Latest news with #Aesop'sFables
New Indian Express
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
The Interconnected World of Humans and Animals
When Arion Press celebrated its 50th anniversary, it chose to create a special edition of the timeless classic, Aesop's Fables. In the world created by Aesop, a former Greek slave, animals become mirrors of human virtues and flaws, each story imparting a moral lesson that exudes simple, profound wisdom. Humankind's bond with animals spans millennia. Dogs, cats, and horses have long been cherished companions. Modern-day pets include reptiles like snakes and lizards which are low-maintenance yet fascinating, offering unique lessons on growth and patience – particularly valuable for young minds. 'How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,' writes Susan Orlean in her book On Animals. This sentiment is echoed in countless works, one such being The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony, co-written with Graham Spence. Anthony recounts his extraordinary efforts to protect a herd of African elephants – a tale that is both a conservationist's triumph and a parable about coexistence. Therapy animals often symbolise this profound connection. While dogs typically come to mind, Iris Grace by Arabella Carter Johnson narrates the story of Iris Grace and her Maine Coon kitten, Thula. The kitten's intuitive nature helped Iris, a young girl with autism, to navigate her emotions, fostering communication and creativity that blossomed into vibrant paintings. Jane Goodall's journey began when she was gifted a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee. Jubilee, still perched on her dresser, remains a symbol of her enduring mission and her book My Life with the Chimpanzees is an essential read. Anna Sewell's Black Beauty is a classic for young readers. Narrated from the perspective of a horse, Beauty, the novel charts her life and highlights resilience amid adversity.
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Do not mess with the black winged stilt in these times
Recreating the world in their own image is a irresistible temptation for human kind. Imparting human characteristics to animals is a subset of this human inclination. Considering its usefulness in elucidating moral instructions (recall 'Aesop's Fables'), this usually turns out a good temptation that human kind yielded to. There is however a yawning chasm, wider than Australia's Capartee Valley, between fableism and anthropomorphism. Fableism does not for a second pretend that the animal characters possess any of the human characteristics they portray. Anthropomorphism is a wholly different kettle of fish: it might compare human and animal behaviours, suggesting the species in question mirrors a specific human trait. For example, the male jacana attending to child-rearing duties can be presented as a mirror image of men exemplifying fatherly commitment. The human mind can create points of convergence in this manner, and here is one more born out of an entirely anthropomorphic viewpoint. The belligerence and resilience of the black winged stilt as a 'householder'. And why do we persist with it: it is irresistible and it does seem to mirror the extent human parents would go to protect the little home they create and raise. At the end of the wintering season, when Perumbakkam wetland dries up, images of belligerent black winged stilts guarding the stones they had marked for nesting are inevitable. Never mind that their response to the danger (usually more of a perception than a reality) would be disproportionate to the threat. These stones are a boon to the black-winged stilt, and around April, they are prompt in taking possession of them, as these images from Perumbakkam wetland on April 10 and 13, 2025 as also the one from Kelambakkam taken on April 29, 2025 illustrate. The black-winged stilts' breeding season falls in the April to August time band. Where they do not find stones such as these parked in shallow waters, nesting black-winged stilts — both male and female together working shoulder to shoulder (pectoral girdle to pectoral girdle, to be more accurate) — would create mounds by shovelling earth and even decaying plant material to make their nests. Equally inevitably, showers, some out-of-season and the others according to the dictates of the rain chart (usually those from South West monsoon), might submerge these stones, dashing these birds' efforts to raise a family. This year, the downpour on April 16 set the black-winged stilts plans back a wee bit, and in characteristic style, they resumed nesting effort after the water receded again. Time and again, one has seen this scene play out. After the water drains and the stones re-emerge, they would be at it again, making another attempt at nesting. In these times, this beanpole of a bird is the picture of resilience, illustrating the power of stick-to-itiveness.
Times
27-04-2025
- General
- Times
The Bayeux Tapestry's mysteries go well beyond its ‘94th penis'
There are several contentious issues in history that have sparked debate and divided historians over the centuries. The construction of Stonehenge, the abandonment of the Mary Celeste, the fall of the Roman empire. Now another mystery has been thrown up: are there 93 or 94 phalluses embroidered into the Bayeux Tapestry? The design on the original 70m-long, 50cm-tall linen cloth recounts the Norman conquest of England in 1066 including the Battle of Hastings. The action is told through a series of tableaux in the centre of the tapestry. On the borders above and below are curious scenes which include nudity, mythological figures, animals and possibly events from Aesop's Fables. It may be almost 1,000 years old but among historians, the cloth, its contents and the
