#Khush Ghelani

[storiette-thunders]

The Story of Butter

In the Saranda Forest there were many animals. There were Owls, Lions, Foxes, Wolves, Bull, Tortoises, Bears, Terrapins, Hyena’s, etc.

From all these animals, Terra the Terrapin was the most cunning. He fooled others and took their things. He once told Wangy the wolf that Fessy the fox was planning to take his new purple coat and told Fessy that Wangy will take his grand green shoes.

Fessy and Wangy decided to hide it. Both of them did not know where to put their things and so took advice from Terra. Both agreed and put them as told. Both of them were equally powerful and so decided to fight after hiding their things. Fessy sent a message to Wangy to meet him at the sumo stadium. They both fought but nobody won while Terra had taken the new shoes and the new coat at his home.

This time Terra tried to keep himself in control and tried not to fool others but the animals were not to get this idea of Terra thinking it as one of his new tricks. Terra still kept himself in control.

That day whenn Wangy was churning Makhan for his house he by mistake put salt in the Makhan. He tasted it to check if it tasted normal or better or worse. He loved it and took a large helping for himself. He was about to complete it when he thought of giving a spoonful to everyone in the forest. He took the pot and went to each house except Terra’s and everyone loved it. Everyone loved it and everyone asked the same question “How is it made?” Wangy answered their question and everyday a beautiful smell arose from the chimneys of the forest. Every day Terra wondered how can the houses have such beautiful smells that to all of a sudden without any notice. Terra tried to make such beautiful smells but no smell came.

One day Leonie the Lion kept a big feast. The cook was Wangy himself as he had created out the Salted Makhan. Terra knew that Wangy would continue to make food in the same way as he did every day and the wonderful smell would come even now too so he followed Wangy to the kitchen and saw that he was using Salted Makhan which made the smell come. He tried to take the Salted Makhan from there but Wangy spotted him and did not allow it to happen. Leonie banned Terra from the feast for trying to steal.

Terra did not like it and so he craved to have his revenge. He knew what he had to do and so he waited for the a chance. He waited for Wangy to go for his nightly bath.

When Wangy did go Terra hid behind the wall near the bathroom. He spoke in a scary voice “Waaaaangy, tell Terra the Terrapin the secret of making the Salted Makhan or I the ghost of Terra’s father will rip you and kill youuuuuu.”

Wangy got scared at first but he recognised the voice. He acted as if he got afraid “Oookkk, sire ghost, I will do as you say.” Terra actually believed it and he went home.

Terra went to Wangy’s house the next day and asked him for the secret.”

Wangy invited him in his house with a sly smile and Terra went in. As soon as Wangy closed the door, Wangy held Terra by his neck and he put him in hot boiling water at the fireplace. He dipped Terra in the water and Terra yelled. All the animals gathered around Wangy’s house. Terra kept saying “But-Terra, But-Terra……”

From then onwards “The Salted Makhan” is called Butter.

[storiette-thunders]

The Only Way To Calm Your Anger

Even before the Mauryan empire, when Magadha was ruled by Bimbisara a war happened between Magadha and Vatsa and tragic bloodshed had taken place from both Magadhans and Vatsan. The soldiers were killed grievously without any pity on anyone of them.

This war was won by Magadha and there was no sign of where the Vatsan king was?

A Vatsan soldier was left alive. He was celebrating his luck to be alive. He was not the only one but there were a handful of people and so they also celebrated their luck but when Bimbisara was celebrating his victory and for that he came to see the war site.

He saw these soldiers but got angry that though losing their kingdom lost in a war but they were celebrating; “didn’t they have any respect for their kingdom?” he questioned himself.

He rounded up the soldiers and put them in prison. They asked for forgiveness but Bimbisara didn’t pay heed to their words.

Bimbisara told them that they will be free after a year. They were relieved yet they were very angry. They made a plan to follow after they are freed to kill Bimbisara and they agreed too.

A year passed slowly and the soldiers got excited. Just a day before when they were very happy, one of the soldiers decided at the last moment not to take part in the plan. The others were astonished but they didn’t talk about it there because of the soldiers and so the others didn’t take part too.

The next day at dawn as they left. The other soldiers asked him, “Why did you not take part?

He answered calmly, “Well, I am a kshatriya, and it is my dharma to protect the people of Vatsa to the heights I can and it will be an adharma if I kill an unarmed person not in the battlefield.”

The others laughed at him and started walking towards Vatsa but he went on towards Banares. “Why are you going towards north? Our way is here.” they asked.

He answered, “Well, I have no family and no home so where would I go and what would I do? I have decided that I will go to Banares, become a sanyasi taking up sanyas.”

They laughed on him again. They said, “I think you have gone mad.”

The soldier ignored their laughs and went on his way. 3 months later he reached Banares. He was in search of a calm place but there was no place in the town so he went on a hill where he saw that many sages, tapasvis, sanyasins, saints and people seeking true knowledge and devoted to god had sat there in rapt meditation in perfect postures. Nearby was a temple where bells were absent to not disturb meditators there. Some people sat there for 10-15 minutes whereas some sat for hours, some for days, some for months and some for years.

