The story of Nachiketa

This has been picked up from Dr K S Narayanachar's book..And i must say this story has really started giving me a sense of satisfaction..i will be sharing some of it here..
This story appears primarily in Kathopanishad..It is also present in RigVeda 10th mandala..Also in
Taittiriya Brahmana, in abridged form..
Nachiketa was the son of a rishi named Vaajashrava..Vaja means food..Shrava means fame..Vaajashrava
had earned a lot of fame through "Annadaan"(donating food or feeding people)..The beauty of our hindu scriptures is that names of characters themselves tell a lot about their culture..Now after some time this fame probably started having its side effects..vaajashrava decided to perform a great
yagna called "vishwajith"..A performing this should ideally give away everything he possesses(including himself)..But vaajashrava was probably after "fame" than god..In fact the main reason for performing yagnas is to develop the habit of donating clothes,food etc and to make one understand that "nothing in this world is mine"..Vaajashrava was giving away old, useless cows as donation to people..This child nachiketa was watching his father..He realized that the yagna was becoming a failure..He went to his father and said "To whom will u donate me??"..The sage simply ignored this child, but nachiketa continued asking again and again. Vaajashrava lost his patience and said "I ve given u as daan to yama,the god of death".

Here the rig veda and also kathopanishad describe in a beautiful way how nachiketa felt and what did he think..Unlike us, nachiketa did not get angry at this..He thought "My father is a great sage..whatever he says is for my good!! But of what use am i to yama??..even plants eat,grow,reproduce and perish..I think i am not the worst among his disciples..So now that i ve been given as offering to yama, of what use i can be to him??"..of course i cant fully describe the opinion of vedas as in the book..i dont think english is suitable for this..
But the point here is that the child was able to think positively..Our indian culture teaches us to respect elders..even if they go wrong, youngsters should not speak in a manner which hurts their sentiments..nachiketa was a firm believer in this..This belief took him to the abode of god..