Stories of Jivavarta: Three Men

The cave was not an ending; it was a pause for perspective.


Three men were escorting an elderly scholar to another town. The road was through a deep jungle. When they were in the middle of the jungle, the weather changed suddenly and a storm descended on them. They took shelter in a cave. They waited and waited. The storm lasted for three days.

When the weather came back to the normal, one man from the group got up and went to check the condition outside.

After sometime, he came back. "What did you see?" asked the elderly scholar of the group.

"The storm has passed, but it has done heavy damage. The bridge on the river, which we have to cross to go to next town, has broken. We can't proceed," replied the man.

A second man got up. “Let me check again if we can go back to our hometown." Saying this the second man left the cave.

After a while, he came back, dejected. “No, we can't go back. A giant tree has fallen in our path back home," said the second man.

The third man, who was sitting in the corner silently so far, got up.

"Where are you going?" asked the first man.

"To see for myself," replied the third man.

"Go and see. But we all know there is a problem, and we are stuck here," said second man.

The third man didn't reply. He just walked out.

He came back after a long time.

"What were you doing for so long? What did you see?" asked the elderly scholar.

“First, I saw the broken bridge. Then I went to see the fallen tree," the third man replied.

“What was the point? We all know the problem. Neither can we cross the bridge, nor can we go back. We are stuck here for eternity!" the second man shouted.

“When I saw the fallen tree, I got an idea. I took out a big branch of the tree and carried it to bridge. I then used the branch to fix the broken bridge. Now we can cross the river to the next town," explained the third man.

"Such a strange thing! Sometimes, our problems are the solutions themselves. But while everybody can see the problems, very few can put them together into a solution,” mumbled the elderly scholar to himself.

Sayings of Jivavarta

“Our problems are the solutions themselves.” — Shon Mehta

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Lexicon of Jivavarta

The Third Man Habit: (LITERARY-PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT)

The habit of perceiving connections between separate obstacles, using the elements of one problem to resolve another.

The Third Man Habit Lexicon Examples:

1) A “failed” adhesive became the Post-it Note. Spencer Silver created glue that wouldn’t stick. Art Fry needed a removable bookmark. He connected the two problems—and found a solution.

2) A “wrong” resistor helped inspire the pacemaker. Wilson Greatbatch’s faulty circuit produced a rhythmic pulse. He saw its potential to regulate a heartbeat and developed it. 

Key Philosophical Concepts Represented

1. Dialectical Synthesis

The first two men perceive separate contradictions: forward movement is blocked and retreat is impossible. The third man resolves the contradiction by synthesizing the two obstacles into a single solution. Progress emerges not by eliminating problems, but by integrating them.


2. Stoic Agency

While others fixate on lost externals, the third man focuses on what remains within his control: judgment and action. He embodies the Stoic insight that obstacles are not interruptions to the path, but the path itself.

3. Cognitive Liberation (Breaking Functional Fixedness)

The fallen tree is interpreted either as an obstruction or as raw material. The third man escapes functional fixedness by redefining the object’s purpose, revealing that the limitation was perceptual rather than physical.


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Further Exploration


📖 Read the Original Story: The Three Men - Shon Mehta (June 2015)


🎨 Visual Adaptation: The Three Men Comic Strip


Jivavarta is a fictional land created by Shon Mehta, where epic tales of power, survival, and social upheaval unfold, as seen in her novels The Timingila and Lair of the Monster, along with many other stories and parables set in this richly imagined world.