The soldier went to the keeper of the temple to ask for clothes that sages wore. The temple-keeper though surprised gave him a clean dhoti and an angavastram. He renunciated his armor, sword and all his jewelry and clothes and wore a rudraksh garland and even made jewelry of rudraksh. He tied his hair on top of his head and found a good place to sit. He started his meditation. He continued for hours and hours and kept sit in the same position. He got up at dusk and had some food and water. He controlled his sleep and instead of sleep he meditated. He got up at dawn to eat and drink water. He was just about to sit when he noticed a sage. He couldn’t recognize him but he thought the face was a bit familiar to him. He went nearer and looked at him he could not remember who but he knew that he had seen him somewhere. Some moments later the wife of the sage came. The soldier recognized the lady immediately she was the queen of Vatsa and the sage was the king of Vatsa.

The soldier ran to the King and bowed his head down with respect. The king was astonished with the soldier’s behavior.

He asked, “Why do you bow to me young man? I am a mere saint, no giver of knowledge, no giver truth, no giver of advice just a mere saint, a meditator.

The soldier said, “Why do speak so about yourself? You maybe are not a giver of knowledge, truth or advice but you were a giver of life to not one but many. Do not lie, sir. Do tell me your true identity or your old true identity.

The king smiled and said, “First, tell me who are you? Why have you come here?

The soldier replied, “I am Svojas Singh and was a soldier from the Vatsan army. I was imprisoned by King Bimbisara of Magadha for a year. I have come here to find truths and to make my anger controllable from the rage, fury of wanting to kill Bimbisara and also to find peace and calmness in my life.”

“Truly said young man,” said the king, “Every soldier will be in fury when his/her kingdom loses a war and the soldier is imprisoned. Then the soldier tries to find ideas to kill the king. Am I right, young man?”

“You are right, sir, the soldier replied, but you didn’t reply to my question, do tell me your true identity.”

Ah, yes, I was coming to that itself, he replied, I was the King of Vatsa and when the war faced towards Magadha, I fled from the war having the fear of death. I was angry too but I controlled my anger for 2 months in my journey here when I couldn’t control it any more, I told the queen to take me to Banares and I knocked myself with a pole on purpose and became unconscious. The queen had got a cart and in some weeks we reached here. The temple-keeper made me conscious. He had me drink a bitter medicine made of herbs and while keeping that medicine in my mouth I had to lie in deep meditation. I couldn’t lay in meditation but having tried each day, after a few weeks I went into deep meditation for about an hour. Now I am able to go in such meditation for a day. I asked the temple-keeper about my goal. He told me that in the method I use for meditating I must keep anger as a medicine and meditate.

“Thank you, your majesty, you have shown me the way of overpowering anger”, said the soldier.

[storiette-thunders]

A Wonderful Surprise

One day Shrikama, a little girl, who was about 10 years old was studying in the last period of school. She completed her work quickly and packed her bag.

At last when the bell rang she got up and stood up in front of the door when suddenly Upasna called the teacher for a doubt. All the other students also cried out “I also have the same doubt” and they gathered around Upasna. Shrikama was surprised that she completed all the questions easily but the rest of the class could not do that. She got a bit too suspicious and wanted to listen to their talks but she did not because she was getting too late.

The next day, Shrikama was going to school. Unlike all the other days she was early that day. It was her birthday that day. She was very excited. She had not told anyone about the day being her birthday. She was dancing as she went ahead to school.

Shrikama was the first one to reach in her class. She was proud

of herself because most of times she reached school late. She put her bag down and was just to sit on her desk when her class teacher entered the class and he looked at Shrikama.

He asked, “Who are you? Why have you come here?”

Shrikama was shocked when she heard this. She tried to explain that she was Shrikama her student but he did not understand. Still, she managed to explain him that she was a new student whose admission was just done a week ago.

Shrikama sat in the class and got bored. She was surprised that nobody was early at least. Though nobody was late but not early too. First of all, the boys came – Abjayoni, Niranajan, Upendra, Anaadih and Adikarah came in. They glared at Shrikama as if they saw her for the first time but in a minute they went back to their talks. Another group of boys came and they also glared at her in the same way the other boys did.

She hoped her best friend, Yogamaya who sat beside her, to recognize her. But instead she shouted at Shrikama “Who are you? What are you doing at my place?” So, she managed to explain that she was a new student and the teacher had appointed this place to her.

Yogmaya though apologized but Shrikama was hurt inside. She was sad that she was treated this way on the day of her birthday. She tried to study in the first slot but she could not. She showed that she was happy and she shared the cake she had brought with everyone as it was her birthday. She also shared the pizza she had brought and so she was happy a bit on her physical appearance but her heart cried bitterly.

She managed to pay attention in the second and third slot. She was surprised when she saw that the last slot was in the garden of her school. She took her bag down to the garden and sat down with Yogmaya as her best friend once again. She chatted with her for a while and waited for the others to come. Yogmaya and Shrikama were the first to come and so they were the first to sit there. All the others sat around them.

