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There was a beautiful village in the lush green mountain valley of Nilgiris in Tamizh Nadu. Haripriya lived there with her mother. Haripriya fell ill and her mother took good care of her. Though the verdant environment proved to create a healthy atmosphere, a fear as to whether she will survive the disease always lingered in Haripriya's mind.

There were houses on either side as well as opposite to Haripriya's house. During winter months, Haripriya enjoyed being engulfed in the mist when she stepped outside her house. There were fields behind her house where carrots were cultivated. Haripriya loved eating the fresh carrots with leaves. Hearing about Haripriya’s illness, her friend Lalita, a talented painter came to visit her.

Lalita’s presence was a great moral support to Haripriya. Realizing that, Lalita also stayed with them for a while. Lalita observed that every morning as soon as Haripriya woke up she used to run upstairs, look intently at something and then sit down with disappointment all over her face. Since this continued daily, Lalita compelled Haripriya to tell the reason for her dejection. Though Haripriya refused initially, she finally gave in and told Lalita the reason. There was a dilapidated house opposite her house which had a green creeper. Pointing to that creeper, Haripriya said, “When I fell sick, the creeper had lot of fresh green leaves. But the leaves are withering as days pass by. As they wither, my health also seems to go down. I somehow relate these withering leaves to my deteriorating health. Now there are only a few leaves left in the creeper. When the last leaf falls off, I believe I’ll live no more. That is why I rush to look at this creeper every morning.”

Lalita found this reason very amusing. She insisted Haripriya to give up her apprehension saying, “How do you relate the state of your health with a creeper? It is a mere superstition. Don’t fear because of such weird imaginations. You should not lose your confidence.” But nothing convinced Haripriya. At the end of the argument Lalita said, “What if the creeper flourishes again?” Haripriya replied, “That will never happen. But if it does, I’ll surely regain my health.”

Now Lalita went along with Haripriya in the mornings to look at the creeper. There were just two leaves left in the creeper. It looked as though they too, would wither in the next two or three days. Seeing this, Haripriya was totally depressed. Lalita did not know how to remove the fear from Haripriya’s mind. Now there was just one last leaf left. The next day, with a strong feeling that the last leaf would also have fallen, Haripriya took Lalita along with her to look at the creeper in the morning. What a wonder! The leaf had not fallen. This gave some confidence to Haripriya.

Lalita showing the 'painted' creeper to Haripriya

As the days passed by, the creeper started flourishing again. Haripriya was now totally free from fear of death. She also regained her lost health and was totally cured of her illness. She even gave up looking at the creeper everyday! Lalita was also preparing to leave Haripriya's house. But before that, Lalita took Haripriya to the creeper in the neighboring house. Haripriya was shocked to find that the leaves in the creeper were but mere paintings! Awe struck, she looked at Lalita who said, “You were not prepared to give up your superstition inspite of my repeated requests. Just as you had expected, the last leaf too, fell from the creeper. In order to build your confidence, I put my painting skills to the best use and painted the leaf. I continued painting everyday so as to project that the creeper has started flourishing again. I hope that at least now you understand that we should not give way to superstitions and meaningless imaginations and lose our mental strength.” Haripriya was totally moved. She held Lalita’s hand and was ashamed of her baseless belief.

So children! We should also not lose our mental strength by giving way to baseless and meaningless imaginations. We should be prepared to face and fight any situation.

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