Cambridge International School, Dahsiar, India, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Trisha is self motivated and an independent learner. She is sincere, witty, resourceful and open minded. She is multi-talented who loves painting, dancing and reading story books. She has been learning Bharatnatyam for the past 3 years and is a good basketball player too. Trisha is hardworking, passionate about her work and completes her tasks in the given time frame. She is impartial towards her friends and proves to be the life of the party.

The Secret of Satisfaction

Once a upon a time, there lived a fisherman and his wife. They were very poor and greedy too. They always wanted more. Whenever the fisherman would catch three fishes they wanted four fishes and whenever the fisherman would bring plums they wanted mangos. This also worried the kingdom of fishes. One day all the fishes gathered in the court where the king, queen and the princess named Goldy were sitting. Then one of the fishes asked, “Your Highness may I please be allowed to say something?” “Yes sure” said the king. So your Highness I wanted to tell you about a fisherman who catches us everyday but he is never satisfied. He doesn’t know that if he keeps on catching us like this then one day we will be endangered and then extinct. “Yes I will surely do something about this” the king replied. Princess Goldy explained the trick to her father. Immediate next day, the king himself went in fisherman’s trap and as the fisherman pulled out his net, he saw that there was only one fish trapped in the net, the King. The king pleaded to let him go and in return I will give you one feather. The king removed two feathers & showed it to the fisherman. One feather was looking very beautiful and another was ugly and dull. The king said, “One is a fortune feather and another one is a calamity feather. One feather can change your life. You can choose one & can take it home” The fisherman thought that the beautiful feather must be a fortune feather & chose the same. He returned back home with a bundle of joy and explained the entire incidence to his partner. The next day fisherman went to catch the fishes with great hopes and aspirations, but he couldn’t catch even a single fish. Fisherman was surprised and thought to buy some fruits for family. He went to the market to buy fruits but unfortunately all the fruits were rotten. He came home empty handed and his family had to sleep empty stomach that night. This continued for many days. Fisherman was unable to understand; suddenly he remembered his conversation with king. He realised his mistake and rushed to the sea. He called the king and requested him to give fortune feather. I am ashamed for my behaviour. I have understood my mistake. I will not catch fishes beyond my need and will be satisfied with what I get. Moreover, I will not judge anyone by his appearance but I will look for the positive attributes. The King of fishes replied, “I am glad that you have learnt from your mistake. Take this fortune feather which will help you to get back your normal life.” Saying this, the king of fishes disappeared in the waves of the sea. From that day onwards, fisherman lived a happy life forever as he understood the secret of satisfaction.

MORAL: We should never be greedy and be satisfied with what we have. Beauty is not everything. The qualities of person can take him to newer heights.