Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there was a king who decided to honor all the elephants in his kingdom. The king said, “Elephants are the strongest and yet do not hurt anyone. They always try to help other animals and save the jungle. They have the best brains and peace loving. Setup a huge fair in the glory of all the elephants in the kingdom.”

A huge fair was setup to honor all the elephants of the kingdom. An invitation was sent to all the animals in the kingdom, and everyone was very excited to join the festival. There were sweets, decoration, celebrations — and all the animals of the kingdom — cats, rabbits, horses, donkeys, peacocks and many more — had come to greet the elephants and show their gratitude.

As the herd of elephants arrived at the fair, there was a loud cheer by all the animals. The king, and his army of ministers, all stood up in respect of the elephants. At the entrance, the elephants were first greeted by all the cows of the kingdom.

The cows bowed in gratitude and said, “You are the protector of this kingdom. As long as you are standing on the boundary of this kingdom, we know that all the animals inside are protected. We have brought this milk and would like to bathe you in it as a show of gratitude.”

The elephants smiled and obliged to the cows’ request.

Just as this was happening, there was a pack of dogs — witnessing all this very quietly. Suddenly, they started barking at the elephant. The elephant did not pay any heed to the dogs, and continued to move forward. As the herd of elephants move forward, the pack of dogs followed them.

The next came the flock of sheep. They too bowed before the elephants and said, “We, sheep, are very feeble. Your one trumpet is louder than 1000 sheep bleating. You are so powerful, yet so humble. And, you have never tried to harm us. We consider you as the elder of our family, and as a symbol of respect, we have brought you our finest wool. Please accept this.”

The elephants were all moved by the sheep’s humility and bowed down, for the sheep to put the woolen garland around their necks.

As this was happening, the pack of dogs that was following the elephants, could not tolerate and started barking even louder. The elephants again noticed this, but decided not to pay any attention.

The next came the flock of nightingales. They sang some of the best bird songs and dedicated it all to the glory of elephants. The elephants danced to the tune of the music, raised their trunks and made a loud trumpet sound saying “Thank You”.

Again as this was happening, the dogs could not bear this anymore. All of them suddenly attacked the elephants. The elephants, being strong and powerful just brushed them away, and did not even care to look at them.

However, as the elephants were about to move ahead, the eldest and wisest of all the elephants, looked back and asked the pack of dogs, “We both belong to the same animal community. We have never ever done any harm to you. We serve all the animals in need, and never differentiated against you. As far as I know, we have never caused any harm to any of you. But then for what reason you are angry with all of us and barking at us?”

Hearing this, the leader of the pack replied, “We know that we do not have any issue with you, but we cannot take the fact that all other animals respect you so much, and not us. That is the reason we are not happy and continuously barking at you.”

The elephants all smiled. For a moment, they thought of replying back, but then decided to move forward.

As they went ahead, the elephants continued to meet many dogs who would bark at them with unnecessary criticism — but were unfazed by it, focused on what they have been doing and continuously moving forward.

Please share your thoughts of how you deal with unnecessary criticism. 👏are optional, but they sure make us happy.
 — If you like reading animal stories, please refer to this list “Fables”.
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