The teacher assigned them work. Shrikama loved such types of work to be done alone so she asked Yogmaya to sit somewhere else. She sat with the other girls and Shrikama started her work. She wanted to finish it quickly so that she could run away from this horrid day at school. She wrote quickly. She sat far away from everyone and so could not hear their talks. She wrote and wrote……

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,’ said many shouts, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHRIKAMA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU………”

Shrikama was surprised and her sadness turned to happiness. She was fooled so easily. Even the teachers were a part of this surprise. She was very happy then and the rest of the slot they had something like a party.

[storiette-thunders]

The Gateless House, Sushruta Samhita

Many years ago in the village of Gold Beauty there were 50 houses. Most of the houses were in the village but some were on the outskirts of the village. The houses which were on the outskirts of the village had 2 parts. One was the western outskirts and 1 was eastern outskirts. The eastern outskirts had about fifteen houses while the western outskirts had only two houses. This was because those two houses were the houses of affluent families only. These two houses were sold only to someone who was excellent at science. Another reason was that the city was nearer to the western outskirts of the village and due to that, work was done quicker if anything was to be done in the areas of technology in the village.

The houses were named as Vedanga after the earliest Indian astronomical text and Sushruta Samhita after an ayurvedic text that contains 184 chapters and description of 1120 illnesses, 700 medicinal plants, a detailed study on Anatomy, 64 preparations from mineral sources and 57 preparations based on animal sources. Sushruta is also an Indian physician known as the one and only author of treatise The Compendium of Sushruta. These houses were elegant, dazzling, divine and artistic.  People lived in Vedanga, but nobody lived in Sushruta Samhita. There were some problems with Sushruta Samhita which were- it did not have a gate, it was broken a little and did not look as good as it was before.

The owners of Vedanga were prosperous. They had a family of five people. This included three children named Nilaksh, Ishranth and Urvashi, their mother and grandfather. Urvashi was the eldest of the three. The next was Ishranth and the youngest was Nilaksh. Their father died while he was saving the owner of Sushruta Samhita. In this accident their father and the owner’s family in Sushruta Samhita both died. After this accident nobody was enough well-off to buy the Sushruta Samhita.  Vedanga was not taken away by the children’s family as their mother and grandfather both were great astronomers and biologists respectively too.

20 years after this incident, one nice summer, the children’s mother had to visit brazil for presenting her new discovery. She had to take 1 helper so she decided to take their grandfather. The children could not decamp as they had 8 days left for school in which their final exam were to be conducted. Urvashi was studied in 10th standard, Ishranth in 8th standard and Nilaksh in 4th standard. Urvashi had to be in charge of the holidays. Their uncle would come at regular intervals of time to supervise them till their exams. Being the eldest, Urvashi was given all the household duties in the house and she did them obediently.

After their exams were over, they had lots of time for themselves and they played for a whole day. They also went for swimming in the streams nearby.

Gradually, they got tired of all this and started doing something creative, like making new things, watering their beautiful garden, doing some experiments, making best out of waste, etc. They made a puppet show on their own and showed it to their uncle. Their uncle was impressed by their work because it was very amusing and he praised them very much because they added some sound effects too. Their uncle forced them to show it in weekly competition in the village and they also won 1st prize in it.

One hot, long, starlit twilight the three children heard a low sound of car arriving when they were on bed. They tried to looked below for it but nothing could be seen due darkness and the trees there. They went back to bed. A little while later they heard a noise of hammering but they could not see anything.

“We’ll see it tomorrow” said Ishranth and all of them agreed.

The next day the children forgot about it. The children were playing football and badminton. They played football with some friends from the village and at about 7:00 at evening their friends left. After this they played badminton. Urvashi was not so good in badminton so she was to change sides after each match and play as a double with him. A little while later she got bored.

She said, “I am going for a walk and I will return soon.” And she left.

The 2 boys were happily playing badminton and chattering away while Urvashi was on a walk.

Unexpectedly, Nilaksh and Ishranth heard a scream. They both darted towards it. They saw that it was Urvashi. Urvashi was standing in front of Sushruta Samhita. She looked pale. Different coloured lights were coming from it’s chimney. A noise of laughing was coming. The laughing noise was like it was of a demon. The children also saw that the house had a new gate. They were frightened.

Ishranth was plucky, courageous and valiant. He stepped forward and into Sushruta Samhita’s garden. Urvashi still looking pale tried to stop him.

“No, said Urvashi, don’t go inside. There could be anything.”

But Ishranth said, “I will go inside. You both may come if you want to.”

Seeing Nilaksh step forward confidently, Urvashi also joined them though she was shivering and was loathsome and petrified.

They went inside and saw that the shed was opened. Urvashi stepped back but she couldn’t think about doing anything but following Ishranth and Nilaksh who though were scared but bold. They saw that the door of the house was also opened. It looked as if someone was in a hurry and forgot to close the doors of the shed and the house. They went inside slowly and gradually. Everything was dusty and dark, no light came through any of the windows but the attic window. and many things were broken. They saw that only 1 room and the kitchen was open. They saw that the kitchen tap was opened and then went to the room.

