One often gets surprised when a stranger narrates you a story that you long ago heard from your grandma at bedtime, albeit with a twist. Stories travel far and wide. And sometimes they return with new additions. These new additions can transform the meaning of the story that once you knew within a particular context. Here is one such story from my childhood, that I heard later on with a totally different ending. Read on.

Ms. Cockroach had got new clothes stitched from the tailor. The new dress fitted her so well she looked like a bride. Dressed in new clothes she would sit by the window and dream of getting married. I want to marry ‘ a man’ with a sweet voice. She thought. One day while she was sitting by the window, a dog passed by and looking at her dress Dog said,” Oh lady, you are looking so gorgeous today, who are you waiting for ?” “Oh Mr. Doggy, I am waiting to marry some one who can sing for me. Can you sing a song for me? ” Mr. Dog got excited with the prospect of getting married. “Sure! Bow! Bow! Bow” Dog barked. But the sound frightened Ms. Cockroach and she scampered and hid under the window sill until Mr. Dog went away.

Next day she again sat by the window wearing the tailored dress . A duck passed by. The duck asked the cockroach would you marry me if I sing for you? ” Yes . Please Mr. Duck” Ms. Cockroach sat attentively to hear the song.” Quack! Quack!! Quack!!” Duck quacked loudly. ” No! No! I don’t like your grating voice Mr. Duck, I am sorry I can’t marry you”. Disappointed duck left crestfallen.

Then came a big tomcat. He was known as the casanova of the town. ” Ms.Roach, he said blinking his eyes and rubbing his head on the window sill. ” I can serenade you with my song. Marry me.” “Yes Mr. Tom, first sing for me” replied Ms. cockroach” Meow! Meow Meow” Tom cried in a flat gruff tone. “No! No! I don’t like your gruff voice Mr. Tom.” said Ms. Cockroach rejecting tomcat. Finally came a tiny rat, and asked Ms. Cockroach to marry him in a squeaky soft voice. Ms. Cockroach fell in love with his voice and married him.

My grandma’s story would end at this point. By this time we kids would have fallen fast asleep.

Recently I heard the same story with a new ending.

Ms. Cockroach wanted to celebrate their marriage so she cooked a meat dish and went in search of bread and wine so that she and Mr. Rat could raise the toast. She told Mr.Rat to wait till she returned with the wine. But Mr.Rat got greedy and started eating the food in a great haste and he fell inside the cooking pot and got burned to death. When Ms. Cockroach retuned with bread and wine, she could not find her husband. She looked everywhere and finally found him dead in the pot. She cried and cried and decided never to marry again.

I wonder if my grandma deliberately avoided the sad ending of the tale, or the tragic ending of the tale a later addition? The story continues.

Story Collected by : Vidya Kamat
Source: Mrs. Sitabai Panandiker( grandmother) also see Folk tales from New Goa India by Sara Davidson and Eleanor Phelphs. Translated into konkani by Dr. Pandurang Phaldesai
Location: Goa
Image copyright: Vidya Kamat

All stories have a beginning and an end. That’s what makes a story. But what if a story has no end or conclusion. Here is a curious example where the storyteller tricked a King by not ending a story.

Once there was a King who was very fond of listening to stories. He would listen to each and every storyteller that would visit his kingdom and keep demanding for more stories. Often these storytellers would run out of stories and King would be disappointed because he wanted more. One day, the King sent his town crier around his kingdom with the announcement that the King would award a thousand pieces of gold to any storyteller who could make the king get tired of listening to stories and make him admit “I had enough.” Many storytellers from adjoining towns got excited about the prize money and thought of trying their luck. But soon they would exhaust their collection of stories and the King would be still looking forward for more stories.

Defeated and crestfallen the storytellers would return home. One of the storytellers who had tried his luck at meeting the challenge and lost, told his friend about the challenge of storytelling. “Well if you win the challenge you would get thousand gold pieces,” he told his friend.

The friend of the storyteller was tempted by the award money and thought hard the whole night. Next day he arrived at the King’s court and said he was ready to accept the challenge. King’s courtiers led him to the chamber where the King would listen to the stories. The King entered the chamber and settled down and the storyteller’s friend began narrating his story… ” Once upon a time, a large flock of parrots sat on a tree. The tree was located next to a huge field that was freshly harvested with the gathered grain left in a large heap in the field. The farmers were planning to husk it the next day and send it to the granary. Suddenly one parrot swooped down from the tree towards the heap of grain, it picked up a few grains in its beak and flew back to the tree. Very soon another parrot swooped down towards the heap of grain picked up a few grains in his beak and came back…” Thus the storyteller went on for hours narrating one by one the parrots swooping down and picking up a few grains. The King, according to the contract had to respond with ” Hmmmm…” to suggest he is attentively listening to the tale. But after hours of listening to the same thing the King was now getting tired, bored and sleepy, but the storyteller was still counting parrots swooping down one by one.

In the kingdom of Gauda there lived two bachelor friends. One was a weaver and the other a mechanic, who designed chariots. Both were highly skilled in their professions and made a good amount of money through their work. Every day they would work till afternoon and by evening they would spend their time going out for night merry making, eating, drinking, and watching best of the dance performances in the town. They lived a very lavish life and everyone in town envied their lifestyle.

