Monday, April 6, 2009

The better singer.

The myna which was acknowledged by all the animals in the forest for being good at singing, refused to sing anymore as a crow made fun of its voice everytime it sang. Disgusted at being mocked by the crow everytime it sang, it refused to sing for anyone. While this made many animals angry at the crow, they could do little. The lion was most disappointed when the myna refused to sing anymore.

One morning the lion met both the myna and the crow. The crow insisted that its voice was much better compared to the myna's voice, which it said was ugly and inferior. This made the myna very sad. Turning to the crow the lion said," Normally the myna sings for everyone from morning till noon. Since you claim your voice is better, from now on you will have to sing from morning to noon". Since it was the lion's request, ther was no alternative but to sing.

The crow started to sing, while the other animals patiently listened to it. Singing from morning till noon was no easy task. It wasn't long before the crow's voice began to lose energy and finally its throat cracked. Forget singing the crow couldn't even speak. Seeing the speechless crow fly away in shame, the other animals laughed, while the myna resumed singing again.

New nest or old nest?

A group of wild-buffaloes were resting under a mango tree at noon when they found a crow bringing dry leaves and grasses to build its nest. One buffaloe in the group asked the crow why it was building a new nest when there were so many abandoned and unclaimed nests available in good condition all over the forest. The fox on hearing the buffaloe's question laughed and said the crow must be really stupid for working so hard to build a new nest when so many other nests were available for free. The crow felt irritated and insulted and asked the fox if it had ever hunted down a deer before eating it.
The fox said while other animals hunt and eat, the fox gets whatever that remains of others hunt.

The crow as it flew away said " I can't use other nests because, I didn't build them, hence they are not mine."

Monday, February 9, 2009

In search of the river

Not knowing where it was the tortoise went randomly looking around the forest. All that the tortoise knew since its birth was the river and its surroundings from where it was fished out by villagers and happend to fall out mid-way from the bag in which it was being carried.

As it wandered, it came across a butterfly sitting on a bush and asked the butterfly if it knew the way to the river. The butterfly said it had no idea where it was before flying away.

Still wandering, it came across an almost sleepy fox. The tortoise asked the fox for the direction to the river. The fox which had returned to its place after a heavy meal was irritated for being woken up from sleep. The fox replied "Listen, my stomach is full and I want a good sleep, don't disturb me. Two, this is my territory and I don't like animals like you intruding into my space. Go away before I get hungry else, you won't be alive to ask questions". The tortoise began to leave, before the fox could get any more angry.

The tortoise walked without a break for a long time and came across a rabbit cautiously eating a nut under the cover of a bush. The tortoise asked the rabbit the direction to the river, which it said, was its home. The rabbit replied in negative,
however invited the tortoise to its burrow, which the tortoise accepted.

Before taking the tortoise to its burrow, the rabbit tiptoed over to a boulder nearby, peeped down and expressed a sigh of relief when it found the fox sleeping on the ground at the end of the slope. It then signaled the tortoise to its burrow which was under a tree nearby.

While it rained outside, the rabbit shared its food with the tortoise. The tortoise rested for a while in the burrow before commencing its journery in search of the river.

As it emerged from the burrow the tortoise was surprised to find the fox resting on the dry ground under the tree. The rabbit laughed and said the fox's territory must be wet or under water after the rain, hence had moved to dry ground from below. The fox on finding the tortoise and rabbit near the burrow attacked them immediately, while the rabbit was quick to withdraw itself into the burrow, the tortoise shrunk itself by withdrawing its limbs and head into its shell. The fox grabbed the tortoise by its teeth and tried its best to injure or eat it. However the tortoise's shell was too hard for the fox to do any damage, and in frustation dropped the shell to the ground and kicked it, the tortoise flew, rolled and finally landed in a stream of rain water flowing below.

The tortoise on finding itself in water paddled and swam with the current. The small stream as it flowed began to gain speed and strength before it merged into the river.

The tortoise was finally back in the river.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Mangoes and monkeys

The depressed deer looked at the mangoes hanging high up from the tree and wished it could taste the mangoes before it falls to the ground and loses half its taste. It was more than three days, since the squirrel made fun of the deer who had never eaten a mango while it was hanging from the tree and said that the mangoes lose half their taste when they fall on the ground. The deer had no way of tasting the unreachable mangoes for neither was it tall nor had a long neck as the giraffe. All that it could do was dream about eating those mangoes.

