The time was good; the house of Sahukar Jagan Lal had everything - the food go-downs were full, the family was happy and they had sufficient money to last for this generation. Sahukarji lived a content and happy life with his four sons and their wives, he adored the youngest son, Madhu the most. Madhu was a bit slow but was quite hard working, he was married to a beautiful girl, Radha.
The aged Sahukar felt it was time for him to handover the reigns of the house to someone who would be able to run the house well and maintain harmony among everybody.
He called up the eldest of his bahu and explained to her that it was time for her to take over and run the show. She asked Sahukarji what she need to do, Sahukarji politely explained to her that she need to hold the house together. She nodded that she understood what he meant and would execute the duties well. The next day the elder bahu was nowhere to be found. At dinner time she walked in tired and exhausted. When asked where she had been she explained in a tired voice that she had been holding to the corner of the house all day as told by the sahukarji. Sahukarji went to bed very disappointed.
After the elder bahu had failed Sahukarji he tried to test the second eldest. He called up her and explained her that after the eldest has disappointed him it was her turn to take charge. This time he tried to be a little more specific not hurting the sensibility of the bahu. He tried to put it to her simply that she has to ensure that the relations are maintained with the folks of the hill and she should take care of people who visit them and the passerby. To his horror that afternoon he saw that the bahu had invited each and every passerby home for a feast. When questions the bahu replied - 'that's what you told me to do, take care of everybody who passes by our house'. He shrugged and left.
It was time for his to test his third bahu. He explained her that he had lots of hope on her and he wanted to fix things, he subtly put across that he would expect her to manage balance between the inside things and the outside things. To his utter shock when he returned he found the house in chaos. All the inside things were out and the outside things were in. It broke his heart.
The old Sahukar was distraught and felt that the family had no future in the absence of a good and smart housemaster. As long as he would be alive he would mange things and after he moves on only god knows what would happen. He stopped going to work and with every passing day he grew ill and the worry dragged him down.
Finally he remembered his youngest bahu, Radha. Sahukarji was very fond of her and had avoided asking her to manage things as he felt she was too young to take on the burden. She was his last hope. When she came with dinner to him room he explained how disappointed he was with her bhabhi's - who didn't possess an iota of common and had had no clue what was expected to them. He didn't expect too much from her but if she could be a bit better that the three he would be able to die peacefully. She agreed to take charge on a condition that the folks of the house would need to pay heed to her advise.
Sahukarji called a meeting the next day and announced that the Radha would manage the house and every member of the family was to listed to her. She announced that she has great respect for each and everybody and would expect each of them to help her run the house. She assured them that they need to continue doing things the way they are doing all she need them to do is not to come ome empty handed- they must bring home something of use and utility.
Within next couple of months the house was filled with items and articles which added to the prosperity. There was no dearth of cooking wood, cattle feed, stones etc. Seeing things settled Sahukarji moved on to the next world peacefully.
One evening, Madhu turned up with dead snake dangling from his stick. Seeing this Radha was shocked. Madhu explained that he couldn't find anything on his way back from work and he just picked up the dead snake which was lying around the corner. Radha asked him to toss the dead snake on to the roof of the house and rush in to have his dinner.
Couple of days later while Radha was cleaning the roof of the house she found a beautiful pearl necklace. She understood what might have happened - some bird must have dropped it and picked up the dead snake. She told Madhu about it and asked him to keep his mouth shut.
The next day the word was out that the princess has lost her pearl necklace while she was taking a bath and now it could not be found. The entire palace had been searched thoroughly without any sign of the pearl necklace. Announcement were made that anybody who happened to find it and return to Rajaji or help find it would be rewarded. It was princess's favorite one and she announced that she was not eating anything till it was not recovered, this got Rajaji in worry. Madhu told Radha about the announcements made in the kingdom about the lost pearl necklace and the reward associated with finding the necklace. Radha explained that walking with the necklace to the Rajaji would be fraught with danger as nobody would believe their story and might end them in the royal prison.
The hunt for the pearl necklace went on for couple of weeks. Finally Rajaji decided to invite all the learned people, the sadhus, the pandits and rishis to a sabha to help find the necklace. Hearing this Radha went out early morning and slid the pearl necklace under one of big stones in the Rajaji's open meeting place.
The kingdom was buzz with activities and it had visitors from far and near. It was the biggest congregation of the intelligent and learned people. The sabha started with Rajaji's appeal to the gathering to help his find the pearly necklace and the announcement of a big reward to the finder. The pandits and the rishis started their pujas and havans, some had spread their thick books in front of them and were searching them frantically, some were in trance like state finding the missing pearl necklace. The sun was about to set but no one had been able to figure out where the necklace was. The heads were hanging in shame and the Rajaji was very disappointed, Rajaiji was about to call off the sabha but before he could say anything a voice rose from the crowd. 'Rajiji I can help you find the pearl necklace', all eyes turned to Madhu who was dressed in new clothes and a smart pagdi; the crowd burst into a laughter. Someone from the gathering said, 'there is no one more learned and intelligent than us present here today. if we have failed what would you do'. Rajaji felt this person deserves a chance though he was not too hopeful.
Madhu asked them to clear the space in the middle. He started by spreading out his book, which apparently belong to the deceased Sahukarji and had a neat list of expenses he encouraged in the last five years. Madhu was scared but Radha had prepared him well. After this, he took our dices from him pocket, rolled them in his hands, mumbles a prayer to almighty to spare him if things go wrong, looked west in the direction of the setting sun them south and blew into the dices and rolled them on his book. The by-looker were impressed. Pensively looking at the dices and letting the sweat drip on the book Madhu closed his eyes and asked the big rock near the entrance to be removed. Rajaji gave permission and five of the soldiers with great effort removed it. The pearl necklace was not there, Madhu's heart sank and his heart started to beat faster. He remembered Radha telling him that she has slid it under the big rock but couldn't remember which rock. He practices his act again and pointed to another rock, nothing was found under it, then another and another. Rajaji almost lost his patience on Madhu wasting their time. Sensing trouble Madhu told Rajiji that the colour red was interrupting him for establishing contact with the stars. Immediately everybody wearing red was thrown out of the sabha. Madhu asked for a last chance, rolled his dices and pointed in the direction of a rock hoping it had the pearl necklace. The rock was removed and to everybody's surprise the necklace was there. Madhu wiped off the seat from his forehead and took a deep breath.
Rajaji was too happy to see the necklace. He announce that Madhu would be inducted into mantri mandal and would have a special status among all. Horse load of gold and silver utensils were sent to his house. Radha and Madhu lived happily ever after.
[SHARK IN A POND]
1 comment:
Aha... Enjoyed reading it :)
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