Naana said, ‘What story do you want?’ and the children said, ‘A snake story.’
He said: ‘Ok, here is a snake story for you.
Long long ago in a forest, a family of snakes lived in a hole under a big banyan tree. You know snakes lay many eggs and the father and mother snake had just had ten new children born to them.
The mother snake stayed inside the hole all the time to make sure that none of her children went out and got eaten up by some hungry animal or other.
The father snake went out looking for food and would be gone for long hours. He would catch something and bring it back for his family.
Small mice. Big frogs. Birds eggs. Large insects. Things that snakes eat you know. His family would eagerly await his arrival and the food he got would quickly finish.
As time went by the babies grew bigger and the mother snake found that her new set of children were extra naughty. All ten of them!
They did not listen to her when she asked them not to look out of the mouth of the hole. They did not listen to her when she asked them not to run around all over her and play when she was sleeping in the afternoon. They did not listen to her when she asked them not to fight amongst themselves all the time. They did not listen to her…
...and the mother snake kept on losing her temper and got so tired hissing at the children that she became thinner and thinner and more and more worried. This of course only made her sleep less and less which in turn made her more worried… And so on.
One day when father snake came back she told him that he had to find a solution to her problem. Father snake had been coming home everyday to a more irritated, more worried and a thinner mother snake. So he thought and thought and finally an idea came into his head.
He told the mother snake that whenever she felt herself beginning to lose her temper she should call her children around and tell a story.
It didn’t matter if she made up the story then and there or if it was a good story or a bad story. She just had to tell the first story that came into her head. The mother snake thought that a fine idea and started practicing it the very next day.
It worked!
Soon the mother snake became a very good story teller and everybody was happy. The children were happy because they got to hear so many stories. The mother snake was happy because her children became better behaved not only when the stories were being told but even in between stories. Father snake was happy because he had found a clever solution to a difficult problem and also because the mother snake was happy.
And that is the end of our story but not of the stories that mother snake must be telling her children even now...’
‘So’, said Naana, ‘the story went to Haripuram and we came…’
‘HOME’, shouted the children and soon were fast asleep.
(This story is illustrated by Upal Sengupta, former colleague, inspirational artist and lead singer of the famous Bengali rock band Chandrabindoo)
Long ago in a forest full of all types of animals there lived a lion. Just one! So he was respected by all the animals in the forest. He was the undisputed king of the forest. He was a big lion and with his powerful muscles and long mane and graceful walk he looked very noble and fearsome and strong. He was afraid of nothing!
One day during a big storm the lion came across a thin jackal shivering and howling under a big tree. The lion was curious and looked around but saw nothing around that could frighten the jackal so much. He quietly went up to the jackal and asked him what the matter was. The jackal had not seen or heard the lion come near and was so frightened when he saw the lion in front that he could not even run away. The lion came nearer and asked again what the matter was. The jackal whispered, and the lion had to thrust his face close to the jackals face to hear, the jackal said, ‘I’m afraid.’ It took the lion some time to understand what the jackal meant. Then he ROOARED with laughter.
‘ROOARHAHAHAHAHA!’
When he could stop laughing he asked, ‘Afraid of me?’
‘Yes’, said the jackal, ‘but before you came I was afraid of the storm.’ The lion wanted to know why anybody would be afraid of an ordinary storm. He found out that the jackal was afraid of many other things as well.
The lion felt sorry for the thin hungry looking jackal and told him, ‘You can stay with me and eat whatever is left over after I eat.’ The jackal was very happy with this arrangement. Actually you see, he was so thin because he was frightened of everything and had not really been getting enough to eat.
Soon with the help of a regular meal, the jackal became healthy and strong. The other animals respected him because he was always with the lion and when the jackal noticed this he also started looking somewhat noble and somewhat majestic and somewhat lion-like. He was still afraid of many things but talking to the lion about it he was becoming braver and less afraid.
And the lion? You see, as he talked to the jackal he started hearing about the things that frightened the jackal and strangely, soon started seeing the jackal’s viewpoint. This meant that the first time a really big thunderstorm happened and a big tree nearby got hit by lightning and loud thunder tore the air – the lion jumped in fright. It only got worse as the lion started experiencing more of the jackals’ fears and helping the jackal become less afraid.
Soon one day the lion didn’t kill a big buffalo with fearsome horns and the lion and jackal had to go hungry. The jackal understood that somehow the lion had become more afraid of things and he had become less afraid. So he talked to the lion about it bravely and from that day onwards they hunted together and the animals in the forest began to respect the jackal as much as the lion.
(Illustrated by my 7 year old son Dinkar)
Once upon a time there was a very stupid but very lucky hen. Let me tell you a story about her to show you what I mean.
You see the stupid hen belonged to a poor old woman who lived in a small hut. So the stupid hen would roam around all over the neighborhood all day and eat whatever she could get and would come back to the hut in the evenings. The old woman didn’t have to take care of the hen and once in a while she got an egg or two so she didn’t mind.
Now in one of the farms nearby where the stupid hen roamed there were two large fierce guard dogs. The dogs were let loose in the garden around the farmer’s house and every animal and every person who had to come near the farmer’s house was afraid of the dogs. Except the stupid hen!
Why?
You see she was just too stupid to be afraid. She would wander into the garden everyday and when the dogs came running and barking towards her, she would cluck-cluck as if asking, ‘Hey, what’s wrong with you both?’, and she would hurry flapping her wings through a hole in the hedge into a neighboring farm. This happened everyday. The dogs were surprised at why the hen came back every day and wasn’t frightened off by their fierceness. They decided to do something about it before they became the laughing stock of all the animals around.
So one day they lay in wait for her. The stupid hen always came in through the same hole in the hedge. The dogs waited, lying close to the hedge on either side of the hole, so that the hen could not see them easily. The hen came in the same way but just as she was almost into the garden she saw something tasty to eat in the hedge and so she withdrew her head and turned to peck at it. The dogs seeing the head come through the hedge pounced at it only to see it vanish back. In all the confusion there was a head on collision and one fierce nose hit one fierce head and the dogs lost interest in the hen for the day.
The next day they decided to let the stupid hen come into the garden before stalking and catching and killing her. The stupid hen like always came in through the same hole in the hedge and started pecking around in her stupid aimless manner. The dogs quietly moved closer hiding behind bushes and trees till they were just behind her. The stupid hen was walking on a pile of dry leaves that the gardener had left for burning on a sloping part of the garden. The dogs leapt at the stupid hen together and would have surely caught her but the stupid hen disappeared in front of their eyes and they were so surprised that they fell slipping and sliding to the bottom of the slope. You see the stupid hen had just fallen into a hole in the ground covered by the dry leaves. She came out of the hole and went about her aimless wandering business and after some time went into a neighboring farm not realizing how close she had been to being caught by the dogs.
The dogs decided that there was no point being clever about catching the stupid but lucky hen. So, from the very next day, they barked at her and drove her out of their garden like they used to and everyday the hen ran away in her stupid but lucky manner.
(Illustrated by my 13 year old daughter Aditi)
