Assam Folk Tale – Tejimola – {Ep.208} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s story is a folk tale from Assam – featuring a cruel stepmother and several magical transformations that completely contradict what we learned about evolution from Biology textbooks

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

A long long time ago, but right here in our very own galaxy, in fact on our own planet there lived a rich merchant. Let’s call him Vyaapari, which literally means trader. And when I say rich, I don’t just mean an abundance of money. His home was also abundant with wives. Vyaapari had 100% more wives than you might find in a typical household.

His two wives were poles apart. Not in physical space, but in many other ways. One of them had a child, the other didn’t. One of them was sweet and innocent, the other was evil. On the inside.

But there was another major difference between the two wives that came up when the child, Tejimola, was still a toddler. And that difference was that within a few years, one of the wives was alive and the other one not so much.

It wouldn’t have been much of a story if the good wife had survived, and not the evil one. But we’ve seen this before – not just on the show, but in many other European folk tales as well Cinderella, Vassilissa and so on.

In keeping with a tradition on the show, let’s call the surviving wife – Daayni. Which is the Assamese word for Witch. The girl, Tejimola, was brought up almost exclusively by Daayni. Vyaapari was mostly out doing business. Or that’s what he claimed. Daayni didn’t ask too many questions, as long as the money kept flowing in.

Daayni was actually nice to Tejimola. For several years, she brought up Tejimola just as she might have raised her own child. But then there was a turning point. There always is.

This was around the time Tejimola had grown up. Vyaapari and Daayni debated what was next in her cards. Daayni preferred if Tejimola could get a job and become independent, that sort of thing. Blue collar, White collar, Pink Collar, didn’t matter. It would start a new income stream for them at home. Or she could join him at work – merchanting or trading or whatever he did everyday.

That did not sit well with Vyaapari. He explained that if they married her off, she would be wearing all kinds of collars but in someone’s home. He tried to explain that he was all for equality and all of that but we should take small steps. What if she couldn’t handle the sudden pressures of a job like trading? Would she understand the nuances of risk free speculation in long term day trading?

Daayni said that she was pretty sure there was no such thing as risk free speculation, or long term day trading. Vyaapari dismissed her question of course by asking her to point out to the audience which one of them was the actual trader, here?

To be clear, Daayni was the villain here. She wasn’t actually motivated by a desire to undo millenia of gender inequity. She preferred that Tejimola bring in more money to fill Daayni’s pot of gold. And more importantly, by preventing the girl’s marriage Daayni would also be preventing a massive dowry, which would inevitably come out of the pot of gold.

Ultimately, she agreed with Vyaapari’s plan reluctantly. But she simultaneously began plotting her next move. And that plan went into action when Vyaapari went on his next business trip.

She promptly found every possible excuse to punish Tejimola every chance she got. If the fork and knife at the dinner table weren’t exactly 2 inches from the edge of the table. She complained if the tea bag wasn’t steeped in boiling water for exactly 4 minutes.

Tejimola for her part wondered why her mother had suddenly become so hard to please. But her education prevented her from any kind of pushback against her elders. And yes this was the same education provided to her by Daayni. Tejimola’s stepmother had gotten homeschooling material from a correspondence course for evil stepmothers. In particular from the reference book – “Suppressing independent thought for Dummies”.

That explains why Tejimola kept quiet, even as she was kicked around practically everyday.

The punishments escalated from verbal to physical and mental. When Tejimola went to attend her friend’s wedding for example – Daayni sabotaged her dress, by shredding it into pieces. When the girl discovered the fact, it was too late. Luckily one of her other friends had an extra outfit she could borrow. So she didn’t in fact attend a wedding in the Cinderella-like rags that she wore at home, ever since her father went on his trip.

And to top it all, Daayni took Tejimola to task for having a torn dress.

Things only escalated from there. Daayni forced Tejimola to grind wheat into atta, or flour. That may not sound that bad on the face of it. This happened in their home, but it wasn’t a regular household version of Chakki. This was an industrial size setup in their backyard. And what’s more there were two industrial-size grinding machines. Vyaapari had given in to a buy-one-get-one offer. Daayni was beginning to think he wasn’t much of a trader. He seemed to be ancient India’s version of Homer Simpson. 

The problem was that the machinery was heavy and wasn’t designed to be operated by a person who wasn’t getting their three square meals a day. What happened was not an accident. Daayni was infuriated with the slow pace at which Tejimola seemed to be operating. She had turned out only 75 bags of atta the entire day? It was a disgrace.

In a fit of anger, she pushed her stepdaughter into the machine. And that was the end of Tejimola. But hey, Daayni was happy about the extra bag that came out of the machine. She would have less cleanup to do. But she couldn’t sell that bag. No one would mistake the contents of this 76th bag for flour. So, she did the simplest thing possible. She found a corner of the yard, and buried her stepdaughter’s remains there.

Days passed. There were some inquiries from the neighbors about what had happened to the girl, no one saw her anymore. Daayni claimed that Tejimola had never returned from her friend’s wedding. An obvious lie, and yet there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the girl had in fact returned home. People had remembered seeing Tejimola around that time, but couldn’t remember if it was the second of October or the third. And that made all the difference.

Days turned to weeks. Vyaapari had still not returned, but he was expected back any day now. Daayni had planned to stick to her story. Then there was a knock on the door one day. Daayni opened it – but it wasn’t Vyaapari. It was a stranger. This lady at her doorstep was from Daayni’s village, sure, but they had hardly ever talked before – other than that time Daayni made a casual comment on the weather. This lady wanted to know if she could have a pumpkin.

