The Naughty Little Monkey

Hello, everyone.

    Today I am going to tell you a hilarious story of a very naughty little monkey. He was always getting into trouble and getting his fellow little monkeys into trouble as well.  

    Read on and find out what happens when he thinks the moon has fallen in the pond.

THE NAUGHTY LITTLE MONKEY

    The story that I’m going to tell you now is only about the monkeys.

    As you know monkeys live on trees. They live on trees near to each other just like we live in houses near each other. When we live near each other like this we are called neighbours. The monkeys lived the same way and they had little monkeys who played together just like you play with your friends.

    Now, there was one little monkey, who was very naughty and did things he shouldn’t do. The mothers were always telling their little ones to keep away from this little monkey as he always got them into trouble.

    One night, this naughty little monkey was feeling very restless and could not sleep even after everyone was fast asleep. The moon was shining brightly and he crept slowly to the edge of the branch and began to look about him. The moonlight was pouring through the branches and leaves and was making patterns on the ground. As he was looking about him, his eyes fell on the pond near the trees. Suddenly, he stopped and stared in horror at the pond, his eyes nearly popping out.

    “Oh no!” he cried, “The moon has fallen in the pond. We’ll have to do something about it. We’ll have to get it back up there!”

    And he began to think of ways to get the moon out.

    “I know, I’ll wake everyone up and tell them,” he thought, “but if I do that everyone will be angry with me.”

    So he dropped the idea of waking up everyone. Then, he had another idea.

    “I know I’ll wake up all my friends and we’ll get the moon out from the pond and put it back up in the sky without anyone knowing about it,” he thought.

    So he went from tree to tree and woke up all his friends. When everyone was awake he gathered them under a tree and told them about the moon, showing them the reflection of it. The other little monkeys also thought that it was the moon itself in the pond. All the little monkeys were horrified and agreed with the naughty little monkey that something had to be done. So he told them his idea how to get the moon back in the sky.

    “We’ll climb that tree near the pond and hang by holding onto each other’s tails on the branch that bends over the pond,” explained the mischievious little monkey.

     Soon all the monkeys were climbing on the branch over the pond. Then, another little monkey took hold of his tail. Very soon, there were eight to ten of them hanging on the branch of the tree. By now, the first one had almost reached the pond.

    But then, suddenly, oh dear! What’s this? KERRAC- went the branch as it broke under the weight of all those monkeys. You see, they had not checked whether it was strong enough to hold their weight or not. They had been too absorbed by the idea of getting the moon out of the pond. Very soon it was raining monkeys on the pond, as they splashed into the cold water. Oh my! What a hullabaloo! The way they were scared and screamed and shouted for help! It was quite a sight I can tell you that.

    Soon, all the rest of the monkeys were wide awake. They all came scampering down the trees to see what all the commotion was about. When they saw the monkeys drowning, they dived into the water and got all mischievious monkeys out, who were shivering with cold and fright.

 When the older monkeys heard their story, they were furious at the

naughty little monkey. When they looked for him he was nowhere to be found. He had gone and hidden himself in one of the trees, partly shivering with cold and partly with fright.

    After this, the naughty little monkey didn’t go near the pond for days. He had had enough of ponds to last a long, long time, I can tell you that!

The Wise Daughter In Law

Hello, everyone.

    Today I am going to tell you a folktale which was told to my aunts by my grandmother. My aunts then shared this story with me.

    It is a story of a very rich old man and his three sons and three daughters in law. Read on and find out what happened to them when they thoughtlessly used up all their wealth.

The Wise Daughter In Law

    Long long ago there was a very rich old man living in a village in India. He had three sons and they were all married. Now these people never gave a thought to their future. They just used money any way they wanted. They would buy expensive clothes and perfumes and jewelry. They had many servants to look after their house and children. They never lifted a finger. They always expected the servants to do everything for them. The old man always warned them not to misuse the wealth but nobody was ready to listen, that is, everybody except the youngest son’s wife.

    The youngest son’s wife came from a rather poor family. She knew the value of money and wealth. The other members of the family, except the old man. They laughed at her when she sided with him and called her old fashioned. They spent the money faster then they earned. Their wealth began to reduce, but they were so used to living in luxury that they started to borrow money from people. The debts began to grow. Finally there came a time when they could not pay the money back to their debtors. The debtors went to court and the court ordered their house and all their things to be auctioned to pay back the debtors. The debts were so big that their house and all the jewelry and everything in it were not enough to cover it all. They were told to leave their house with only the clothes they were wearing. As they were about leave the house the youngest daughter in law came forward and made a request to the auctioneer.

    “Please, Sir,” she said in her humblest voice, “can I just take this basket of cow dung? As you know it is a cold season and the children will need some warmth at night.”

    The auctioneer looked at her and saw her begging eyes and felt pity on her and decided to let her take the basket of cow dung with her. It was just cow dung. It was worthless.

    “Alright,” he said, “you can take the cow dung. I wouldn’t get anything for it anyway.”

    “Thank you, kind Sir,” she said, gratefully and placed the basket on her head.

