Akbar was one of the greatest Mughal emperors who ruled over India in the 16th century. In his court were the most intelligent council of nine members, amongst whom was Birbal. Though all these men were learned Birbal is the most famous of them. Stories of Akbar and Birbal are extremely popular in India. There are several instances when Birbal uses his wit and intelligence to calm the ire of Emperor Akbar and amuse him at the same time. I grew up reading these stories. Guess most of us would have.
This evening i was reading a book when i came across this word granary with some explanation. It brought back a lot of memories. Me and my brother started talking about it. This must have happened something like 7 or 8 years ago when my brother was hardly 4 years old. He had this habit of listening to stories before going to sleep. Most children of that age do. But my brother never gets enough of it. The duty of telling him some story and getting him to sleep was on me as i read too many stories. So, everyday i had come up with something new to amuse him. There were times when i run out of stories to tell him and start giving him all my History and Geography lessons, which sounded like stories anyway. It was at this time that i came across this Birbal story and after that.. I had nothing to worry about. Every second day i tell him this till he got bored of listening to stories and got out of the habit. The story goes something like this...
Akbar was one of the greatest Mughal Emperors India had. People were very happy in his reign. But he had this one bad habit. He would not sleep without listening to a story. It was very soon that the Queens ran out of stories to tell him and so it was decided that the ministers would take turns and tell him stories till he sleeps. If anyone fails to please Akbar he faces severe punishments. It was not very long before the ministers too faced dearth of stories to tell Akbar. So, Birbal had to come up with some idea which would save the ministers and also change Akbar without getting himself into trouble. And, yes.. Birbal does come up with the solution. He waits for his turn and goes to Akbar, makes him promise he would listen to the complete story before he sleeps. Akbar readily agrees. Birbal starts the story.
" It was one of the wealthy villages in the kingdom which flourishes in agriculture. The people of the village had the custom of saving up the excess from harvest in a large granary for future use. As the village became more prosperous the grains started accumulating. One day there was storm and rains in the village that leads to a hole on one of the walls of the granary. A bird notices it and goes inside. It is so excited to see so much grains and plans to carry it back to its abode. But it realizes it can carry only two grains in its beak at any time. Yet, it is determined and starts the process. It goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. After depositing it safely the bird comes back, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. Again returns, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. The bird returns, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home.And then again..................... " The story goes on like this. You see.. its a huge granary and the bird is carrying just two grains at a time!!!!
So, now you know how Akbar got out of his habit of listening to stories before going to sleep. And, of course my brother too. :)
This evening i was reading a book when i came across this word granary with some explanation. It brought back a lot of memories. Me and my brother started talking about it. This must have happened something like 7 or 8 years ago when my brother was hardly 4 years old. He had this habit of listening to stories before going to sleep. Most children of that age do. But my brother never gets enough of it. The duty of telling him some story and getting him to sleep was on me as i read too many stories. So, everyday i had come up with something new to amuse him. There were times when i run out of stories to tell him and start giving him all my History and Geography lessons, which sounded like stories anyway. It was at this time that i came across this Birbal story and after that.. I had nothing to worry about. Every second day i tell him this till he got bored of listening to stories and got out of the habit. The story goes something like this...
Akbar was one of the greatest Mughal Emperors India had. People were very happy in his reign. But he had this one bad habit. He would not sleep without listening to a story. It was very soon that the Queens ran out of stories to tell him and so it was decided that the ministers would take turns and tell him stories till he sleeps. If anyone fails to please Akbar he faces severe punishments. It was not very long before the ministers too faced dearth of stories to tell Akbar. So, Birbal had to come up with some idea which would save the ministers and also change Akbar without getting himself into trouble. And, yes.. Birbal does come up with the solution. He waits for his turn and goes to Akbar, makes him promise he would listen to the complete story before he sleeps. Akbar readily agrees. Birbal starts the story.
" It was one of the wealthy villages in the kingdom which flourishes in agriculture. The people of the village had the custom of saving up the excess from harvest in a large granary for future use. As the village became more prosperous the grains started accumulating. One day there was storm and rains in the village that leads to a hole on one of the walls of the granary. A bird notices it and goes inside. It is so excited to see so much grains and plans to carry it back to its abode. But it realizes it can carry only two grains in its beak at any time. Yet, it is determined and starts the process. It goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. After depositing it safely the bird comes back, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. Again returns, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home. The bird returns, goes inside the granary through the hole, takes two grains in its beak, comes out and carries it to its home.And then again..................... " The story goes on like this. You see.. its a huge granary and the bird is carrying just two grains at a time!!!!
So, now you know how Akbar got out of his habit of listening to stories before going to sleep. And, of course my brother too. :)
1 comment:
hahaha... Now thats a good one! I used to enjoy reading Birbal stories too.. But never came across this one.. wonderful to read one Birbal story today. So, you managed to make your bro sleep by following the 16th century tactics :) Great job !!!
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