Daayni told her the grocery story was just two blocks down the road, right past the amusement park. To which, the stranger said that no, she meant the one in her backyard. There were so many of those big beautiful pumpkins, surely, the stranger could have one? Since she was asking so politely.

Daayni was surprised because she didn’t know anything about pumpkins in her yard, any more than any of you listeners did. She hadn’t planted them – that was for sure. But she had indeed buried something in that area.

Daayni said – go ahead, take as many pumpkins as you want. The Stranger eagerly brought in several bullock carts carrying crates, and she also got a forklift and a team of laborers she had hired for this job. But before they could pluck the very first pumpkin, it talked!

“Daayni’s heart turned to stone, devoid of care,

Her cruelty has left me with a burden to bear”

Daayni was shocked. Where was this voice coming from? Pumpkins couldn’t talk, could they? Yes, they had in Episode 2.5 of this show, but that was different. There was an old lady hiding inside. To her horror, she realized that the voice belonged to her dearly departed stepdaughter.

The singing didn’t stop.

She shattered my dreams, with a venomous sting.

The effect of Daayni’s cruelty on me is an everlasting thing.

Daayni hastily ushered the stranger and her group of laborers away from the scene. The stranger didn’t mind. That second rhyme wasn’t a bit of a stretch. She didn’t want such sour pumpkins anyway.

Daayni then took her gardening instruments and got to work. She cut the pumpkin plant, and made sure no roots remained. She cast them all into a corner, and went back inside satisfied.

A few weeks later, something very similar happened. But this time, there were boys at her doorstep asking to borrow mangoes from the mango tree that she didn’t know she had.

She said yes, but again – the mangoes on the tree began to sing.

“Her wicked intentions, like a twisted art,

Daayni’s evil plan tore me apart.“

Daayni chased the boys away. She then chopped down the Mango tree, took it down to the river and tossed it in. She stood there as she saw it disappear in the horizon.

There – that was the solution. That’s what she should have done the first time. Now she was sure that she really was rid of Tejimola.

The remains of the mango tree disintegrated in the water. Maybe all the industrial waste helped accelerate the process, but within a few days there emerged a single water lily.
As luck would have it, Vyaapari was on a boat in that stream. And he was standing on deck. He spotted the water-lily. He immediately wanted it for Tejimola. She loved water-lilies!

When they tried to pluck the flower it sang again.

“Daayni’s icy grip, squeezed out my light
Since then I’ve been trapped in this never-ending night.”

Vyaapari, for all his faults, was smart enough to know that this wasn’t how an ordinary flower is supposed to act. Luckily, there was one other person on the boat who knew a few tricks. 

This person was a wizard, or Jadugar, as he preferred to call himself. Jaadugar went to the kitchen and emerged with two things: sugar and spices. He held them out in his hands and said “if this lily is really Vyaapari’s daughter, she will turn instantly into a mynah and peck at the spices. If it’s anyone else it’ll go for the sugar”. I guess Jadugar didn’t leave a third option. Which might have turned out awkward for him if the flower lacked the ability to transform. But not for nothing was he a Wizard. 

The lily did change into a mynah and began to peck at the spices. That was enough to convince Jadugar and Vyaapari, so they put her in a cage. It was just a precaution, in case the avian instinct took over and Tejimola flew off and became indistinguishable from the 50 billion other birds on the planet.

They reached Vyaapari’s home, and even before introducing Jadugar to Daayni, Vyaaapri launched a barrage of questions. Daayni stuck to her story – Tejimola had not returned from her friend’s wedding a year ago.

Jadugar waved his hand and instantly Tejimola was transformed back into her adult self. Well, it was botched the first time, because the Wizard had forgotten to take her out of the cage. It worked when he transformed her back to a mynah, took her out of the cage and transformed her again.

Vyaapri looked at Jaadugar, wondering why he hadn’t just transformed the water lily directly into Tejimola, but the Wizard offered no explanation.

“Big deal,” Daayni said, “so what if you can make an ordinary bird look like Tejimola. She’s not my real stepdaughter”

But of course it was. A DNA test would have proven it. But it wasn’t necessary. Public opinion was firmly against Daayni. The rumors of the singing plant had spread far and wide.

Daayni’s punishment was to be cast out of her home. I guess the judge was a bit lenient considering all the years she had looked after Tejimola. She went out, and whether she caused more problems or not is a completely different story.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

In the original story it was Vyaapari who transformed Tejimola back to her normal self. But that seemed out of character, and that’s why I introduced Jaadugar.

It’s a bit ironic that in today’s story, Tejimola spoke a human language in every form except when she was a mynah, when Mynahs, in particular, are known for their ability to speak.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll be back into the Ramayana. Last time we left it at the point where the fight was at Ravana’s doorstep. We’re going to continue with an attempt at diplomacy. Angada – is Vali’s son and Sugreeva’s nephew, and Ram’s negotiator. His conversation with the King of Lanka is going to stir some painful memories from the last time a Vanar showed up in Ravana’s court.

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 Samay and Sreekara and Rohak for the feedback!

Sreekara – thank you for the suggestion – and sure I’d love to cover the story of Vishnu’s Hayagreeva avatar. And Rohak – yes we’ll be doing an Akbar Birbal story soon, and a Vikram-Betaal story as well.

Veena, there are certainly a few stories I’d like to tell from the relatively recent past. If you have any specific suggestions, I’d be happy to consider them

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!