They saw someone who was standing near a table and something was kept on it. The moon light was allowed to fall only on it and no other light was on. His light shadow told that he was tall and fat.

Nilaksh asked in a firm vice, “Who are you?”. The man quivered and turned back.

He pressed a switch on his right and the lights went on and he pressed another switch and the window from which moonlight was coming closed automatically.

Then he replied, “I am Tarun and I am the new owner of this house. If you are surprised that when did I buy it then the answer to your question is that 15 years ago I bought it but I did not live here because I had to complete my ongoing experiment in Australia. I tried it there but I was unsuccessful and visited Japan. Again I was unsuccessful and in like manner I visited many countries but still I was unsuccessful. Yesterday I came here to live and try my experiment and decided that if I am unsuccessful here too then I will forget about this experiment but luckily today it is successful” he added in a groggy voice.

The children were shocked but their fright had strangely vanished. He was a plump, merry little man.

“You might be wondering that why did the voice laughing seem like a demon, he said. Well, I laugh very strangely and so it sounds like a demon. Those lights from the chimney was my experiment’s success. I have found a way to turn the moonlight to a new coloured light when this special mirror is kept at such an angle.”

He gave the children some juice and some biscuits to eat and they chattered away for about an hour. At nine when their uncle came the children talked to him about it and he called their mother and grandfather. Astonishingly, their grandfather asked a lot of questions and surprisingly Tarun was a friend of their grandfather. In fact, he was his best friend in his school.

After 8 days the children’s grandfather and mother returned. Their grandfather went to Tarun and gossiped with him so much that he didn’t even come for lunch till 4. Tarun’s entire family came after a month. Everyone was happy and lived a blissful life ever after.

[storiette-thunders]

Whatever Happens, Happens For One’s Own Good

It was dark out there in Mandi. Aniket heard some footsteps from outside. Not one or two but many footsteps. The footsteps were of horses which were not Aniket’s horses but of different horses. The horses with Aniket were dwarf horses which were used only for taking loads not race horses but when he heard the footsteps, he couldn’t believe it. They were Appaloosas.

Aniket studied all about horses and he also had a good experience of horse riding. He could identify the horse by just listening to the footsteps.

Aniket called his son Nadeesh and they went outside their house. The saw an old man taking Appaloosas to different places to sell them. The Appaloosas were not 10 to 15 but counted upto 100 Appaloosas.

Aniket asked the horse-seller, “Where did you get so many Appaloosas? I haven’t seen Appaloosas in Mandi or Himachal Pradesh ever.”

The seller replied, “That is because these Appaloosas were bought by a Nepalese seller from a foreign country and when he didn’t want them anymore, he sold them to me.” “I am here to sell them, he added, would you like to buy them?”

Aniket asked, “Sir, I would love to buy all of them if I can afford them. What is the price for all the 100 Appaloosas?”

The horse-seller replied, “Sir, these Appaloosas were bought by me for Rs.25,000 as a lumpsum total but I will give them to you for Rs.15,000 because I see that you can be a trusted person to receive these.”

“Well, sir, I want all the 100 of them but I don’t have Rs.15,000 so if you could take 12 of my miniature horses and sell them for Rs.14,000 will it be okay?” asked Aniket.

The seller agreed and after the payment was done the seller asked if he could stay for some days there so he could explain Aniket how to train them. Aniket agreed and made proper arrangements for his stay. The seller gave some special type of food to the Appaloosas so that the Appaloosas didn’t die of hunger that night.

Aniket put them into the congested stable and decided he should make a bigger one for the Appaloosas and make the old one smaller for the remaining 36 dwarf horses the next day.

The next day the seller, Aniket and Nadeesh got to work and made the stables, then the seller taught Aniket how to train each one of them for 5 days and on the 6th day at dawn he left.

A few years later when Nadeesh was 12 he was tempted to climb on the Appaloosas rather than the miniature horses he usually climbed on to take them to carry loads and deliver things to different places. Nadeesh found out a black Appaloosa and tried to climb on it. He loved black horses. He kept trying to climb it and he tried to climb from a position from where it was easy to climb. After many tries Nadeesh got tired and he had no energy to come down from the position too. Nadeesh’s leg got caught in the saddle of the horse and as the Appaloosa was getting hurt due the awkward position Nadeesh was and so the Appaloosa shook violently and Nadeesh fell with his foot caught in the saddle. The Appaloosa began running with Nadeesh behind him. He thought he would die but Aniket came at the right time and got the Appaloosa in check. Nadeesh suffered many bruises and he also had got his arms cut. All the neighbors laughed at him and teased him that he won’t be able to do anything but when he complained about this to his father he just smiled and said, “whatever happens, happens for one’s own good” and Nadeesh replied that proverb to everyone and just smiled when they teased him.

Many years passed, Aniket got old and Nadeesh had married too. Nadeesh’s wife was happy with Nadeesh as when he could not work, she must work to earn money and she wanted someone who would allow her to work and earn money as a husband.

