Once upon a time, a goldsmith approached his King and asked if he would like any special sort of jewellery made for him or for his Queen. The King gave him a withering look, for he had just come out of his Queen's chamber after a tiff with her. He wanted to punish the goldsmith for his audacity.

Hence, he said, "Oh, go ahead. You can make me a gold ring. But on one condition. When I am in a sorrowful mood the gold ring you make for me should drive away that mood and inject joy into my mind. When I am in a joyful mood and if I happen to look at the ring it should chase away my joy and ram in grief. If the ring fails to do so then your head will not belong to your body. Go ahead with your work and come back to me with that powerful ring."

The goldsmith went back home all the time, wondering what he should do to save his head. At first, he thought of disappearing from the city once and for all. But he consoled himself that it would amount to an act of cowardice. Hence, he consulted many of his friends, who simply pressed their temples in a gesture of helplessness.

Days later, his clever wife found a solution to the problem her husband was facing. She said, "Make the ring and inscribe on it 'THIS TOO SHALL PASS AWAY.'" The goldsmith followed his wife's words to the letter and made the King pensive with the thought-provoking words. Thereby, the goldsmith made a splendid escape from the royal butchering blade.

This is more than a story. It teaches the readers, as every folktale should, the art of saving our souls from the impending disasters. Problems are our intimate enemies. Either we walk towards them or they walk towards us. And the meeting is certain.

One problem begets another and yet another. Issues that come in battalions are meant to be faced, not shunned. By facing them like a soldier on the war front, we become stronger and stronger both in body and mind. By shunning them, we won't be able to run away from them, for they somehow reach us with their horrific tentacles. And the only way is to solve the problem.

All that we need is courage. If it is inbuilt, we have to use it; otherwise, get it injected by a friend, indeed, or a wife in need. A needy wife is undoubtedly a great advisor. She needs her husband throughout her life and cannot allow his head to be cut off by a sadistic authority.

There is no problem on earth that is big or complicated. We only blow it bigger or complicate it by running away from it. Problems are like barking dogs. By trying to run away from them, we make them go mad. They are either at your heels, frightening you to the core, or take away a pound of your flesh, of course, without your permission. Stand still and stare at the barking dogs, and they will go away whining. That is life.

A man who faced a problem every day once approached an astrologer and spoke of his grievances. The astrologer who listened to him with rapt attention said, "You will have to face the problems in the first three months of the Year. There is no other go." The eager man asked the astrologer, "And then... Will my troubles go away and make me free from them?" The astrologer replied, "No... You will get accustomed to them."

All problems, if left unattended, either go away on their own or enlarge themselves to dangle like the sword of Damocles. So, the best way is to put our brains to proper use and find a solution.

As all our toes are different from one another, so are our problems, each different from the other. And to tackle them, we need patience, courage, and tactics. We have to ponder the situation. Are we going to fabricate it? Or are we going to analyse and solve it? It all depends on our attitude to life.

Let me wrap up this piece with an anecdote from Rajaji's life. On January 30, 1948, at 5.17 pm, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Hindu Nationalist, shot Gandhi while he was walking to a prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi. There arose a great problem. How to convey the news of the assassination to the citizens, especially when Hindus and Muslims were at loggerheads?

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lord Mountbatten, and Rajagopalachari put their heads together in a room close to the one where Gandhi's remains were kept. Everyone was tense, for the news would definitely create a furore, and they were not sure how many men and women would fall prey to the inhuman wrath. Yet Nehru wrote down on a sheet of paper the message: "Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, was assassinated today in the afternoon." He gave the paper to Lord Mountbatten, who read it aloud and okayed it.

But Rajaji thought that the message was incomplete. He was not sure how the Hindus would look at the message when religious fanaticism was on the rise, and loot, rape, and murder were very much in the air. What if the Hindus turn violent against the Muslims, assuming that the assassin was a Muslim? Hence, to save India from burning, he called for the sheet of paper and added, "The assassin is a Hindu."