Putting Kids to Sleep

by Hiranya Borah

  Chapter XIV: Lion and mouse

  This is small story about arrogance of powerful persons versus power of ordinary people. Here, powerful persons are represented by a lion and ordinary people are represented by a mouse.

  One day a lion was in a very bad mood for not able to catch a deer for his lunch. A mouse was also in search of its meal and bumped to the angry lion who caught him in no time. When lion was about to kill him, with folded hands mouse appealed to the lion, ‘ Oh, the king of jungle, spare my life. I shall not be a meal for you. If you eat me, it will not defuse your hunger, contrary it will increase your hunger further. If you need my service, you call me I shall be at your service, oh almighty.’

  Hearing the plea of the mouse and his assurance to help him amused the lion and he had a hearty laugh and let the mouse go without expecting any service from the mouse in future.

  After few days, the lion was caught in a net cleverly placed by a hunter. The more the lion used his brute power, the more he was entangled in the net. He was roaring at his best pleading for help. The mouse heard his roar and appeared before the king of the jungle. He said with all humbleness, ‘Oh King, my saviour, do not worry, the net is made of nylon, not made of steel. I can tear the net in no time. Be calm and believe in my ability.’

  As promised, the mouse made the lion free much before the arrival of the hunter. The lion’s ego was busted. He realized, in this world, everybody has own ability and one has to take or seek help who apparently look very weak compared to ownself!!!!

  Chapter XV: Lion and Rabbit

  This is a story of a fight between un-equals where mightier had been vanquished by a weaker opponent through its proper planning and proper execution of the plan.

  In a jungle, the lion king was approached by the animals with an unparallel but unique proposal. As per the proposal, everyday an animal voluntarily would come to the den of the lion king for his lunch. In the process everyone except the animal who had to die on a particular day could live peacefully.

  The agreement benefited both the parties, one party could live in peace another party did not need to run after animals for his lunch. The peaceful settlement went off coolly for few months.

  A day came on which duty for presenting himself for lion’s lunch was thrust upon the smartest rabbit in the jungle. He made a plan to get rid of the menacing lion from the jungle forever.

  Normally, the lunch time of the lion was at about 12 noon. But the rabbit did not appear at his den till 5 PM. The hungry lion was very angry to see the small animal for lunch at 5 PM. He was to pounce upon him but before that he wanted to know the reason for late coming. The rabbit with folded hands explained the reasons for his delay, ‘Oh the mighty king! I was on time to appear before you for your lunch, had I not been obstructed by another lion. He was about to eat me. But I prayed before him for my life so that I can appear before you on time. But convincing a hungry lion is not a matter of joke. Somehow, I was able to convince him that I shall come with my king to settle who is entitled to eat me.’

  The lion was foolish enough to believe the rabbit and immediately agree to accompany him to settle the score with the intruding lion. When both of them approached a deep well near to a human settlement, the rabbit told the lion, ‘Oh mighty king, on seeing you the intruding lion is trying to hide in the well.’

  When the lion peeped into the well he saw his own image in the water of the well. He challenged the imaginary lion by a huge roar. The roar came back to him as an echo which the lion thought it was roar of other lion. He could not control his anger and jumped to the well. The well was so deep he could not come out of the well till he was rescued by a circus team. The king lion was made their slave lion by the circus party till his death.

  Chapter XVI: Tortoise and Rabbit

  Please read the story till the end.

  The rivalry of these two species started in 1921 when my grandfather was newly appointed a teacher in a local school. A tortoise challenged a rabbit for a 5 KM race. My grandfather was to declare the rabbit as winner but to give the tortoise a fare chance to win, the race was allowed to place with lot of fanfare. But all of you know what happened on that day; that foolish rabbit slept in between and lost the race.

  Rabbit has a short life compared with a tortoise. The son of that rabbit challenged the tortoise again when my father became a school teacher. This time the rabbit did not do the same mistake of sleeping in the mid way and the young dashing rabbit was able to beat the experienced tortoise decisively.

  But tortoise was not ready to leave the competition so easily. When I joined the service, the same tortoise sent a message for another duel to the grandson of the original rabbit and this time, field for the duel was selected a plain which was full of muddy water. The experienced tortoise comprehensively defeated the rabbit.

  But this time, the tortoise became a benevolent winner and advised the rabbit not to waste energy competing with each other. ‘Better we move together, when field is dry I shall be on your back and when field is muddy I shall carry you on my back and enjoy the world with love and tranquillity.’ The rabbit agreed to the proposal and they are now progressing well.

  This is the success story of Indian economy. New and modern industry should not try to compete with the old time tested industries, rather they should take their help and extend their modern technologies to these industries and progress together with hand in hand.

  Chapter XVII: Crow and fox

  When I was in school, a crow had stolen a piece of mutton when I was washing the meat on a bowl as per my mother’s advice.