A war was about to happen and Nadeesh being a good swordsman when he had had his arms, he could not fight again. Some soldiers came to find some young men of about Nadeesh’s age and make them take part in the war. They came to Nadeesh but refused seeing him with no arms. The neighbors again laughed on him saying that he could not fight in the war but he replied the same as always, “All things happen for the best

The war started and though they won but there was a much bloodshed. When few soldiers returned, they gave bad news that no one was left except some soldiers and the king.

After the soldiers left everyone came to Nadeesh’s house and said, “What you said was correct, whatever happens, happens for one’s own good.”

[storiette-thunders]

Pay One in His Own Coin

Phalgun was an excellent student in his school. His dream was to become a wildlife biologist as he loved animals and nature. He was in a boarding school. This school was just to his liking. The school had all the core subjects including literature and grammar in English. The school taught in only one language, ‘English’. The school focused mainly on nature and wildlife which was one reason of the school being near the forests.

Phalgun loved his school. Here each student had a duty each. Each student got one piece of land in the school. This land was to be made beautiful without taking any help from anyone. The land had very fertile soil. The land had to be made beautiful by using natural things. The school had done this to improve the students’ knowledge on nature.

Phalgun got a beautiful piece of land. Every piece of land had got its own specialty. This specialty was given by the school itself. Some got ponds while some got cages for birds and animals, some got fountains. Phalgun’s piece of land had a fountain. This fountain was a cold spring actually but to make it a specialty the school a made fountain out of it. Having a pond or a fountain was very fortunate because that would have water and the student could use it too. If there was some other specialty then the student would get limited water per day also in cages the animal or bird must get food, water and the animal should feel that it is his/her habitat.

Phalgun had a corner as her piece of land. Here he grew a golden shower tree. This was a unique idea and this was a beautiful tree too. All the others grew Devil Trumpets, Yellow Flame, Nandi Flame and roses only. The fountain was painted and lotuses were grown in it. Phalgun grew pink buttercup trees that made her garden more beautiful. Annabelle Hydrangeas were used as fences. Limelight hydrangeas were grown round the fountain wall and Wisteria vines round the fountain. The trees had Moonflower vines around them which made them look beautiful. She grew meadow-grass and Rhododendrons on the land.

One day the Principal of the school called all the students in   school lawn and gave an announcement that in the month of spring meaning in two months span all the gardens were to be marked and the one whose garden was adjudged best kept would win an award.

1 month later when Phalgun was watering his plants and giving fertilizers to them, He heard a cry “Chirp, Chirp, Chirp.”

Phalgun followed the voice. He reached his Golden Shower tree. He saw that a baby thrush had fallen down from her nest and as it could not fly it, wanted help. Phalgun was not tall enough to put the thrush back to the nest. No student or teacher was that tall. He thought of an idea.

He went to shed and brought the tallest ladder. The ladder was heavy but Phalgun managed to drag it to the Golden Shower. He picked up the thrush and carefully He took it up and then went down.

In the last 15 days of the competition something dreadful happened to Phalgun. The Rhododendrons leaves were being eaten by slugs. Phalgun was terrified and he cried bitterly. He tried to remove them but they were very slippery and slimy that they slipped and went back to eat Rhododendrons leaves.

At that moment the thrush who was helped by Phalgun spread it’s wings wide and flew around Phalgun’s garden and landed in front of Phalgun. Phalgun looked at it. The thrush seemed to be thanking him for putting her back on her nest. In an instant, Phalgun got an idea to ask the thrush for eating the slugs. He said, “Thrush, please eat all the slugs, I want to win the competition.”

The Thrush though could not understand Phalgun, he understood his facial expressions and it started eating them one by one. Phalgun started the sprinkler and watered the garden in a minute and left, leaving the thrush to eat all the slugs.

By the next three days all the slugs disappeared. Phalgun was surprised. She gave water to the plants each day. The grass was cut in the last 3 days of the competition. The Rhododendrons had recovered by the time the time the competition was near.

Phalgun was very happy and he hung a bird feeder on a branch of the Golden Shower. Phalgun made it using a small house and put a small barrel of grains from which the thrush could pull out grains.

The competition was near and Phalgun made the grass look fresh and all her flowers smelled beautifully. Butterflies and bees made the garden look the most attractive.

[storiette-thunders]

The Braggart Tree

Once upon a time, in the Sundarbans delta there were many trees. There were neem, asopalav, pine, sundari, nypa fruticans, banyan, etc trees. There were many banyan trees and they were huge too but there was one tree which was enormous, immense and mammoth-sized having large adventitious roots and gave a vast shadow. He was near the Arpangasia river. He was an arrogant, puffed up, pompous, big mouthed and egoistic tree.

