Cooking Khichri- Akbar and BIrbal

 One Winter morning , Emperor Akbar and BIrbal were strolling by the lake , the Emperor happened to touch the water in the lake and found it icy cold, He had a sudden idea. He called out to Birbal" I will give a thousand gold coins to anyone who dares to spend an entire night in this icy chill water". The challenge was duly announced and a poor man came forward to take up the challenge.
   The man spent the entire night in the freezing water and went to the court the next morning.
Akbar was astonished that the man accomplished the task . Akbar asked the man ," How did you survive the entire night in the icy cold water?" . The poor man replied, " Your Majesty , there was  a lamp on the fort's window. Throughout the night , I was looking at the lamp and kept myself away from the thought of cold."
  Hearing the man's reply , Akbar said, " Since you warmed yourself with the heat of the lamp, you are not entitled for any reward."
 The poor man turned to Birbal for help.
    The next day , Birbal sent a message to the court that he would come only after his khichri( an Indian dish) was cooked.  After a long wait , Akbar went to Birbal's house and saw Birbal watching his bowl of khichri cook hanging from a pole five feet above the fire.
    Akbar laughed at Birbal and said ," Birbal, your khichri won't cook, It's far from the fire."
    Birbal answered , " Your Majesty, this khichri will receive heat from the fire the same way the poor man received  heat from the lamp in the far off fort." Akbar realised his mistake and rewarded the poor man.

Story and Picture courtesy Mindmelodies publication
www.mindmelodies.com

The fish challenge.

       Gopal was a clever and witty barber, He lived in a small kingdom , ruled by a king called Raja Krishna Chandra. The Raja often turned to Gopal to help him out of difficult situations or solve a difficult problem.
          In Gopal's city, Hilsa fish was a very popular dish. Hilsa fish being available only once a year ,never failed to grab everyone's attention and interest. When it was Hilsa season, house wives exchanged recipes, shopkeepers discussed the latest price of Hilsa. Fishermen talked about catching the biggest Hilsa of the season.
        The King Raja Krishna was surprised to see even his courtiers discussing Hilsa fish rather than more important state matters. Finally , unable to bear this anymore he decided to put an end to all this talk about the fish. He thought he would be at peace even if people would stop about it for a few minutes. He announced an award of fifty gold coins to anyone who could bring to the palace a big Hilsa fish from the market . The only condition being that while bringing the fish to the palace no passerby must talk about the fish.
       Even after a week not one succeeded in this challenge, simple as the task seemed many tried to attempt it but the look of Hilsa fish did not fail to excite remarks from onlookers. After a week Gopal decided to take the challenge.
      He woke up one morning, shaved off half of his beard, put mud all over his face and hair , put on old clothes and wore his shirt backwards. His wife when she looked at him demanded to know where he was going looking like a tramp .Gopal simply smiled and said he was going to the market to buy the biggest  Hilsa fish available. So saying he left her and headed to the market. There he bought a big Hilsa fish ,he started walking towards the palace making very little effort to hide the fish.
     On the way people who met him were shocked at Gopal's appearance. They wondered if he had finally gone mad. What with mud on his face and his beard half shaven he did look strange. some others feared that Gopal had lost his memory . When Gopal reached the palace gates the guards hardly recognised him  and wouldn't let him inside. One guard went inside to inform the king, the king summoned Gopal inside. He took one look at Gopal and was shocked to see his best advisor looking like a tramp. He demanded Gopal to explain himself. Gopal merely laughed and replied that he had won the challenge and the king owed him fifty gold coins. The king looked confused he wanted to know what challenge was Gopal talking about.  Gopal unwrapped a big Hilsa fish from under his arms and showed it to the king. No one who had met him had spoken anything about the fish, in fact no one had noticed the fish ,Gopal's looks had taken away all their attention. The king laughed at Gopal's cleverness and gave Gopal fifty gold coins and suggested he go home at once and clean himself. Gopal went home happier and richer.

Tenali Raman and the thieves.

        The witty Tenali Raman was now known to all as King Krishna deva Raya's favourite  courtier and was also now known to be a wealthy man as he received lot of valuable gifts from the king. This made Tenali Raman an easy target for thieves. 

       One summer night , when Tenali Raman and his wife were relaxing in their  courtyard, his sharp eyes caught a movement in the leaves in his garden. There was not even a faint breeze ,so Raman presumed that there were intruders in his house. He was right - a couple of thieves were hiding there.

