Will to live

What makes humans and animals overcome disabilities?

November 07, 2012 07:39 pm | Updated 07:39 pm IST

Learning a life lesson from a dog. Photo: P. Goutham

Learning a life lesson from a dog. Photo: P. Goutham

As I was striding across the road, my eyes rested on a peculiar sight. A dog with a crippled leg was running so swiftly that even hounds would lose a race with it. It was just a stray dog, but I saw in it the “Spirit of a Gazelle”.

'The speed with which it moved made me wonder maybe it has forgotten that it has lost a leg. It had defied the laws of stability and equilibrium which we humans have been taught since childhood.

My mind started conceiving questions: What made that creature persevere in spite of its disability? An answer immediately flashed in my mind: It’s all about will power. It is that will to live that keeps a Mayfly to go on even though its lifespan is just one day.

It is that will to move forward that keeps the penguins to wade through the travails of extreme weather. It is that will power to live that drives an Arctic Tern to travel thousands of miles. But accepting one’s disability is the height of will power. And so I named that dog Dogazelle — a dog with the spirit of a Gazelle!

A. MONICA, Final Year, Civil Engineering, Jerusalem College Of Engineering

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