One burning summer afternoon all the trees were resting peacefully when a little boy named Sparsh passed by. All the trees woke up at once. Whenever someone passed by, the trees showered leaves and flowers lightly taking care that the person doesn’t get hurt and they can welcome him or her and they did the same to Sparsh. He was exhausted and so he stood at a place finding a good place to rest and have a nap. He saw the great banyan tree and he decided to have his nap there. Sparsh went there and put his bag down. He spoke “Om namah Shivaya” as he did whenever he had his meals, rests and whenever he woke up. He put his head down on the tree and..........

“Ow…Ow…Ow…,” Sparsh shouted. “What is this happening.”  grabbed his bag and ran a few meters ahead. He saw that there were many branches falling to the ground with thick leaves. He was frightened. It looked like the tree was laughing and the other trees were sad as well as angry. Sparsh wailed about it until the other trees showered a large amount of flowers on him and he even got some fruits to eat. He finished a nap under a sundari tree and after an hour or two he left.

After Sparsh left the sundari tree and the neem tree beside her tried to make the banyan tree understand

“What were you doing?”, said the sundari tree. “Why did you throw those branches handing a heavy, hard shower on him.”

“You should have made a soft bed of leaves for him,” said the neem tree. “You always do this and we always have to tell the same things to you repeatedly.”

“Why does everyone come near me to rest. I don’t like it at all. I will hurt everyone who come near me”, said the banyan tree. “You already know that no one can stop me. Ha ha, not even the forest fairy, who is so afraid of me. Why do you even try to explain to me? I won’t implement anything you say, till I am alive.”

“We explain because we think that you will understand what we will say someday of our life,” said the sundari tree. “Now, let’s not talk about this anymore or you will eat up our head.”

Some months later, in a frosty, icy-cold winter all the trees of the Sundarbans delta were shivering. It was snowing hard accompanied with large amounts of rain. All the trees except the pine trees were covered in ice. There was no hope of sun rays to heat the Sundarbans delta.

About 45 km away, in a city Netidhopani a boy named Adrith had had lost his mother in an accident just a week after his father’s death. He was in great depression and sadness.

After his mother’s funeral Adrith remained home for some days and decided that next he would go to his aunt’s place at Kaga Duania to make living and he sent a letter, telling her about his decision. Six days after he sent his letter he got a letter in reply from his aunt accepting the request. Adrith packed some food, few pairs of clothes, two blankets, etc. He knew that it would take at least five to six days for his journey so he packed accordingly.

Adrith left the next day at dawn. He passed by many people with their cows, buffaloes, oxen and bulls heading to a hill nearby where the grass grew wild. Adrith saw many things that he had never seen ever before because he had never woken up so early. Many villagers waved him goodbye when they spotted him going past them

Slowly, he reached the thick, dense forest. He saw many new trees which he had seen only in pictures not in real life but he could identify them easily. Most of the trees in that region were sundari trees but he saw some trees like pine, neem, etc.

On Adrith’s 6th and the last day he reached the banks of the Arpangasia river. He saw many neem and banyan trees there. It was night time and he was about to reach Kaga Duania. He decided to have a break there because the river there was frozen due to the night’s chilly winds. He saw that all the trees there were shivering. All the trees were leafless and barren too. All the trees except the great banyan tree were helped by some animals. Adrith was a kind little boy. He could not see anyone suffering and would immediately go to help someone in need. He had two blankets so he wrapped one around the tree. The tree felt warmed and was happy.

The banyan tree went into deep sleep after a while. The forest fairy felt that the tree had gone into a deep sleep and came out the next second. She did not like that Adrith had covered a blanket around the banyan tree. She called him and talked to him.

“Hey, hey, you, boy”, she whispered. “Come here.”

Adrith got up and asked, “Who are you? and Why have you called me?”

The fairy said, “I am the forest fairy of the Sundarbans. Come with me, I want talk to you.”

Adrith followed the fairy and stopped a little way off from the banyan tree as the fairy stopped too. The fairy said, “Why did you drape the blanket around that stubborn banyan tree. Don’t you know, it is a very rude, loud-mouthed tree.”

“No”, said Adrith, “He might be rude but we should help someone in need and not give him the same thing he did to you or else you would be considered the same. This “tit for tat” method cannot be used by us in every situation.”

The fairy understood everything while secretly even the banyan tree heard everything. The next day after Adrith left the banyan tree cried. Nobody could believe it but even more astonishing was that he allowed everyone to rest around it. The forest fairy came to the banyan tree and talked to it. She found out that he heard the whole conversation between Adrith and her.

He had become kind and realized the value of helping. That day he vowed. “From today onwards I the greatest banyan tree of all time in the history of the Sundarbans, will help each and every living being in this forest if I can.” The forest fairy rejoiced and was very happy. She danced through the whole forest and told everyone. Everyone was surprised but believed the forest fairy’s words. There was thick foliage thereafter and a vast shade was created. All the animals came there and rested in the shade. Adrith too came there every day to read a book. The tree would make a special place for Adrith to sit made of leaves and would welcome him with honor. Henceforth onwards everyone in the forest was very happy.

[storiette-thunders]

The Melody Of Nowhere

The Falguni forests were bright and every one was excited because a music competition was about to take place there that evening. Participants could be any animal from any forest. The participants had to bring any instrument they wanted and play music. Everyone knew that Heesha the Hyena would be the winner. He played a great melody on his harmonium.