  The crow flew to the nearest jungle of my village and sat on a branch. Lakua, the fox was also in search of food and he saw the crow on the branch keeping a piece of meat in her beak. The fox knew the crow would not share her meat with him. He made a plan to hoodwink the crow. He started talking to himself, ‘I have never seen such a beautiful bird in my life. How silky black colour she is having! Her eyes are also so beautiful. But sometimes God is not kind to beautiful creatures and that is why she was made dumb. ‘

  By the time, this crow was fluttered so much that she could keep mum and tried to sing a song. The fox was waiting for this moment and got the prize in the form of a piece of meat.

  Time passed quickly and same thing happened to my son when he was washing meat in a bowl in the open space in front of our home. A crow picked up a piece of meat and flew to the jungle and sat on a branch. This time also a fox named Gadhua was in search of some food. When he saw the crow with a piece of meat in its beak, he praised the crow in a similar fashion like his father, Lakua. The crow instead of opening her mouth, she put the meat on the branch and pressing the meat with her claw said to the fox, ‘You had cheated my grandma few years back with those words. You cannot cheat me like that.’

  Moral of the story; you cannot cheat a community or a group people with false promise or false praise for all the time!!!!!

  Chapter XVIII: Thanks of a Housefly to an Ox

  We are always miser in thanking others for their good works. Here is a story when a housefly thanked an ox for allowing him for taking much needed rest.

  A housefly lost his father when he was very young. The priest of the housefly advised him if he could immerse the ashes of his father in the nearest river, his father’s soul would be able to secure a place in the heaven. The nearest river was about a km or two from the residence of the housefly. So in the next morning, he started his journey and in the midway he felt very tired and saw an ox grazing in the field. The housefly sat for a while and regained strength and after thanking the ox, he flew to the destination. The ox did not acknowledge his (housefly) thanks as he was not aware when the housefly sat on him and when he left.

  On return back also housefly took rest on the ox and thanked him for his help. This time the ox told the housefly, ‘My dear friend, you are so light, whether you sit on me or not, it hardly matters for me. Why you are embarrassing me by saying thank you.’

  T
he housefly answered, ‘I know, it hardly matters for you whether I thank you or not. But it matters for me a lot. Without your help I could not have reached my destination.’

  The ox smiled back to the housefly and bid farewell to him.

  Have you ever felt that we should be thankful to our country and mother earth for providing everything to us without expecting any ‘thank you’ from us?

  Chapter XIX: Who is fit to be a King?

  A king has two princes who were equally brilliant in warfare, administration and diplomacy. The whole kingdom was confused who would be the king after the erstwhile king as the princes were twin brother so age would also play no role in decision making.

  One day, king was not feeling well and he was invited to grace a religious function of a community whose population was much less compared to any other communities of the kingdom. If the king would skip the occasion, there would be no political consequences as number of that community is barely represented in military and other services. But the king knew that, not attending by him would hurt the sentiment of the community which as a king did not want to do. Finally, he called both the princes and told them to attend the function and told to tender an apology for not able to attend the function personally by the king. The king also sent two of his most trusted ministers along with them.

  Before attending the full function one prince returned to the palace and reported back to the king, informing the king that he found the function very funny and he did not like the expression of the elders when they had been informed that king was not coming. The king did not comment anything and told his son to take rest.

  After few hours the other prince arrived and met the king with a highly satisfied mood. The king enquired why he was so happy to attend the function and asked him what happened in the function in details. The prince told the king, ‘The elders were unhappy to hear that you are not well and thanked you for sending both of us along with two trusted ministers representing you. They praised your broad mindedness for sending us instead of sending a senior official to represent. They also expressed their gratitude for showing your love for their community and promised to lay their lives for you and your descendants all time to come. They sent a special apology for my brother, if they failed to satisfy him by their acts, as he left the function mid way and promised to take special care for him on his next visit.’ The King did not say anything.

  The king found the next king in the prince who had empathy for all the communities which is essential qualification for a good and able king.

  The prince who became the king was known in the history Assam as the able son of Gadadhar Singha and Sati Jaymati as, Swargadeo Rudra Singha, most famous king of Ahom Kingdom of Assam who ruled Assam for six hundred years from AD1228 to AD1826.

  Chapter XX : Country always comes first

  He was made Barphukan, the chief of the Army by the Ahom king, Swargadeo Chakradwaj Singha, bypassing many experienced and older generals to defend Assam from invading imperial Mughal army under the leadership of Ram Singh in 1672-73. His name was Lachit Barphukan. He was the only general of India who was able to defeat Mughal decisively in the battle of Saraighat and could push out Mughal from the territory of Assam permanently. But here I am going to share, how and when he infused the patriotism among his soldiers leading from the front and creating history for himself.

  The Mughal army outnumbered the Assamese army and Assamese army was in need of few Garhs (defensive walls made of earth similar to dyke for water reservoir). Time was limited to construct those Garhs and therefore the work was entrusted to his own maternal uncle by Lachit. When in the evening Lachit went to see the progress of work, he found the progress was not at all satisfactory and the workers were taking rest. When he summoned his uncle he gave the excuse that the workers were exhausted and therefore he advised them to take some rest. His answer infuriated Lachit and he chopped off his maternal uncle’s head uttering his famous historical quote, ‘Deshatkoi momai dangar nahay’ which means Maternal uncle’s stature is no match for the security of the country or nothing is more important than country’s interest/ security.