     " My dear," said Raman quite loudly to his wife , "I've heard that far too many robberies are taking place in our neighbourhood. So let's hide our jewels in the well."

     A little later , Raman and his wife came out lugging a heavy box, and dropped it into the well. It fell with a mighty splash. They went back in to the house , as if to sleep.

     The thieves waited for a while and stealthily began to draw water from the well.They hoped to empty the well and get the treasure.The whole night , the two thieves drew water and poured it out as quietly as they could. They got the trunk out and to their dismay found huge stones inside them. By morning they were completely exhausted and very miserable knowing that they were outsmarted by the witty Raman.

    Tenali Raman came out in the morning and saw the thieves.

     "Thank you for watering my garden . You have saved me a lot of trouble," he called out.

      The two men begged Tenali Raman for forgiveness and hobbled away as fast as they could.

Vikata kavi Tenali Raman

      Once upon a time during the reign of king Krishnadevaraya there lived a man called Raman in a village called Tenali, Raman was very lazy and never did any work . One day he met a sage who taught Raman a secret Mantra and asked him to chant it thousand times in front of goddess Kali .

     That night after the whole household went to sleep, Raman crept out of his bed and made his way to the Kali temple. He chanted the mantra with great devotion. To his surprise goddess Kali with all her thousand heads stood in front of him when he finished chanting. When his eyes fell on the goddess he started to laugh , this infuriated the goddess who demanded him to explain himself . Raman begged her pardon and said that it was just that it suddenly occurred to him that when he has a cold it is difficult enough to wipe one running nose and that he wondered what the goddess would do if she ever caught a cold since she had thousand heads. 

      The goddess couldn't help smiling at this reply and gave him a boon by which he will always make others happy with his wit. She also said that henceforth he will be called Vikata Kavi . Raman was not satisfied with this boon he argued that it would do him no good. Then the goddess brought forth two bowls in her hand . One golden bowl containing the milk of wisdom and one silver bowl which had curds and stood for wealth , these she offered to Raman and asked him to choose any one bowl and drink from it to be blessed with that boon. Raman tricked the goddess by quickly gulping down the contents of both the bowls and again begged the goddess for forgiveness and explained that one without the other would be of little use. He argued that wealth without wisdom and wisdom without wealth would both bring unhappiness. The goddess relented and blessed him again with both the boons but she also warned him that to be so blessed will make other's envious and therefore he would make lot of enemies .But he would also have the wisdom to get out of any unpleasant situation.

        Since Raman hailed from the village Tenali he was called Tenali Raman and since he was blessed by goddess Kali , he was called Vikata Kavi Tenali Raman.

Kamishiba

Kamishiba is an ancient Japanese form of story telling. Scenes were drawn on paper and the story was told holding the picture to the audience.
I drew these pictures for a story and told it in a story telling workshop at Avvai . The workshop was conducted by the famous story teller Cathy Spagnoli.

Once upon a time there lived a king who was very vain. As he grew older he started to lose his hair and started to become bald.The king was very distressed over his receding  hair line.If you are the king and you have a problem,you have an advantage of making it someone else's problem.So, that is what our dear king did.

He summoned the palace physician and ordered him to brew a remedy for his baldness or face serious consequences.

The royal physician was  a very clever man, He knew it was futile to argue with the king and he also knew he cannot follow the kings orders . There is no cure for baldness, he walked home in deep thought,

As promised the royal  physician met the king on the said date, handed him  a bottle of oil promising hair growth. He told the king that it is not a matter of just applying the oil that is going to do the trick , the king needs to also have the will to grow his hair back. The king answered that he was very willing and would do what it takes to cure his baldness. To this the physician said that he has follow the instructions really carefully. The king had to apply the oil only after bath and not more than ten drops per day and what ever he does he must not think of mangoes.The king thought easy enough even he could follow such simple instructions.

The king began the treatment the very next day. He took his bath and then he took exactly ten drops of the oil and then what next he thought, he should not think of -mangoes!!!!!!. Now he could not take his mind off mangoes , One day it would be mangoes in  a tree next it would be mango juice in a bottle next it would be mangoes cut and served on plate. Slowly not only did he think of mangoes during his bath both the rest of the day too. It became too unbearable , 

The king got rid of the bottle and decided he looked good the way he is and he also feels better.

The royal physicians cleverness saved him from the king's wrath.

THE END

I have told this story to almost all my class students and my students have liked my drawings. Its quite long ago since I drew it the paper is falling apart .Feels good to post it here on my blog.