    With that the whole family left not knowing where to go. Everybody was puzzled as to why the youngest daughter in law had asked to take cow dung with her but nobody said anything. Everybody was regretting the way they had lived. They wished they had listened to the old man.

    They walked on until they were out of the village. Now the youngest daughter in law told them to stop. Nobody could understand her odd behaviour. They all stopped wondering why she had done that. She put down her basket of cow dung. What did next blew everyone’s mind!

    She took up one cow dung cake and broke it into two halves. In the middle sat a very shining diamond!

    Everyone’s mouth dropped open! They couldn’t believe their eyes!   Seeing their bewilderment she laughed.

    “You see, Father always warned us not to spend money badly,” she said. “I knew that the day will come when we will have to leave the house. So whenever I got money, I went to a jeweler and got a diamond. When I heard that there was going to be an auction I gathered all the cow dung I could get and made cow dung cakes and in each of them I put a diamond. I knew they wouldn’t refuse to let me take the cow dung as it is a worthless thing.”

    Everyone was impressed by her intelligence. The old man felt really proud of her.

    “I am so proud of you, my Daughter,” he said, “because of you won’t go hungry and we will soon have a roof over our heads. I hope the rest of you have a learnt a lesson.”

    “We have, Father,” they all said in a small voice.

    Then they went to the next town and settled down there. From that day onwards everybody was careful with their money.

Little Ali Has Diarrhea

Hello, everyone.

    Today I am going to tell you the story of little Ali. This time he has diarrhea. His parents are really puzzled as to how he got it. Read on and find out how it happened.

Little Ali has Diarrhea

    You all know little Ali by now I hope. That little boy with chubby cheeks and dark brown almost black eyes who is always running around on his stubby little legs driving his mother nuts sometimes. Well, he did something or rather ate something that made him really sick. I will tell how it all happened.

    One day, Ali’s father told Ali’s mother to give him some laxative. So she did. Now this laxative looked exactly like dark chocolate. There were three pieces left. Ali’s father took one piece and he kept it on the table whilst he chewed and swallowed it with water. As he was about to put it back in the medicine cupboard there was a knock on the door and he put it on the table. He went to answer the door. There was one of the neighbours wanting something. When he closed the door he forgot all about the laxative on the table.

    After some time who should come it but little Ali. He headed straight for the dining room. He was hungry and he was looking for something to eat. The first thing he saw was the laxative that looked exactly like chocolate! He was delighted. One thing he loved very much was chocolate. He went straight to the table and took what he thought was chocolate and went into the garden to eat it. He ate both the pieces!

    As you know laxatives take a few hours to take effect and he was just a toddler so in about two hours he started to get the cramps. Ali went and lay down on the sofa. Soon his mother came into the sitting room. Seeing Ali lying on the sofa surprised her. It wasn’t like Ali to lie down somewhere unless he wasn’t feeling well. She got worried and went up to him.

    “What’s the matter, Ali?” she asked, concerned.

    “My stomach is paining, Mommy,” he replied.

    “Where is it paining?” she asked kindly. “Show me.”

    “Here,” said Ali, putting his hand on his navel.

    His mother looked and then as she thought it was normal pain she went and brought some balm and applied to his stomach.

     “There, do you feel better now?” she asked.

    “Yes, Mommy,” he replied.

    After a while he ran to his mother holding his stomach with both hands.

    “Mommy, Mommy,” he said, “I want to go potty.”

    His mother quickly took him to the washroom. This went on about three times. His mother got worried now. Luckily his father was a doctor and he was at home that day. She went and told him about Ali’s condition. Her husband went quickly to check him.

     “Did you eat anything, Ali?” he asked.

    “No, I didn’t, Pop,” he said quite forgetting about the chocolate.

    “Are you sure?” he asked again. “Try to remember.”

   Ali thought for a while. Then, he remembered.

    “I had chocolate,” he said.

    “Chocolate?” his mother said, surprised. “We are out of chocolate. I was going to get some today. Where did you find a chocolate, Ali?”

    “On the table,” he replied.

    Suddenly, his father beat the palm of his hand on his forehead.

    “Oh, no!” he moaned, “It wasn’t chocolate you ate, it was a laxative!”

    His wife was shocked.

    “How did this happen?” she asked very much concerned.

   “I took my laxative and as I wanted to put the rest of it away in the cupboard there was a knock at the door,” Ali’s father said, remembering, “I went to answer the door and forgot all about the laxative.”

   “Oh, no!” his mother said, shocked. “What are we going to do?”

   “Don’t worry,” her husband told her, smiling. “I am a doctor, remember?”

    “Yes, I remember,” she said, smiling back.

    Ali’s father gave him some medicine. He began to feel better but he wasn’t running around as he usually did and his mother complained about it.

    “It doesn’t feel right when Ali is not running around!” she complained and said in mocked anger to her husband, “It’s all your fault.”

    “Well, everyone makes mistakes,” he told his wife, sheepishly and turned to his son and said, “Get well soon buddy. Your mother is blaming me for it.”

   Then, they both laughed and little Ali smiled.

   Ali felt rather weak the whole day for all that potty going but he was running around as usual the next day driving his mother up the wall!