Panchatantra – Angry Birds – {Ep.218} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today we’ll cover a couple of stories from the Panchatantra about Angry Birds – seriously, don’t cross them or they can inflict major pain – regardless of whether you’re a giant Elephant or the mighty Ocean!

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re doing a couple of stories from the Panchatantra. Well technically they are really part of a single story. For that matter, all of the dozens of stories in the Panchatantra are really just 5 stories. That’s because the Panchatantra isn’t a collection of dozens of stories. It’s a single story that never ends. At the conclusion of any particular narration, one of the characters narrates a new story. This keeps going several levels deep.

Let’s dive right in. Into the Ocean. Well not quite into the ocean. But right next to it. 

Mr and Mrs Lapwing stood at the beach. If you haven’t heard of the tem Lapwing, let me quickly clarify that they were birds. Mr. Lapwing was explaining to his new wife why this was the perfect spot for their home. “This is Prime real estate,” he said. “The sales bird who sold it to me explained all the perks of this nest. We just have to step outside of it and we have a delicious seafood meal everyday. No shortage of omega 3 for our future children.” And he affectionately patted their eggs, in the baby carrier.

Mrs. Lapwing looked looked at the nest a little skeptically. “But there’s no protection. There are no leaves on that tree, so nothing to protect our nest from things that might fall from above.”

“No, no, no. You don’t understand. The salesbird explained it to me. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. This way, we have automatic showers whenever it rains.”

Mrs. Lapwing wasn’t convinced. She tried a different tactic. “And what about the sea? Have you heard of tsunamis?”

“Yes, of course I know about tsunami. He lives over in the mountains on the pine tree, doesn’t he?”

“For your information. A Tsunami is a large wave or series of waves caused by an earthquake or an underwater volcanic eruption. Get it? A large wave! A huge wave! It can wipe out our nest”

“Nah, there’s no such thing. It was debunked recently on that mythbusters TV show. This ocean isn’t powerful enough to create those. It’s not like it can do anything about it anyway. Best case we’ll get a little spray now and then. I had to pay a little extra for our house to be located in the splash zone!”

Mrs. Lapwing may have been okay with what her husband just said. But the Ocean was not. Varuna, the sea god, took offense. Naturally, he saw this as a challenge. How dare that insignificant little bird think that the Ocean was incapable of wiping out its insignificant little nest? Now, if the nest was actually somewhere up in the mountains like the guy who seemed to be Mr. Lapwing’s friend, that might actually be a little bit hard for Varuna to wipe out. But this nest, he wouldn’t even have to move a muscle. Not that Ocean had muscles. It was all liquidy. But the nest – it was so precariously balanced on a branch of a dead tree, that Varuna thought a moderate wave at high tide could sweep it away. 

So that afternoon, at high tide, Varuna grabbed the nest and took it away. With three eggs inside it.

Mrs. Lapwing had just finished worm-fishing, quite successfully if I might add. She was eggs-cited to return to her nest with a surplus of the juiciest worms, just in case one of her chicks had hatched. She had been out early to catch all the early worms, according to the proverb. 

When she returned, she couldn’t find her nest. At first, she thought she had flown to the wrong part of the beach. New home, easy to get confused.

But then she realized she wasn’t confused. The tree was there. The nest was not. She called the police of course. Her eggs had been kidnapped. And there wasn’t so much as a ransom note. But she suspected foul play. And by “fowl play”, she didn’t mean chickens. She suspected the Ocean. The tree trunk was suspiciously wet just past where the nest was, so obviously the Ocean must have washed away her nest.

Mr. Lapwing just got back at this point. He’d been out playing “angry birds” with his buddies – just the video game, not a real life enactment. It took him a while to realize the terrible situation they were in.

After all the repeated I-told-you-sos, Mrs. Lapwing narrated a couple of stories to illustrate her point. Again. She started the story about the turtle that couldn’t keep its mouth shut. Even though its life depended on it. 

“Wait a second,” Mr. Lapwing interrupted. “Narada already covered that in Episode 29. So, can you just skip ahead to the next story on your list?”

Mrs. Lapwing agreed, and launched into the story of the Elephant and Mrs. Sparrow. And yes, it was their cousin sparrow who lived in the jungle nearby.

