Once upon a time, there lived a chef, alone with his son, Ali. Ali was an ungrateful and a depressed child, who was never happy with his life. He spent his time thinking how things would go about, of which he had no idea. He remained distressed and hopeless, until a day came which changed his life!

His father, being a chef, took him to the kitchen to teach him a memorable lesson. He took three pots filled with water and placed each of them above burning stoves; his son wondering what would be next. Then, he placed potatoes in one pot, raw eggs in the other and coffee beans in the third. Seeing this, Ali lowered his head in despair, believing this activity to be a waste of time.

However, after 20 minutes, his father called him out loudly and brought him back from his depressing thoughts. His father brought him close to the pots and turned off the burning flames. After that, he took out the potato from the pot, bringing it closer to his son.

“Eww!” Ali responded by taking a step back. “It is slimy and yuck!” he continued. However, his father insisted him to take a close look at it, and to notice the change in it. He repeated it with the egg and the pot in which the coffee beans were placed.

After this was over, Ali went back to his room, still thinking that this activity was just useless.

However, his father followed him, determined to teach his son a life-changing lesson. But what could it be? The answer was revealed when the father explained what has become of the potato, egg and the coffee beans.

He went close to his son and said: “Look my dear son! Though you haven’t picked up any lesson from the activity I conducted in the kitchen, let me give you the hidden lesson it had.”

He moved closer to his son and continued, “All the three things; potato, coffee bean and the egg were exposed to the same difficulty-boiling water. However, all of them reacted differently. The potato, although was hard but when it was placed in the boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg seemed fragile with the thin outer shell protecting the liquid, but it became hard from inside. Although it resisted unlike the potato, but it too suffered, to some extent, from the boiling water.

However, the coffee beans were unique. Instead of suffering from the difficulty, they changed the water into something new!”

Ali was surprised by the observations his father told him, which were for all to see but few people bothered to think about it deeply. Before he could say something, his father concluded the discussion, “When any problem arises you, what do you do? Do you suffer or find an opportunity in the problem? Who are you, a coffee bean, an egg or a potato?”

I present this same question to my readers. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than crying on what has happened, be brave, be like the coffee bean and change this situation into your advantage. Successful people are those who find opportunities in problems.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 2nd, 2021