Once there was man walking alone in the forest.  Suddenly an elphant came and started chasing him. He started running...and running, crossing all plains, canals etc to escape from the elephant. At one time he reached a peak of a small hill and no way to escape.  At the end of the peak there was a tree grown outwards towards the valley.  He climbed up the tree and hanging on to the branch which was protruding to the valley side.

Then only he noticed that there was a lion standing down there,

down below the valley looking above, waiting for him to fall down.

At one end the elephant. At another end a lion. Then he hears a noise on

the branch. Two big rats: one black and one white were sitting on the branch he is hanging. The rats started chewing on the branch slowly.

The man was helpless at what is going to happen soon. The branch will

break down becos of the rats and he will fall in to the mouth of lion.

At that time, he smelt somthing and found that there is a bee-hive

right above his head on the branch. And honey started dripping from

the hive onto his mouth. For that instant, he forgot the elephant,

the lion and the rats and opened his mouth to taste the honey.

In this story, the man is the human; the elephant is the problems of life;

the lion is death; the rats are days and nights those eat his life-time

slowly. If he gives up hanging, death will eat him. Honey is the pleasure

of life which is small and trivial but for which the human can forget everything else.

That's life.

- From Thankachi's speech on 'Indha naal iniya naal' (sun tv

'vanakkam thamilagam')