That evening all non-participants sat as audience and every participant played a melodious music. The audience loved the music. Heesha also played his harmonium. At the end Koopa the tortoise also played his violin. Koopa was the only animal from another forest to participate. The audience liked his violin perfomance more than Heesha’s perfomance too.

When the winner was announced, it was Koopa. Koopa took his prize which was a brand-new violin.

Heesha got jealous of Koopa and he kidnapped Koopa that night. Heesha hit Koopa very much but Koopa went in his shell and wasn’t hurt at all. Heesha broke Koopa’s new violin and he kept him inside a cage.

Koopa still had his old violin which he played and tried to call for help. He played the same melody he played in the competition. He kept playing it but no one came. A year passed and many music competitions passed. Each competition Heesha won but he was very angry as the trophy he won had been carved in the form of Koopa’s face to remember him.

Koopa’s melody reached there but everyone thought that it was a left-over melody of nowhere and thought that no one is playing it was only their ears that made them hear the melody

One day Koopa was very happy as Heesha let Koopa to eat some good food. So after eating food he played the music better and louder than ever. The animals in Falguni understood that Koopa was here again.

They followed their ears and reached in front of Heesha’s cave and gasped. The animals went inside and the melody got louder and they saw a cage in which Koopa was playing his melody.

The animals were surprised and called Koopa. Koopa told everything and Gajanand the elephant broke the cage and Koopa was free.

They went to Moomba the lion. Moomba was the king of the forest. He didn’t like this behavior of Heesha and he called him. As a punishment Moomba ate Heesha as his dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. Koopa left the forest but the melody still can be heard there. If you pass by the forest, you will surely here it. You want to hear it, don’t you?

[storiette-thunders]

The Seed Of Water

Once upon a time in a beautiful kingdom named Jalananta, was a huge lake. The lake was their only source of water. This lake was filled by river water flowing by but the river was too far and the people couldn’t reach there for water. 

The lake was the reason that their kingdom was called Jalananta as the lake had never dried.

One day the people noticed a large amount of decrease in the lake. They were worried. They went to their king and reported the problem and as an answer he said the lake water was used too much this year and he requested them to reduce their use to a lesser quantity.

That day a farmer went to check the use of water the previous year. He saw that the whole kingdom had used lesser amount of water than the previous year. He didn’t want to argue with the king so he accepted whatever the king said.

Again, the next day amount of water decreased. The people got worried. This time they didn’t go to the king. They sent some people to go to the river and check about it.

The river journey was of three days. The women and children didn’t go.

Three days later everyone returned in the noon. The men told the women and children everything.

They all went to the king to talk about it.

The king asked, “Why are you so all panicked?”

“Panicked? Who wouldn’t be, your majesty. The river that filled our lake has left us and changed it’s course!” cried the women.

“What? I can’t believe it,” cried the King.

“There will not be any crops this year, how will we earn our living?” asked the peasants.

“There won’t be any fish, how will we earn our living?” questioned the fishermen.

“Our children will remain hungry and thirsty,” cried the women.

The king thought for a while and told the people to adjust with the remaining water for a few months and by that time he would think about it.

6 months later the people went back to the king again. They asked the king for the solution to the scarcity of water because the lake had emptied during these months.

The king had failed to find any other source of water or a solution for it. The king had also tried to change the course of the river in a way that it would fill the lake again but the course didn’t change.

The king asked some of his men to get water from the river and fill the lake as much as possible.

The king had 4 generals namely Adhaata, Adbhuta, Manada and Sutantu. The king sent the four generals in each direction. Adhaata went to the south, Manada went to the east, Sutantu went to the west and Adbhuta went to the north. The people got water to drink from the river that would go for about a week.

The 4 generals set off for their journey. They search every where and tried to find a sign of getting water. They went to each place but they failed.

Adhaata, Manada and Sutantu returned empty handed but Adbhuta was not one who would lose confidence so quickly he went more towards the north and after 2 weeks of search he reached a hill station and climbed it. He kept climbing up with a confused mind that why were the mountains so white and slippery. He even felt too cold and drenched. It wasn’t like the hot mountains and hill at his place. He kept looking at the mountains and he saw a waterfall and when he went near it something solid was falling which was sharp. He knew that this water cannot be taken there as it had no course that could be changed.

Adbhuta went forward and saw that there was cave. He entered the cave and saw that there were many white long pieces of the slippery material which he saw on his way here on the mountain were hanging on the ceiling of the cave. He stood there and thought for a while. He was tired and he had no place to take rest so he stayed in the cave itself.

He started a fire using stones and wood and he tried to sleep. Soon he was fast asleep and was snoring loudly, He snored loud. After a while he felt something cold and wet. He woke with a start and saw that the white slippery thing around the fire was not there instead there was water there. Adbhuta understood that the slippery thing when given heat turns into water and the long slippery material was the same thing just frozen and stiffer than the part on the ground.

 Adbhuta called it ice and the one on the ground snow.