One day, Mrs. Sparrow was just doing her day job. Which was not unlike Mrs. Lapwing’s day job. Gathering worms for her family of unborn chicks that might hatch any moment. Mr. Sparrow was probably out bowling or something with his buddies. But when Mrs. Sparrow got near her nest, she saw something horrible!

An elephant was charging through the jungle and stomping on everything in sight. And it was headed straight for her tree. Just the vibrations from the elephant’s approach might have been enough to dislodge the nest, but it got a lot worse. Because the Elephant not just uprooted Mrs. Sparrow’s tree but stomped on the nest, complete with the eggs in it. He seemed to have realized that he’d stepped into something sticky, because he scraped the remains of the sparrow children off of his foot on a nearby tree trunk.

“There’s some message here, isn’t there? I can feel it” Mr. Lapwing said “The Elephant represents the Ocean, the Sparrows are us, and their eggs are our eggs, no?”

Mrs. Lapwing commended her husband for her perception and moved on to slightly more important matters – like the actual narration of the story.

Mrs Sparrow was very very cross with the elephant. She wanted revenge. And never mind serving it cold, she wanted to serve it warm and toasty right then and there. So she went to her friend for help. Her friend was a fly. Mr. Sparrow didn’t think much of the idea. He didn’t think the fly would be all that useful. He thought everything that a fly could do, the two of them could do as well.

“A Sparrow can Fly, but a Fly can’t Sparrow” he pointed out. But Mrs. Sparrow overruled him.

Mrs. Fly couldn’t think of a way that they could get revenge on the mighty elephant who in all probability didn’t even know that any of them existed. But she suggested they consult with her friend, Mr. Woodpecker. 

Mr. Sparrow, who was a bit of a “speciest” silently thanked his luck that at least they’d be consulting a bird. But any hopes that Mr. Woodpecker wasn’t just a birdbrain were soon dashed, because Mr. Woodpecker had absolutely no ideas to contribute, and in fact the situation had to be explained to him at least 3 times before he understood why they were trying to harm the elephant.

The only contribution he added was his suggestion that they talk to his friend, Ms. Frog.

Mrs. Fly seemed a little nervous at the suggestion, but went along. Only after many many reassurances that Ms. Frog was now vegan and wouldn’t harm a fly.

It was true. In fact, Ms. Frog and Mrs. Fly got along so well, that by the end of the evening they were pest friends forever. But we’re skipping forward a bit.

Mrs. Frog heard them all patiently. She had a solution ready. 

“It’s simple, isn’t it?” she asked. “All we have to do is to use some clever psychology. Mrs. Fly, you should buzz very loudly near the Elephant’s ears. He’ll be annoyed. But he’ll also be worried. Most animals close their eyes, when they hear flies around. It’s just a reflex mechanism to protect their eyes. When the elephant does that, Mr. Woodpecker should go and peck at them. That’ll hurt the Elephant.

“Hmm, buzzing and pecking at eyes. I can see it can do some damage, but is that enough for the elephant to even notice?” Mrs. Sparrow asked skeptically.

“No. Hear me out” Ms. Frog continued. “That’s where I come in. In general, what’s the first thing anyone does when they think their eyes are hurt? They try to wash them with water”

“But there’s no water anywhere near here” protested Mrs. Fly

“And that’s the psychology bit. We don’t need actual water. I’ll be nearby and I’ll croak. The elephant will think there’s a pond and approach me. And then crash – he’ll fall right into the pit I’ll standing next to. Remember that pit near the big banyan tree? It’s very convenient how it’s exactly the size and shape so that the elephant can fall in but not climb out”

They all thought it was a lovely plan. And it went like a cuckoo clockwork. The Elephant closed its eyes when the fly buzzed, the woodpecker pecked at the Elephant’s eyes. The Frog croaked and drew the Giant beast to the pit. The elephant fell inside and was trapped.

Mr. Lapwing was a little worried. “Did they let him out? He didn’t starve in there did he?”

Mrs. Lapwing shook her head, “That’s irrelephant. What matters is that those 4 tiny creatures took down this mighty beast despite the difference in size. They did it because they helped each other”

Mr. Lapwing thought long and hard. Finally he asked “You think I should go look for a woodpecker, a fly and a frog to help me against the Ocean?”

