In this episode, we’re doing a couple of folk tales from Gujrat. Both of them have to do with people trying to trick others. And yes, as is usual on the show, there is a bit of magic but in only one of them.
Let’s dive right in. This first story, was actually suggested by one of you, listeners. It’s about two friends, who don’t really do anything friendly in the story. Let’s call them Mitra and Chalu.
As happens often in such stories, Mitra and Chalu were on opposite ends of the social scale, an economic scale and a moral scale.
Mitra was poor, but honest and hard-working. Chalu was rich but deceitful. And yet they had managed to remain friends. Or at least that’s what Mitra thought. Their friendship was purely one-way. While Mitra would make it a point to visit Chalu for occasions like Diwali and still rustle up the money to buy his rich friend a box of sweets, Chalu somehow seemed not to return the favor. He would always have some kind of convenient excuse. That did not discourage Mitra.
One day though Mitra’s hard work paid off. While he was working hard in the fields, suddenly God appeared before him. The identity of the God varies in different versions of the story but many of them identify the God as Shiva, the destroyer of the Universe in the Trinity, with Vishnu the Preserver and Brahma the Creator of the Universe. Oh, and shameless plug here – Brahma is my dad.
So anyway, Mitra’s first reaction on seeing the God appear out of nowhere was to ask “Where did you come from? Who are you? Are you the tax collector?”. An understandable question, given Shiva had chosen a more human-like appearance than his usual self. That meant he’d left out the snakes and rivers and the moon that he usually wore.
Shiva laughed and said, “No, no. I’m not the tax collector. Quite the opposite. I’m here to give you some returns on all your hard work. You’ve been working hard all your life and yet you’re poor. This was not due to any poor financial decisions on your part, you’ve just been unlucky. It’s situations like these that we, Gods like to intervene.”
Mitra had by now finally realized who Shiva was. He bowed to the God, hands folded and asked for his blessings.
“Blessings? I’ll do better than that.” said Shiva “I’ll give you something that will help you” and with those words, he waved his hands in the air, and magically in them appeared a seashell. An ordinary looking seashell. Or so Mitra thought.
“Umm, no thanks? We have plenty of seashells at home. My wife and children went to the beach recently. They brought back lots of such seashells.”
“This is no ordinary seashell,” said Shiva. “If you pray to it everyday, you’ll have… well I don’t want to reveal the surprise. Try it, I think you’ll be happy”
Shiva was about to leave after handing over the shell.
“What if nothing happens?” asked Mitra quickly. “Is there an operating manual? Or a troubleshooting hotline”
Shiva replied “No, just pray to me and describe what’s happening. I’ll be listening”
“So… so does that mean everytime we people pray, you Gods are actually listening?” asked Mitra
“Of course,” replied Shiva. “But usually, we don’t have the time to respond to every little problem. Gifted items are a different story. Call it part of a warranty period. Now I really have to go, I’m late for a board meeting. Vishnu and Brahma are waiting”. With those words, Shiva disappeared.
Mitra went home and tried what Shiva had suggested. He prayed to the seashell. He didn’t wish for anything, just a little bit of money so that they could buy groceries and have a good meal for a change. He heard a clink. And observing closely, he saw that out of the seashell a gold coin fell out. Mitra had never even seen a gold coin before, but he recognized it instantly. He had heard of them before.
Remembering Shiva’s words, Mitra prayed a word of thanks to the God.
The Gold changed everything. Soon, Mitra could afford a car, a bigger house, a chauffeur, a chef. All of the amenities that he had only seen from afar at Chalu’s place.
All this while, Mitra never failed to say prayer of thanks to Shiva.
Chalu meanwhile sat up and took notice of the change in Mitra’s lifestyle.
He decided that it was time to finally pay a visit to his buddy.
He did the very day, and was shocked to discover that Mitra’s house was now larger than his own. The decorations were grander, the food was tastier and the garden was greener.
Naturally he asked Mitra what had changed. “I didn’t know hard work in the fields paid off, or I’d have tried it” he added.
Mitra told his friend everything. “So can I see this seashell?” he asked
“Of course” replied Mitra and showed him. He even let Chalu test drive it. Chalu tried it and out popped a gold coin!
Well, Chalu absolutely had to have the shell for himself. There were no two ways about it. So when Mitra’s back was turned, Chalu quickly substituted the shell with a similar one he found in the house.
It took a while for Mitra to figure out that his shell wasn’t working. It was just that one day, he wanted to demonstrate the power of the shell to his in-laws. And that’s where it failed him.
Ignoring the snide comments from his wife’s family, Mitra began to try to puzzle out what had happened here.
The last time it had worked in fact, had been when Chalu had visited. Maybe it was not meant to be prayed to by anyone other than Mitra?
There was no operator’s manual to confirm this. He went to Chalu for his advice. Chalu provided it readily. “It wasn’t me!”
But then Mitra remembered what Shiva had said. So he prayed to the God. Troubleshooting mode. Chalu was with him, though reluctantly.
