Survival Wins

The whole class wasn’t in the mode to had more academic lecture that day as they came to know that the mathematics teacher was on leave. A feeling of relief was visible on everyone’s face but it was short-lived. With lightning speed, the maths teacher had entered the class along with curriculum books that had been well-grabbed between his arm.

After recovery from this shock, every student was now on the hunt to get settled before being scolded. He picked chalk & moved towards the board to write. The whole class was silent to such an extent that the noise of chalk could be heard when the teacher started writing on the board. As he retreated away from the board, a question is visible on it. “Who is the fastest land animal on the earth?”

No other question could be so easy for those students as the majority raised their hands to answer. It wasn’t like that remaining didn’t know but they are filled with self-doubt & afraid of being wrong for such a silly answer. One boy filled with over-enthusiasm to answer, spoke without caring for his teacher’s approval & said “cheetah is the fastest land animal on the earth at present”. For many, it was a lost opportunity to impress others but now they were looking at the questioner who after a short pause replied “No”.

It was a trauma, not only for the one who had answered but for the whole class. For the last many years, they had been taught that no other land animal can be as fast as a cheetah. That was a blatant violation of their years of learning. They all now wanted to update their knowledge with a newcomer but the teacher was expecting a new name from the class itself.

A girl who had a past of scoring good marks in exams took a chance & declared “Antelope is faster than a cheetah”. Again it was a no for this answer. Answers of 2 bookworms were being rejected. Eagerness to get the answer had reached a new high as students glued their eyes on the face of the teacher who with a grin was contemplating the reaction of students on getting the answer.

Without wasting further time, he picked the same chalk & wrote a single word on the board that was “Survival”. It was a clear shock for everyone because no such animal has existed on earth so how the teacher could be sure about it. He cleared his throat & started speaking in a high pitch.

He said, “when a cheetah hunts for an antelope in woods, it is only one out of ten attempts that he is able to catch his prey, so how it can be the fastest land animal.”

Turning towards the girl who tried for another option, He said, “your answer was also incorrect, although 9 out of 10 times antelope gets beyond the reach of cheetah, it is that 1 time that cheetah manages to catch the prey.”

Now one backbencher, just to get attention from fellow classmates shouted, “So there is no such animal.”

Teacher looked towards him & replied, “ You can say but who would be the fastest depends on a single instinct that makes them faster in different situations & we call it Survival instinct.”

For some, it was a completely new terminology while others knew about it but had no clue how it could be the justification of the answer.

Teacher took a chair for himself, as he had to make his point clear to them. After sitting down, he started once again, “As I said, out of 10 attempts, the cheetah has to return empty-handed without any prey because when he starts the run the only thought it has in mind is that to catch the prey & fill the stomach meanwhile, antelope knows that it has no other option but to run faster to survive. This survival instinct of antelope makes it get out of the reach of the cheetah.”

After a short pause, the teacher started again, “ but there is another side of the story that is after 9 failed attempts it is cheetah’s survival instinct that helps it to catch antelope this time. Hunger would take its life if antelope gets out of its reach.”

With a long breath, he ends his explanation with a single line, “ In the race of life between cheetah & antelope it is survival that always wins. Now we can learn from it is that if a human associates his survival option with his goals then his chances of success would be quite high & he ends with achieving whatever impossible task he has begun with.”

The loud voice of the period bell broke the eye contact between teacher & class & now they could leave class with a new life lesson.