A Garhwali Folktale............

[ I tried to find a Garhwali folktale but couldn't find one so made up this from popular Russian lore . The end kind of reflects Garhwali sensibility ]


Gairola and Badola were two childhood friends, lazy bums; in American idiom you can say pathetic losers. Gairola was the stronger of the two. Tired of their ways the villagers booted them out of the village. The friends decided they will try luck in town but between the town and village lay a dense forest. Summoning all their courage the two friends embarked on this treacherous journey through the forest. They spent the night in jungle trembling in fear under a tree, the sole source of relief was a fire that kept them warm and also provided succour from darkness and elements. They were lazy bums but not short on empathy. In the middle of night a terrified squirrel fell on their
lap. They caringly provided it shelter and comfort. 
At dawn the squirrel morphed into a yaksh. Pleased with their conduct the yaksh bestowed on them a boon each. 
“Ask for anything Gairola” he said.
“Any thing?”
“Sure anything reasonable; I will try to make it happen”
So the Gairola thought for a while and them said,
“I want a goat”
Bingo! There was a robust goat by the side of Gairola. It was now turn of Badola,
"You, Badola! ask anything”
Badola took even more time to think and then said resignedly,
“I want Gairola’s goat to die”
In a flash the goat was dead, very inert……….
Yaksh was puzzled, he asked Badola
“You could have asked for two goats Badola”
Badola whispered quietly in Yaks’ ears, “I thought about it. Life yaksh is a little complex not everything is works out the way you want. If I had asked for two goats, I would have eventually ended up with nothing and Gairola with three goats.

A Tiny Beautiful Rose

This button size rose will not grow any bigger but that doesn’t make it any less beautiful. This inspiring story will tell you why……

There is an old sweeper in our building who spends time in the shades of parking area, may be his own place is cramped and stuffy in this hot weather and large open space liberates his spirits. He has a discarded pram, rickety but still functional, in which he adoringly takes care of his infant grandson, I see him there off and on, sometimes the child is left all alone sleeping in the pram in hot afternoon… the old man likely nearby, running some errand.

Yesterday afternoon I came back home after dropping my wife at the station. While parking I didn’t notice a plastic bucket, it was white and matched floor color lying on the way so it came under the car and dragged with horrible screeching sound. Immediately my temper exploded at the carelessness of the jerk who left that bucket there. Then I saw two pillars away the old man pushing the pram, he left it and came rushing. My anger melted as I saw the man wet all over in guilt and beseeching. I quietly helped him retrieve the bucket from underneath the car and said, “No problem”. Suddenly I felt an urgent need; I went down the block in hot afternoon bought some toffees and gave it to child in pram. I felt a sense of nirvana and very beautiful like the small rose, dazzling!

I decided both the old man and I am, are beautiful persons, just that I never noticed it. Small beautiful things are visible only when you focus on them. Big celebrities are also ugly at places if you closely look at them like Sri Sri Ravishanker doesn’t see any value in Malala to deserve Nobel Prize. Try telling him, muster courage and put life on stake KNOWINGLY as Malala did by challenging the terrorist and going to school.