In this episode, we’re going to talk about a folk tale from Jain scripture. The story is set in medieval India in a little village. It’s a story of a girl who made friends with a Snake. And got a magic grove in return!
Gauri was a young woman who lived with her father Laachar, her stepmother, Buree, and her half-sister Mouni. Mouni was about the same age as Gauri.
And if you think the household was a happy one, I have a bridge to sell you!
The stepmom was a balance of nice and mean to Gauri and Mouni. But the problem was that she was exclusively nice to her own daughter Mouni and mean to Gauri. Just like we have seen often on other episodes on this podcast. Gauri’s dad stood powerless to help her. He’d fully invested in his second wife and his second daughter. He couldn’t spoil those relationships even for Gauri’s sake.
So Gauri got to do all the chores inside the house and outside of it. Her daily routine consisted of waking up early, and doing all the tasks she could find in “Cinderella’s handbook for the oppressed girl” – which included making breakfast for Buree and Mouni, sweeping the floors without a roomba! Cooking lunch in advance for everyone, doing the laundry, watering the garden, milking the cows, fetching groceries, fetching the newspaper. And even though it was Sunday, she wasn’t even allowed to read the funny papers or solve the crossword.
And she had to do all this before it was even 11 am when the family would wake up and complain how the breakfast instead of being piping hot was only at room temperature.
The morning on which the story begans was no different. Except Buree complained about how the fork and knife on her breakfast tray were not perfectly parallel. She’d measured them with a protractor and they were at only 178 degrees. It had upset Buree that the ungrateful Gauri was trying to shortchange her those 2 degrees.
Gauri listened without objections. A long time ago, she would have tried to explain. But experience had taught her to best be quiet.
Gauri simply checked off the “be scolded by stepmom” on her daily checklist.
Incidentally this was from the same “handbook for the oppressed girl”, by Cinderella .
Next on that checklist was taking the cows out to graze. This was probably her favorite time of day. In between the morning’s hard work and the afternoon’s chores, walking her cows for miles in the hot sun was by comparison almost a vacation.
She led her cows away from the village. This little dirt road she was talking to a patch of grass miles away was the closes thing that came to a highway. And this one didn’t have any rest stops. When she finally got there and let cows loose this was her hour of relaxation. But today she was having none of it. A Snake! A huge snake came rushing at her.
She wasn’t scared though. Maybe because she had had to put up with the slimy people in her house, but she did not feel any fear. But she was surprised though, when the Snake spoke to her. And even more surprised when she realized she understood the Snake. And the most surprised of all, when she realized the Snake understood her too.
“Help me!” the Snake said
“Did you speak?! And I understood that? Am I speaking parseltongue?” she said unconsciously raising her hand to her forehead to check for a lightning bolt shaped scar.
“Nope. I’m speaking humantongue. Now quickly, there are people hunting me. Please save me!”
“Of course I will,” Gauri said. “Here, hide in my bag.”
The Snake crawled in and Gauri quickly closed the bag just in time before a group of villagers arrived. They were local to her village, but she knew they did not have the reputation for being kind to animals. In fact they ran the local zoos. The animals in the zoo looked hungry all the time. And they charged way too much for an entry ticket.
So when they asked her whether she had seen a snake, she lied and told them she hadnt.
They accepted her word, because she had a reputation for being honest.
After they left, she let the Snake out, meaning to ask lots of questions about how it had learned the human language. And why didn’t it negotiate with the people in humantongue itself?
But some of her questions were instantly answered because the Snake transformed into a person! And not just an ordinary person it was a God! He introduced himself as Naag, a lesser known God but with tremendous power!
“Well, why didn’t you just transform yourself and protect yourself?” asked the girl.
“I was testing you, Gauri. I’ve been observing you”. Then as he saw the look of alarm on her face, he quickly added “I don’t mean I was stalking you or anything! It’s just that I know how you are treated in your house. And to make things a little better, I am going to give you a gift. Ask me for anything. Go on!”
“Okay, I want world peace!” said Gauri
“Ah, anything but that” said Naag shuffling his feet. That’s a problem that can’t be solved by anyone.