Shiva appeared before them. And hearing what Mitra had to say, Shiva glared at Chalu.
Then he turned to Mitra. “So it doesn’t work, eh? Maybe a screw has come loose inside. Let’s do this – here’s a replacement. I’m sorry it’s not exactly the same, but this one will give you two gold coins instead of one every time you pray to it.”
Shiva handed him the new seashell and disappeared.
Chalu’s mind was racing fast. Here was an elegant solution to the problem, he thought. He would switch the new shell with the original. Mitra would get a single gold coin, but that’s fine. He wouldn’t complain. Chalu knew how his friend thought.
And Chalu would get to keep 2 gold coins. This was clearly a win-win for everyone.
So he did the same thing again. He switched the new shell with the original one.
He had been right in his thinking. Mitra got a single gold coin out of his shell, but never complained to anyone about it.
Chalu, on the other hand, got nothing! The new seashell returned nothing, no matter how much Chalu prayed to it. He prayed to Shiva too, but Shiva didn’t have time to respond. There were millions of people ahead of Chalu in line.
That’s the end of the story. I like this story in particular because this was a clever bit of psychology by a God. In most stories, Gods intervene to make sudden, drastic changes. Like eliminating a villain or lifting a mountain or something superhuman. But in this one, it didn’t take much to solve this problem. All Shiva needed was an ordinary shell and some well-chosen words.
This goes to show that just because the Gods have superpowers, doesn’t mean they have to use those superpowers all the time.
Many thanks to Chintan who suggested this story.
Our second story today also has to do with psychology and some well-chosen words. This one is about a boy who has to get creative to earn some money. But it works out fabulously for him in the end.
This story begins with a young boy Chatur. Chatur was smart and street-wise but he did not have much luck earning money. And he certainly didn’t want to go the hard-working way like Mitra from the previous story. He needed a get-rich-quick scheme.
One day he had an idea. He went to the center of the village on market day and right in the middle of the village square, he setup a stall. He made a big sign that said “Wisdom for Sale”. Passersby looked at his sign and laughed. No one seemed to be taking him seriously, but Chatur didn’t mind. He knew the right fish would be along shortly. He was proved right.
A merchant’s son was wandering through the market area, doing a bit of window shopping, looking at the fruits on sale, clothes on sale, and well what had he here. Wisdom on sale!
He was intrigued and asked the boy “Hi, how much for a pound of wisdom?”
Chatur replied that he did not sell wisdom by weight, but by its quality.
“Alright,” said the Merchant’s son “Give me wisdom worth 1 rupee”.
Chatur wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to the Merchant’s son for a Rupee. The paper merely said “Don’t stand and watch two people fight”
The Merchant’s son was not very bright. He proudly declared that he had purchased a rupee of wisdom and showed him the paper.
The merchant, being a merchant, was taken aback. “Is this why I sent you to the LSE?” (Sidebar, that’s the Latur School of Economics) “how could you fall for this scam?! Come along now, we’re going to get your money back”
“But Dad, it’s only a rupee” replied the boy
“It’s not about the rupee, it’s about the principle of the thing!” replied his Dad. Though deep in his mind, it was totally about the Rupee. He had worked hard to feed his family and struggled and toiled for each Rupee he had earned. There was no way he was letting this upstart get away with it”
So the Merchant and his son went to the market and demanded a refund from Chatur.
Chatur said, “Sure, no problem. Customer satisfaction or your money back. Now give me my wisdom back and you can have your rupee.”
The Merchant tried to return the slip of paper, but Chatur shook his head. “No, that’s just a slip of paper. Now your boy has already internalized what I told you.”
“What do you suggest then?” asked the Merchant
“Have your son sign a piece of paper saying you won’t follow my advice. If there’s a fight, he must always stand and watch”
The merchant who was now more desperate than ever to win his rupee back agreed.
Chatur handed over the only rupee he had earned. But the boy wasn’t worried. He knew things were moving in the right direction.
Things did turn out well, when one day an argument broke out in the village square. It was between the maids of two of the Queens. The trigger for the argument was probably something harmless like the price of fish, but the maids shared the intense rivalry just like their mistresses.
Most of the people in the village square stayed away from the squabbling ladies. But the Merchant’s son felt he had no choice. After all, he had signed a piece of paper saying he would observe two people fighting.
Finally, hours later, the police arrived on the scene. Observing the significant damage inflicted by each lady on the other’s hair and face, the police sighed. They did not look forward to a mountain of paperwork. This was the 4th time this week between these two ladies. And everytime it was this one lady’s word against the other’s. But no, wait! What was happening this time? There was a witness. The Merchant’s son, who had a reputation for honesty.
This was perfect. Now they could get him to put one of these two belligerent ladies behind bars for a long time.
They quizzed the boy on who had started the fight, but before he could fight, there was some… intervention.