Mrs. Lapwing counted to 10 silently, remembered her vows to stick with him through everything, and later her vows to herself to be patient with him. “Not quite” she said. “I’m saying go talk to your friends, see if they can help us get our eggs back”

Mr. Lapwing flew off to his group down at the pub. All his friends were there. Except the Thieving Magpie. He was now a jailbird, now that the beak had caught and jailed him.

The Duck told him that if his eggs were missing, he had a detective friend who could quack the case in no time.

Mr. Lapwing explained that there was no doubt that the Ocean had taken his eggs. No question at all.

The pheasant slammed his wing on the table and said that’s ill-eagle!

The eagle said, “Thanks, but I actually do feel okay. Maybe just a little unpheasant now that I’ve heard Mr. Lapwing’s story”

The Crow said they needed help, so he made a caw to his friend, the Raven.

The Raven arrived soon, and his contribution was that they should try to find an elf. They could control water, he thought. At least he had seen a movie last night – The Lord of the Wings – the Fellowship of the Wing in which an elf just created a flood out of nothing. If she could do that, they could probably create more.

From there the ideas got dramatically worse. The Crow suggested using a crowbar to lift the Ocean from the sea bed. The Crane said he had it on good authority that he could lift heavy weights, so he could try to lift the ocean up on his wings while the other birds quickly looked on the ocean floor for the eggs.

The owl had been silent till then. He took Mr. Lapwing aside and told him that he should pray to the one who could solve this problem in a jiffy. The owl was talking about Garuda. Garuda was the half-man half bird who was also the King of the Birds.

“But I’m not a bird of prey, you know,” Mr. Lapwing protested.

“I think you’re getting a little confused between those homonyms – prey and Pray” Mr. Owl said and urged him again to pray, as in address a solemn request to a supernatural entity, in this case Garuda.

Mr. Lapwing went home and prayed to Garuda. Mrs. Lapwing was a little reluctant. It was like her husband hadn’t understood the moral of her story. The point was that even tiny apparently powerless creatures could take down a mighty creature like the Ocean. But having Garuda on their side would make it a completely one-sided battle. Even a single feature of Garuda could hold up the weight of the whole earth. What hope would there be for the ocean?

But she prayed. And Garuda instantly appeared. Garuda cared about his subjects and wanted to right this wrong done to the Lapwings. He was going to dry up the Ocean. That might definitely have upset the Earth’s delicate ecological balance. So it’s lucky for the planet that Vishnu intervened. Vishnu is the preserver of the Universe. And along with Brahma the creator and Shiva the destroyer, the three of them are the holy trinity in Indian mythology. Vishnu’s vehicle is Garuda. Because Vishnu needed to travel and couldn’t find Garuda, he had come looking.

Garuda explained why he couldn’t help Vishnu just then. He needed to solve a major problem just then. Vishnu volunteered to help, he could take care of this, make it quick.

Varuna was listening to this conversation of course. And before Vishnu was even done rolling up his sleeves, Varuna had fetched the Lapwings’ eggs on a silver platter, with seashell decorations all around.

And that’s that. The Lapwings did move to a better nest, and they were a happy family when their eggs hatched.

Obviously, this being the Panchatantra – the story didn’t really end. Both of these stories were inside a framing story which continued. But this is all we’ll have time to cover this time.

Some notes on the show

Check out this link to see what a lapwing looks like. 

Also check out this link for previous Panchatantra episodes.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do a folktale from Bihar. It’s a bit of a mashup between the premise of Hansel and Gretel and Goldilocks and the three bears, except there are seven Goldilocks and seven bears, and the bears have domesticated cattle! But that should not be surprising if they bear have built a home and chairs and beds and learned to make porridge!

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you Hiranmayee and Moshroom and Rishaan for the feedback! I loved reading your comments.

Hiranmayee I’d be happy to do an episode on Aruna Asaf Ali sooner than next Independence day! And Ankur, I’ll look into doing one on Rana Kumbha

Rishaan, I’ll go back to the Ramayana very soon. Watch out for it in the next few weeks.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or tweet @sfipodcast, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!