“Fine. I’ll settle for a grove for my cows. That way they don’t have to walk too long just to get to this tiny patch of grass here”
Naag took out his wand, waved it around muttering some spells and just like that a whole bunch of trees appeared. He handed her an instruction manual and told her that the grove was voice activated. Sort of like a Google Home or Alexa he said.
“What are those?” asked Gauri
“Oops, wrong millenium” said Naag and asked her to ignore his last comment. He did show her how the whole thing was mounted on roboticized wheels and sensors so that it could follow her wherever she went. She could also send it away when she didn’t need it. And it was also solar-powered and would also source moisture from the atmosphere. It was also carbon negative, so she would not have to worry about damaging the environment for her descendants 500 years in the future.
He did also say that the gift she had asked for was a very selfless one. And that had impressed him so much that he would throw in a bonus. He would watch over Gauri. In a non-creepy way. He would be her guardian angel, and if she was ever in danger she only had to think of him.
Gauri was thrilled by this. She could camp out somewhere closer with the cows, sleep a bit more. Maybe even eat some of the delicious fruits hanging from the fruit trees.
And that’s how it happened for several days. Others wondered why Gauri looked so cheerful despite all of Buree’s efforts to crush her underneath her iron heel. No one suspected she had a luxurious retreat everyday. Gauri was careful to order the grove to keep enough of a distance from their house that no one would notice.
One day though the King of the land, King Bhola, stumbled on the grove when he was out hunting. He was surprised because this wasn’t anywhere on his Google maps. If Google got it wrong, there had to be magic involved. Soon enough the King was proved right. When the whole grove started moving. Because Gauri had woken up in another part of the grove and was walking away with her cows, bidding the grove to follow her.
The King investigated further and when he met Gauri, the two of them instantly fell in love with each other. It wasn’t long before they met regularly, and eventually the King suggested she might be his Queen. That was just fine with Gauri, but she needed to let her family know, and get their approval. The King narrowed his eyes and said “You realize that I’m the King of the land right? They can’t refuse me. If they do, I can simply order them to accept”
Gauri pointed out that if they refused, she would refuse. So he’d better make a good impression on them. She was careful to not speak ill of Buree and Mouni though. After all, family is family she thought.
The King did make a good impression. Especially when he showed up wearing golden clothes in a golden chariot driven by gold covered horses. And because all that glitter was too much for their eyes, he handed out gold-colored sunglasses to Gauri’s family when they met.
There really was no doubt. Unanimously, they all agreed to Gauri’s marriage to King Bhola.
Bhola and Gauri were married in a grand wedding. The grove was present too. A special place had been created for it in the royal palace.
After the wedding, Gauri would often spend her days in the shade of the trees.
But that was not going to last for long.
Outwardly, Buree had celebrated her step daughter’s wedding but she could not bear the thought of the girl in a palace with all the comforts available to her. While her home was nothing in comparison. True, the generous King Bhola had transformed it into a mansion for them, given them a few new chariots, both vintage and late models, and given them a rather large salary for doing absolutely nothing. But that was not enough.
She resolved to take revenge on her step daughter who had brought her such luxurious items, while keeping even more luxurious items tantalizingly out of reach. Curse the girl!
She made sweets for Gauri since Diwali was approached. She cooked them all herself. Now you might say that’s not a very good way to take revenge. Expect Buree put poison in the sweets. She packed them up and asked Laachaar to deliver them to the palace. And to make sure he shouldn’t nibble anything on the way.
Laachaar thought that his wife had finally changed her attitude towards Gauri. Suspecting nothing, he took the sweets and headed straight for the palace.
That’s all for now.
Some notes on the show
As usual, all of the names are hindi translations of what the characters did. I’ve used the words Bhola and Gauri in previous episodes for the same reason as well. I’ll reserve the translations for the conclusion of the story.
Next Time
We’ll continue the story in the next episode where we’ll find out what probably might have happened after Cinderella’s marriage to the prince. Here’s a hint: her stepmom does not reform, she gets even more evil