Little Tad - Part 1

Once upon a time, there was a tiny little being living in a small pond not far away from here (not that it matters where here is.  Here is most certainly not there, wherever there is). It had gills to breathe with, a small tail to propel itself forward, a lean body that could glide very well in water and a head so big with so much ideas that some days Tad felt it could just explode.  Yes, his name was Tad because he was a tad smaller than his siblings.  And his kind, they were all small.

He believed there was more to life than just scouring for food and living it just-because.  Surely, there would be purpose to his existence. Surely each creation was made for at least one specific purpose. Only he had not figured out his purpose yet. Our Tad dreamed big dreams.

But he was a tad too small to dream big dreams.

He could only watch with much envy as a neighbor leapt high in the air and plunged back into the water with a juicy beetle in his mouth. He could not leap - low or high. He watched longingly as another neighbor went out of the water to sunbathe in the comfy mud.  He needed the water to breathe, he would die without it. 

He would be thirsting for news from his more mobile neighbors, of their expeditions out from the pond. 

It is dangerous out there, some of them warned him and told him that he was better off where he was.

It is absolutely wonderful out there with the greenest of grass and opportunities as big and as many as your imagination would let you, encouraged a few others.

It is only meant for the privileged ones, boasted those who were bigger, stronger and more beautiful than he was (or could ever be, he thought dejectedly).

You need plenty of resources to survive, without which, going out there would be suicidal, said the wise elderly ones.  Truth be told, the grey ones never even left the pond.  When you have lived long enough, you would be handed the authority over any subjects. You would appear wise. They had been at the pond since it was huge and free of sedimentations that came with land clearing up north.  When the pond was pristine clean before it became polluted with industrial waste, the elders were already there. 

Tad had no scales or tough skin to shield himself with. He wasn’t blessed with stings to freeze predators. He certainly didn’t know anyone in high or important places, not even those from shady badly lit corners, whom he could extract favors from. He didn’t have layers of fat influence to survive the cold. He had no means to store water or find food too – in fact he didn’t even know if his type of food would be available out there.  He was resourceful though - very much, as some of his siblings would testify.  But the elderly said, being resourceful was not as good as being endowed with resources.

Tad was certain that the world outside the pond was a world worth exploring.  He would not just accept everything that they said.  He had to find out by himself.  He only wholeheartedly agreed with them on one point and that one point only - that he was small. But he was certain that he was not too small for the big world. 

Surely, nobody could ever be too small to take on the world, no?