You see, the Queens themselves got involved. This was a matter of pride for them. Each felt that if their maid was fired, this would give the other lady a brownie point with the King. So each of the Queens individually and separately threatened the Merchant’s Son. He was to speak on their behalf, or else it would be off with his head!
Medieval India certainly had no witness protection schemes, and the Queens certainly held more power than a bureaucratic police force.
The Merchant and his son despaired. How was the lad to make a choice between the queens? The situation was so neatly balanced with both Queens that I haven’t even bothered to distinguish between the two by naming them or something.
The Merchant’s son had an idea and suggested that they consult with Chatur.
Chatur of course knew what would get them out of this situation. But like he pointed out, his wisdom was sold by quality. This time the ransom, I mean the price was 500 rupees.
The merchant was glad to pay it if it meant his son’s life could be spared.
So for 500 Rupees, Chatur advised the boy to act cuckoo.
“What’s acting like a bird got to do with anything?” asked the Merchant
“It’s an expression. I mean act crazy. Rehearse these lines I’ve prepared for you”
So the Merchant’s son practiced his lines every day until the trial. In the courtroom, everyone waited with bated breath when the Judge directed the Merchant’s son to describe the events of the day in question.
“Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet” replied the Merchant’s son.
“Eh?” asked the judge. “Answer the question”
“Of the two antithetic terms in philosophy one only was real and self-subsisting; and that one was Ideal Thought as opposed to that which it has to penetrate and mould. The other, corresponding to our Nature, was in itself phenomenal, unreal, without any permanent footing, having no predicates that held true for two moments together, in short, redeemed from negation only by including indwelling realities appearing through.”
“All perfectly true no doubt, but not the kind of thing to spring on me in a moment like this” said the Judge glancing at the Queens each of whom was staring daggers and knives at him, as if willing him to rule in their maid’s favor.
The judge thought a moment and then said “The boy is clearly mentally ill. There is not enough information to make a decision here either way. Case dismissed”. It was the right judgment no doubt. In medieval India, even the judiciary was not insulated from influence when the Queens chose to flex it.
That worked out well. The Merchant’s son was thankful for this. But his dad saw a practical difficulty. “You can’t go all your life pretending to be crazy!”
So they went back to Chatur. And Chatur had a solution again. For a thousand Rupees this time. The Merchant did pay the money. Being stingy about the one Rupee was really costing him now.
But Chatur’s advice seemed like it would finally put them back in a good spot. He told them to go tell the whole story to the King, when he’s in a good mood.
So that’s exactly what they did. The King listened to this episode and laughed out loud. “The first story was completely irrelevant to me. But the second one made sense. Alright, you’re off the hook. I can understand why you acted crazy. You can go back to acting normal again without fear of retaliation from my Queens. I’ll make sure of it”
The merchant and his son were extremely relieved.
“And have Chatur sent to me. I’d like to buy some of his wisdom as well”
Well, the King should have not said that. When the Merchant’s Son had an idea to buy wisdom, it ended up putting him in a tight spot and costing him a lot of money, besides.
But the King was the King. The all-powerful ruler of the land, so he was less worried.
Chatur had wisdom for the King as well. For the teeny tiny sum of 100,000 rupees. It was just a tiny dent in the treasury, so the King didn’t mind.
Chatur told him to “Think before you act”
The King loved it. He had it engraved all over the palace. On dishes, on spoons, knives, on exercise equipment, on study tables.
Things were going well in the Kingdom. Until one day they were not. Some of the ministers were fed up with all this excessive spending on frivolous things. 100,000 rupees for a cliche! And all the money the King was spending engraving said cliche all over the palace.
The ministers decided to get rid of the King. They bribed the maid to poison the King’s daily morning orange juice. The maid was extremely nervous, but somehow worked up the courage to prepare the poisoned Orange Juice and take it to the King one morning.
The King held the glass of Orange Juice stared at it, and observing the engraving on it, read it out loud “Think before you act”
That broke down the already nervous maid, who thought the King had seen through her plan. She wailed out loudly and confessed to a crime that the King did not even know was in progress.
She gladly provided a notarized list of all her co-conspirators.
The King was generous, he let the maid go. Out of his kingdom forever.
He also let all the ministers go. After he had them pushed off of a cliff, they were free to choose to do whatever they wanted.
That victory for authoritarianism over the people’s movement was celebrated by the people of the Kingdom.
Chatur was rewarded too. The king made him a minister to replace some of the ones he had lost.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
The first story has some elements that are commonly seen in folk tales all over the world. Including Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. A poor person gets lucky, gets rich. His rich, yet greedy friend tries to trick him out of his wealth. And gets punished for it. Though this punishment doesn’t put him in mortal danger as it did with Ali Baba’s friend Cassim.
The names again represent the roles played by the characters in the story.
Chatur means clever. Chalak is sly and Mitra means friend.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’re back to the Mahabharat. We’ll finally get to the birth of the children of Dhritarashtra and Pandu, with some divine intervention