  On seeing the patriotism of Lachit, all the workers were so inspired that the Garh was completed before the dawn. No doubt, on the next day, Ahom army was able to defeat the Mughal army taking advantage of the Garh.

  Before finishing my story I want to add few lines about the father of this historical figure of Assam. His father was the Barbarua (Cabinet Secretary or Chief Secretary or top bureaucrat) of the kingdom who started his career as a personal servant of a Brahmin family of the countryside of Assam. While the King was on a visit through the countryside, he noticed an orchard, exceptionally neat and clean; but full of fruits. The king enquired who was maintaining the orchard and found it was maintained by a teen ager. The king brought the boy to the capital and through his indomitable intelligence and character he gained the top bureaucratic post of the kingdom. So, Lachit was a worthy son of a worthy father. Names of them are still taken by the people of Assam with respect and pride. Even now the young generation of Assam are inspired by them.

  Chapter XXI: Ego should be heavy enough to pull down

  One day God, Shri Krishna took his follower, Arjun for a tour to the countryside in the disguise of two poor travellers. In the evening, Shri Krishna told Arjun, ‘Tonight we stay in this village and find out the person having the largest house in the village so that we can stay comfortably.’

  It was not difficult to find the richest person with the largest house in the village. When they meet the rich person and told their intention to stay in his house for the night, the rich man saying that it was not a hotel or destitute house to accommodate poor travellers. When Arjun tried to say something, he was abused. Arjun got very angry but Shri Krshna gestured him to keep mum and left the place. At the gate of the rich man, Shri Krishna uttered, ‘Whatever you have today, within a year it would be twice!’

  Arjun was surprised to hear those words from God and he was little bit disappointed.

  Then both of them went to the house of the poorest person of the village who happened to be an old widow having no property except a milching cow. She welcomed both of them and offered dinner which was nothing but boiled rice without any curry. However, she was able to give a glass of milk to each one of them.

  In the morning after crossing he gate of the widow, Shri Krishna told, ‘The cow of the widow should die today itself!

  This time Arjun could not control his disappointment. He asked Shri Krishna, being God how he could be so ruthless!

  Shri Krishna with his usual divine smile said, ‘Let me first explain, why I told that the cow should die. The pious lady has only one obstruction to meet the Almighty. So long cow is alive, she cannot go to the seventh heaven from where nobody has to take a rebirth in the land of death. I am not cursing her, I actually giving a boon to her because of her good work. On the other hand I cursed the rich person to become richer and more egoists. The more ego, a person’s soul will be with more burden. Once the burden of ego and property become too heavy to carry, the person is going to be doomed. So, is it clear why apparently I gave a boon to unworthy person and curse to a pious lady?’

  Arjun touched the feet of God for forgiveness for questioning the wisdom of God.

  Chapter XXII: Donkey and Thief

  A rich farmer had few cows, few bullocks, a dog and a donkey. One night a thief sneaked into the premises of the farmer and he dolled a piece of fried meat to the dog to keep him mum. Seeing this, the donkey tried to impress upon the dog to bark as he should be faithful to the farmer, not to the thief who for his immediate gain tried to bribe the dog. But dog was happy to relish the meat and did not bark. At this the donkey took a right initiative and started baying. The farmer got up from the bed to see what happened to the donkey. The thief immediate hid himself sensing that the farmer was awake. The farmer looking at the donkey, he could not see anything abnormal and went to bed. The thief again appeared and this tim
e also the donkey started baying just to anger the farmer. The farmer this time beat the donkey and he went to sleep. At the late night the thief barged into the farmer’s house and able to steal all the valuables.

  The farmer felt sorry for the donkey as well as for himself, but did not blame the dog, but showed sympathy for him for not able to control temptation for the piece of meat.

  After ten years, same thing happened again. This time initially the donkey was reluctant to bay. But his moral did not allow him to keep mum and he started baying. The farmer got up from the bed and this time also he did not see anything abnormal. As soon as he went to his room, the thief appeared. The donkey started baying again. This time also finding nothing abnormal he became angry and was about to beat the donkey. At this, son of the farmer stopped his father from beating the donkey. He immediately put on all the lights and called all the servants and ordered them to search the entire premises and thief was caught. He thanked the donkey and kicked out the dog from their house.

  In our society/ country, there are some persons/ departments who are made watchdog (in the story, the dog) for controlling crime. When they failed, someone else (in this case donkey) has to come forward to raise the alarm as majority of the population (in this case the cows and bullocks) are mute spectators only. If we ignore the alarms made by these whistle blowers of our society/ country will be looted by the thieves!!!!!

  Chapter XXIII: Father, Son and a Donkey

  A farmer bought a donkey from a weekly market and returned home. At first the father told his son to ride on the donkey. As they were going some passerby commented to his son, ‘What a ruthless son! The father is on foot and young son is riding on the donkey.’ The son did not like the comment and requested his father to ride on the donkey. At this another group of people commented, ‘What a ruthless father! The young son is on foot and energetic and able father is riding on the donkey.’