My daughter tells me that i believe in a lot of mumbo jumbo. That is so just 'coz i'm a little bit interested in astrology, a little bit interested in occult, a little bit interested in myths and such stories.

One such story is about Jumbo the dumbo, which i read a few days back.

u see there was this baby elephant born of huge tuskers. as soon as he gained a little bit of awareness about himself he found that he was "different" from the others. first of all he was much tinier. secondly he had no tusks. thirdly he had these very huge ears.

as time passed he became more and more acutely aware of the differences....but most of all it was the ears that made him cringe before others. how embarrasing! no one had ears like him. he thought everyone stared at him and sniggered sometimes behind his back and sometimes even to his face.

slowly he retreated into himself. all the joy went out of life. and nobody wanted to be his friend.

Till one day a mouse approached him and asked him why he looked so sad.

Overwhelmed that somebody should want to talk to him, he blurted out about his embarassingly big ears.

But isn't that wonderful, said the mouse. No one else has such big beautiful ears. they are so unusual...and so useful too!

Useful? asked the baby elephant. how are they useful? i wish i could pull them out!

Oh, but then they are your biggest asset, replied the mouse. Havn't u noticed that no other elephant has such huge ears.....they may have huge tusks, they may have a huger trunk....but no one has ears like yours.

but what use are such huge ears, whined the baby elephant.

Why, don't u know? asked the mouse, quite surprised. u are the only elephant who can fly!!!

What? an elephant can fly? i can fly??? said the baby elephant.

Just try, replied the mouse. u just have to flap your ears. see what happens then.

So the baby elephant flapped his big ears....but when he did so, nothing happened.

The mouse then said....but i forgot to give u the feather!

Saying this the mouse produced a feather from out of the air and gave it to the baby elephant.

Hold it, and see what happens!!!

as the baby elephant held the feather and flapped his ears earnestly....he slowly began to rise...first two inches above the ground...then six inches....and then he soared 12 feet above and began flying.

everyone down below gaped....a flying elephant!!! they had never seen such a sight!

very soon the baby elephant became the centre of everyone's attention. he indeed felt happy and blessed.

he thanked his friend the mouse, who told him to keep the feather always with him and never lose it.

the days passed into months and months into ears. the baby elephant, no longer a baby began to perform for a circus, where many came to see the flying elephant.

one day while he was performing before a packed house he tried a specially difficult feat....he tried to somesault high in the air.

the people down below gasped and held their breath.

But alas while turning around, the feather that he alays kept tucked in the corner of the trunk loosened and floated away.

the elephant saw the feather floating....and panicked.

He started falling....he could not fly!

He saw the ground below and saw his body hurtling down towards it.

But then his eye caught the eye of somebody waving frantically at him.

It was his friend the mouse!

The mouse was shouting something....

At first he could not make out the words....but then he heard quite clearly!

Its not the feather....dumbo....it is u....if u think u can fly u can fly!

what was this? it was not the feather?

The elephant started flapping his ears vigoursly......

And then the miracle happened....

He could fly even without the feather!!!!!

When he touched base he hugged the mouse tight.

When i read this story i thought how many of us are given the feather and still cannot fly....'coz we think the feather is all mumbo jumbo.