As it was staring up the mango tree his friend came rushing, was gasping for breath and asked it to follow him. The deer followed his friend who was running at a very fast pace.
"What happened ?" the deer asked his friend. His friend replied that he had seen something very rare, which they had never seen before. "Its a white monkey" said his friend. The deer followed his friend eagerly to get a glimpse of this rare animal. His friend after running for a long time finally came to rest. "Maybe we missed him" said his friend. The two decided to turn back and on the way his friend was describing what he saw in great detail, when they came across a group of monkeys playing on a tree. The deer asked them about the rare white monkey which his friend was describing to him. The monkeys laughed and said there wasn't anything like a white monkey.

The deer got angry and looked at his friend whom it believed entirely. His friend however didn't answer the deer and instead asked the monkeys "Is it also true that the mangoes that hang from the tree lose half their taste when they fall on the ground?". Again the monkeys laughed and said it wasn't true.

The deer's friend said it apologised for making up the story, however it thought it was the only way it could make it understand that the mangoes losing their taste was as non-existent as the 'white monkey' .

The two deers laughed and returned back to their herd.

Friday, August 29, 2008

The crocodile, in search of tasty food.

The crocodile finally found the fox walking towards the river after a gap of ten days. The crocodile and fox were supposed to be working hand in hand to hunt and share the prey. While the fox's job was to lure or drive animals like deer to the river, the crocodile's job was to ensure that it catches the prey when it enters the river. The crocodile angrily asked the fox why it wasn't bringing any prey near the river. The fox laughed and said that catching chickens from nearby villages was an easy job when compared to luring other animals to the river and was no longer intrested in working with the crocodile. The crocodile said the fox should rethink its decision as getting chickens from the village everyday would be dangerous, as it could be attacked by humans. The fox said it wasn't worried as it went out only at night when men in the village were asleep.

Its not that the crocodile was dying of hunger instead it had sufficient food to eat in the river, however it wanted variety and wanted to taste different animals. Now that the fox has stopped bringing prey, it thought it should do something.

That night the crocodile decided to enter the village and see for itself as to how easy it was to get a tasty prey. It crawled very cautiously and reached the village which looked very silent, and hardly any activity around. As it raised its head it saw a goat tied to a pole and sleeping on the ground. The crocodile couldn't believe getting to a goat would be this easy. It slowly crawled towards the goat and as it neared, the goat woke up and sensing danger began to cry loudly. Steps away from catching its prey, when out of darkness people carrying sticks and fire-torches sprang from all sides and began to beat the crocodile with sticks. Taken by surprise and seeing so many people attacking it, the crocodile in pain fled back to the forest.

For the villagers this was a big relief as they thought they had driven away the animal which stole chickens from their villages. The goat tied to the pole was meant to be a bait and the poor crocodile fell for it.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The peacock and the deers.

The peacock was resting on a tree branch when it heard a big roar by the Lion. It looked around but didn't find anyone nearby. However a little later it found a small group of deers walking upto the tree. The deers all looked tired and one deer told the peacock that they had been chased by the Lion leopard and crocodile throughout the day and they hadn't rested for a long time and requested if the peacock could keep watch for predators while they slept under the tree. The peacock aggred to keep watch for them and should it find any sign of predator nearby, would alert the group of deers.

The deers rested after being assured by the peacock. Time passed and the peacock found a snake coming in the direction of the sleeping deers. The peacock however didn't alert the deers, for it didn't wish to disturb their sleep and instead went to counter the snake all by itself. Taking on a snake was no mean task, everytime the peacock attacked, the snake retaliated. As the attack and counter-attack continued, the scene of the fight moved away from the sleeping deers to a place far away from them, and it took a long time for the peacock to over come the snake.

In the meanwhile the deers woke-up and found the peacock missing from the tree. On not finding the peacock anywhere nearby the deers assumed the peacock had abandoned its vigil and were bitter at the peacock for not living up to its word.

A few days later as the group of deers were grazing they found a peacock sitting on a tree and calling out to them. The bitter deers were in no mood to speak with any of the peacocks. The peacock on not getting a response from the deers, flew down near them and asked if they were the same group of deers who a few days back had asked for a peacock to stand vigil for them while they slept. The deers affirmed they were the same group of deers, however weren't intrested in speaking to any peacock as one of its members had not lived up to their word. The peacock was aghast and cried on hearing the deers speak so bitterly about the peacock.

The peacock said the deers were oblivious of the truth. It then narrated how the peacock had protected them from a snake by taking it single handedly and over-coming it, however the peacock died the next day because of injuries it suffered while fighting the snake.