Once during a festival in town the two friends dressed in their finest clothes, wore an expensive perfume, put on their slick polished shoes, and went down to the town square bustling with people and fair festivities. Women and children jostled through the crowd peeping at the various curios and goods that were for sale. As the two friends lazily strolled through crowded square, the weaver happened to glance at the balconies where young daughters of rich and wealthy families stood watching the fanfare below. The weaver caught sight of a most beautiful girl standing along with her friends, and was mesmerised by her beauty.

Once there lived a King by the name of Vijay Chandra in the Kingdom of Dolakpur. He was a rich, cunning, and wicked man and had the bad habit of harassing his attendants. He would take great pleasure in assigning them jobs beyond their capacity. Tired and overburdened by the King’s assignments, servants would ask him to release them from their job. And then he would chop off their right ear, and put it in a jar filled with preservatives before setting them free. The servants were helpless and many of them lost their ears, but could not raise their voice against the King. The people of Dolakpur lived in fear and terrified of their King’s whims and fancies.

One day a boy from another kingdom came to Dholakpur. He was puzzled and amused to see many people with their right ear missing. When he asked them the mystery behind the missing ear, they narrated how their King tortured his servants by chopping off their right ear.

The boy decided to take up the challenge and approached the King asking for work as his domestic help. The King, as usual, laid the condition for working at the palace. But before agreeing to King’s conditions the boy said, “ Your honour! According to your condition, you can chop my ear if I leave the job, which is agreeable to me. But I too have a condition for you. If you fire me from the job, I will demand your ear”. King laughed with contempt after hearing the boy’s condition and gave him the job at his palace as a personal attendant.

Once there lived a rich landlord in an Indian village. He was an arrogant and vain man who believed that no one can be greater than him. Not even Lord Shiva! to whom the whole village bowed with great reverence and devotion.

One day he decided to take the matters in his hands and establish his superiority once and for all. He asked the town crier to announce that from now on, no one should worship Shiva or sing praises or offer prayers to Shiva. Instead, people should invoke the landlord’s name so that they can get help and justice, because “ There can’t be any other saviour besides me” he declared to the villagers from the town hall. If any villager was caught praying to Shiva he was beaten brutally by the landlord’s men. The villagers continued living in fear of the landlord’s goons who terrorized them all the time. Finally, they could not bear the fact that they could not pray to Shiva, their beloved god! So they appealed to Shiva to resolve the situation.

Shiva heard the villagers’ cry for help and decided to teach a lesson to the landlord. Dressed like a wandering mendicant Shiva entered the village temple singing praises of Shiva. Soon he was caught by the landlord’s men and warned about uttering Shiva’s name in the village. But the mendicant would not stop. Guards caught hold of the mendicant and presented him before the landlord. The landlord shouted at the mendicant “ How dare you to disobey my orders! You talk of Shiva. But what has he done? I am the one who pays the workers. Gives them food and shelter and takes care of their sustenance. Think of me as your saviour, not Shiva.”

The mendicant went back to the temple, his body sore and in great pain. The Landlord decided to go about his daily chores. He had to go to the fields and keep an account of the yield produced by his vast farms. He told his wife “My dear, I have to inspect the work in the field. So I will come home late in the afternoon. Don’t wait for me, feed children and you too have your food. Let everyone have their food on time.”

As the landlord left the house, Shiva assumed the appearance of the landlord. He was a perfect lookalike of the landlord — mustache, height, complexion, and even the voice matched that of the landlord. No one could make out any difference. Shiva now entered the home as the landlord and immediately instructed his staff, “ I have just heard that there are imposters sneaking into the village. They may try to enter my home assuming my form and rob me. Be vigilant. Don’t be deceived, if you find any of them trying to enter my home throw them out and give them a good beating.” He then stepped into his room and closed the door. The landlord’s wife was surprised to see him back so soon. “ Oh dear! You told me you would be late for lunch. What happened?” asked the bemused wife. “I have a bad headache, so came home early. I am going to lie down and rest for a while. So don’t disturb me.” replied Shiva from the room.

Meanwhile, guards posted themselves at the gates with cudgels. By noon, the actual landlord returned from fields. Hungry and tired, he tried entering his home. The guards noticed him and stopped him, believing this must be the imposter the master told them about. They yelled “You scoundrel! Do you think you would fool us by dressing up like our master? You are an imposter!” They did not listen to his explanations and thrashed him black and blue.

Atul and Petul were two sisters who lived on the outskirts of a village . Their parents died when they were very young, so they had to fend for their lives by themselves. During the day they would go to the nearby village and beg for food and return to their hut by night to sleep. One day an old lady gave them an idali * to eat. Both the sisters loved it so much that they decided to prepare it by themselves. They gathered all the ingredients. Soaked the lentils in the afternoon, and ground it sitting on the stone grinder. In the night they mixed the ground lentils with rice powder and kept it for fermentation. Everything was done as per the old lady’s instructions.

Next morning they got up early, with the thought of eating hot idalis. But Oh! No! There was no wood to light the stove! The sisters grabbed a machete and a rope and rushed to the nearby jungle to gather dry wood. “Chop! Chop! Chop!” Atul started chopping the wood from a tree. A dugout close to the tree was the home of a tiger. He heard the loud noise of wood chopping and crawled out. “ Whose that? Who is chopping off the trees?” roared the tiger. Atul and Petul froze in fear. A huge angry tiger was looming over them bearing his big fangs.