English for Students

The Strength of Gentleness

The Strength of Gentleness :



There was once a kind of misunderstanding between the Sun and the Wind. The wind boates itself, “I am the mosty powerful of all natural forces. I can uproot trees. I can sweep away houses. I can even reshape the mountains by corroding them. You can only next to me in powers."


The Sun was all the time smiling. This enraged the wind further.


“Can we have a competition to prove our strength?" asked the wind.


There came an old man clutching his overcoat in the cold. The wind took its chance said, “Okay. Here is the competition. The one who is able to make this old man remove his overcoat is the most powerful of us. What do you say?"


The Sun also accepted to this competition.


The wind was forst to go. It started to blow. The old man clutched his overcoat a bit tighter. The wind blew harder. The old man clutched still harder. The enraged wind blew with a howling sound. “Ooo…Ooo…Ooo…"


The old man grumbled to himself, “What a nasty wind!" and clutched his overcoat even tighter.


Thye disappointed wind gave up and said, “The Sun….This is your turn."


Now the sun looked at the old man and started to spread its smiling rays. The old man said to himself,"Hmmm….! Now I am feeling better." And he loosened his grip over his overcoat. The Sun smiled still some more. The old man was felling warmth within and slowly removed hios overcoat. The sun turned and said to the wind, “My dear wind….sometimes gentleness proves more powerful than harshness."


The wind admitted its failure and learned avaluable lesson from The Sun.