Kaushal Vedula reads his fable titled, "The Jaguar and the Turtle."

Quite a while ago, in the Amazon Rainforest, there lived a jaguar that was learning how to hunt. He was young and would spend hours following his mother around the vast forest and learning how to track and catch prey. As time progressed, his mother wanted him to become more independent and catch prey on his own. One day, after taking part in a successful catch, his mother told him that she wanted to watch him hunt on his own.

“You have been helping me get food for a long time,” she said. “I think you are experienced enough to do this on your own.”

The jaguar was taken aback by his mother’s words, as he did not expect to do this anytime soon. However, he wanted to make her proud, and accepted the challenge.

“Don’t worry about me, Mother. I’ll be successful,” he said proudly.

This jaguar had a large ego, and believed he could succeed without much practice or preparation. For one week, he slacked off and assured himself that he would definitely catch something on the day of the hunt.

“I can at least catch a turtle. The ones by the river are so slow,” he thought to himself.

On the night before the test of his skills, the jaguar’s mother said to him,

“I hope you’ve prepared for tomorrow. I really want to see you catch something.”

“Of course Mother. Don’t fret, I’ll make you proud,” the jaguar replied.

The next day, the mother woke her son early, and told him that the test would begin shortly. The jaguar, although a bit tired, remained unshaken and confident in his abilities.

“You can catch anything you want. I’ll be sitting in that tree up there and watching. Good luck,” the mother said before climbing up a tall Kapok tree, and signaling for him to begin.

Now the realization that he was all alone and that he had not prepared at all hit the jaguar. He had not even sharpened his claws, which were vital to make a catch.

“How am I supposed to catch prey if my claws are not in the right condition? And I don’t even know what to catch!” the jaguar thought.

He became frantic, but forced himself to calm down to think of something. He decided to hunt a turtle. He did tell his mother he could catch one, after all. He crept toward the riverside, his mind considering all the possibilities that could occur. He quickly spotted a small turtle relaxing on a log on the river. This log was not located too far from the land, and the jaguar decided to jump and catch the turtle.

“Turtles are slow. I should definitely be able to catch this one. Maybe I have a chance of succeeding.” The jaguar’s confidence began to rise once more, and he soon assured himself that his plan was foolproof.

He crept slowly until he felt that he could catch the turtle before it went underwater. He waited an instant, and then sprinted forward and lunged. However, the jaguar made a crucial mistake while conceiving his plan. The logs in this area had very jagged edges, and could cut an animal easily. Moreover, the turtles were considerably more quick than other species. Before the jaguar reached the log, the turtle launched itself into the water and disappeared. The jaguar scraped his paw on the logs and fell into the water, unable to find the turtle. He was shocked. Turtles were supposed to be easy to hunt. How could he have failed so badly? He returned to land, embarrassed that his mother witnessed this. She came down from the tree and smiled.

“I knew this would happen when I saw your blunt claws. You became too overconfident and thought you didn’t need to prepare for today. That’s the biggest mistake you can make while hunting,” she said.

The jaguar hung his head in shame. He promised himself he wouldn’t become arrogant ever again. He learned a very valuable lesson that day. One must never underestimate an opponent because of foolish overconfidence. True confidence comes from so much preparation that one knows success is theirs.

Drawing Credits: Antoine Louis Barye, Two Jaguars in Their Lair, courtesy of Harvard Art Museums, https://hvrd.art/o/298204