The children who don’t study have to suffer misfortune at every step, let’s see how? In a forest, the children of all the animals used to go to school except for the small brown bear Billu. His mother tried hard but he did not go to school. He used to say, “I do not need to go to school and study, I will collect sweet honey from the forest and enjoy eating it”. One day Billu thought of going to uncle rabbit for listening to interesting tales from him. When he reached at uncle rabbit’s home, there was a note pasted on the door. Billu could not read so he knocked at the door loudly and returned having got no response. While he was half way back, he met uncle rabbit, when he came to know that Billu was coming back from his door, he got extremely angry and asked Billu, “Didn’t you read the note on the door? It said that I will be back soon so please wait for me”. Billu was very embarrassed, he apologized and went home. Even then he did not think of going to school. He did not realize that getting education is so essential, it helps a person at every step. The next day he took a bowl of honey and went towards uncle owl’s home. When he reached there, he found a chair with a note pasted on it. Billu said, “Now I know well about these notes, definitely it says that I will be back soon, so please wait for me”. But friends! The note said, “This chair has been painted recently so please don’t touch it”. Obviously Billu misunderstood and sat on the chair. The next moment he jumped because his new yellow trouser was stained green!!! Upon his crying, uncle owl came out; he moved his eyes and said, “You should have known that the paint is wet because I pasted a note on it”. Billu went home sadly but kids! The desire of acquiring knowledge did not yet awake in his heart. The third day when he returned home after forest outing, he saw a note in the letter box. He thought that the box might be painted newly and there is a note about it. But kids! It was an invitation for Billu, sent from his friends for attending a big event. Billu didn’t even touch the note thinking that it might not spoil his dress. The fourth day Billu saw that the four mice brothers, rabbit’s younger brothers and chuck chuck squirrels were going towards the lake with a lot of eatables. Billu also followed them, after going far enough this caravan stopped near the blue lake. Billu came to know that they all went there for picnic. Knowing this he started crying loudly, all his friends were attentive to him and asked that why was he crying? Billu told that he was crying because they didn’t invite him for the picnic. They all said, “Billu we sent you invitation like all other friends but you did not respond so it’s not our fault”. Meanwhile, Billu’s mother reached holding a big cake. She said, “Billu, yesterday you did not take your invitation card from the letter box but I read it that’s why I have made this cake for you”. Now Billu realized that one makes mistakes at every step due to being uneducated and has to suffer a lot. That very moment he decided of going to school. The next day he was going to the school happily along with his friends.
[Selection: Sanwal Chughtai, Ranjhu Chughtai, Amman Zebu Chughtai and Bhooral Chughtai, Ahmed Pur Sherqia]
Less sky more stars
Long time ago, people used to talk with each other through riddles but it was more common among the kings. They used to talk to their slaves in the form of riddles. The princesses sent their messages to the princes in riddles so that the secrets remain secret. Today I’ll tell you a story in which there is talk in riddles. Once a princess asked her maid to take food to the prince and also give this message to him, “Skies are less and stars are more”. When the maid gave food to the prince, she also gave princess’s message. Listening to this the prince started eating and when he finished, he said to the maid, “Tell the princess that there was more sky and less stars”. When the maid told this to the princess, she asked, “Did he really say this”? The maid said, “Yes”. Hearing this, the princess looked at her maid in anger and said, “It means you stole food”. At first the maid refused to admit but when she saw that the princess was in anger, she accepted that she ate half of the food on her way. The princess said, “I came to know this from prince’s reply. When he said that there was more sky and less stars, it meant that there was more gravy and less meat. Whereas when I sent the food, I said that there was less sky and more stars. It meant that the gravy was less than meat”. After that, the princess gave severe warning to the maid. The maid repented for stealing in future. How brilliant the past people were that the third person could not understand anything. And kids remember that thieving is a big sin. [Inayat Azeem, Kehror Pakah]