Adbhuta cut a large piece of ice and tied it with a rope on his chariot that he brought at Jalananta. The people told that it was the seed of water.

He asked the people to dig a well as quick as possible. The large piece had already melted a lot and it was only 1/4th the size he had taken it from the cave.

The well was dug and Adbhuta put it into the well and allowed it to melt into water.

From then on Jalananta has never been thirsty ever.

[storiette-thunders]

Death Of A Ghost

Rayirth was a person who was against every corruption of the politicians. He helped many times honest police officers in arresting or punishing corrupted politician. He saw to it that punishment were given to Samael, Ranaksh and Satan till now. Samael was corrupt in his duty as Home minister and Ranaksh as a Chief minister. These were small posts and they having won 2 to 3 elections and were engaged in less corrupted activities, compared to Satan who was a Prime minister winning four elections and more involved in corrupt activities.

Samael and Ranaksh were given sentences of 20 years each in jail and charged with large amount of fine, while Satan received a jail sentence for the rest of his life. He had got very frustrated because of this punishment and he had killed himself before the police could handcuff him.

Two years after these incidents Rayirth was walking through the market with his friends police. He kept greeting some of the market people and chatting with his friends. This went on for a while but not for long. Rayirth kept looking behind after every minute but nobody understood why. After sometime Vanam could not keep up his patience and he asked Rayirth, “Why are you looking behind after every minute?” Rayirth answered, “I feel something is touching my neck again and again.” Vanam went round him to look but he saw nothing on his neck. Rayirth was surprised nothing was there and they continued walking.

A little while later Rayirth felt a pull from behind and as he was trying go forward the tugging stopped and he fell. Rayirth looked behind and saw a ghost.

“Aaaaaaiiiiiieeeee…………”, Rayirth screamed as he closed his eyes of fear. He opened his eyes slowly to peep at the ghost but as soon as he opened his he saw nothing He could see his body, his limbs, his clothes, himself but nothing else only darkness and a black fog. He could hear only a scary voice that was laughing and it seemed as if Rayirth was standing at the bottom of the hill and the person laughing was at the top of the hill. The voice was monstrous.

Rayirth sat down on the thick black fog. He didn’t know the time as his watch had stopped working. It seemed as if centuries had passed. He didn’t even know what was happening beyond the black fog. He tried to walk past the fog but he failed.

As soon as he tried to go past it, he saw that the fog went further.

There Rayirth was suffering in the black fog while out here the ghost was merging with Rayirth’s body. This was a task that would happen in seconds but Rayirth was in the ghost fog world. There time went too fast. A few seconds here would be many centuries there.

Slowly, the fog lost its density and some light was seen. Rayirth was happy to see this light. It seemed like he was sitting

on the of a hill and watching a sunrise. He could now see everything properly but he noticed something unusual. He saw that he could not move his hands and legs. He no more had control over his body. He could only see. He saw that he was still fallen due to shock at seeing the ghost His friends were helping him get up and he could hear everything out there. Rayirth tried to shout but the ghost absorbed his voice and didn’t allow Rayirth’s voice to reach his friends ears.

Rayirth (in the ghost form) said, “Hey, I think I’ll go in that Mobile shop and get me a new mobile.”

Rayirth’s friends were surprised. He had recently bought a new mobile and they exclaimed. Rayirth (in the ghost form) said, “Well, I’m not satisfied with the facilities of this new mobile and the mobile seller denies to take it back.” Saying this Rayirth (in the ghost form) left.

As soon as the they reached the shop the owner went outside for work. Rayirth again went in to a ghost fog cloud and returned but quicker than earlier. He saw that he had full control but he could not go out of the shop. He then saw that he was being controlled by a ghost. The same ghost he had seen earlier. He got afraid. The ghost was laughing. Rayirth asked, “What do you from me?” The ghost in reply, frowned and then grinned. He said, “I am Satan’s ghost. I had earlier come to kill you but now I will not but I may if you don’t do my work. I want to capture America but I am weak to capture it. I will need an armor and sword for it. The sword and armor will be made by youuuuuu. I will give whatever you need for it, be it very  

rare or not. But I hope that you get everything you want here because I detect large amount of metal in this shop.”

Rayirth thought for a while and got a plan to save himself and America. “Ok,” said Rayirth, I will make a strong metallic armor for you. It will need heat and large amount of metal. I will need bronze for sword.”

The ghost agreed and brought metal, bronze and heat giving machines. Rayirth got on work and he made a beautiful armor for the ghost. The armor contained a red gem in between, a

wonderful design and another red gem on the ghost’s crown. The sword was a katana type sword which had only 1 bladed side and a pointed end which was sharp too. The sword contained a red gem at the handle that gave magical powers to it.

While the ghost began wearing the armor Rayirth took up an electric wire, connected it to an electricity point and then touched it to the armor. The ghost got a huge shock and Rayirth released the wire. But once more he gave the shock and the furious ghost died. Then having no form it vanished from the armor and sword. Rayirth was proud to have saved America and himself though no one was aware about it.