This is the story of a small village in Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh is very famous for its delicious apple orchards.
Long time ago, this village was a place of very peaceful and fun loving people except for Tuppu and his gang of boys who were into several mischief all day and night. People used to warn Tuppu and his friends that this kind of naughtiness will bring them trouble, but they paid whatsoever no attention to these warnings and continued their naughtiness and trouble making activities.
In one corner of the village, there was a very beautiful apple garden, tended by a garderner Bhikhu Singh. Bhikhu was very proud and protective of his garden. He used to work very hard in his garden. Due to his hard work and love for the plants, apples from his garden were the best in that area. Many people used to come to his garden to either look at his apples or to purchase them from him.
Tuppu and his friends also wanted to taste the delicious apples. But they didn't want to pay for it. Instead they were planning to steal some from his garden. Only problem was that Bhikhu was always in his garden with his big scary looking stick. So they were not getting any opportunity to steal.
One day they devised a plan. A young boy from their team went to Bhikhu and said - "Uncle your wife is not feeling well. She has called for you very urgently." Bhikhu was very upset to hear this. He had to rush to his home in village to look after his wife. Meanwhile Tuppu and rest of his gang who were hiding in the near by bushes got out and rushed into the garden. Now all hell broke loose. All of them started climbing trees and eating apples. During this process they broke many branches of the trees too and many apples fell on the ground.
When Bhikhu reached home and found that he has been told a lie, he became very angry. He sensed the trouble and raced back to his garden. In his horror he saw the mess created by Tuppu and his gang. When the boys saw him back they ran away from the garden and were grateful that none of them were caught. But they didn't know that Bhikhu was a magician too. He has magical powers. Although he didn't use his powers but he could cause serious problems to other people. Bhikhu thundered - "Except for birds, no one has right to eat apples from my garden without my permission. You boys first lied to me and then ate apples without my consent. Further you have caused so much damage to my beloved trees. So i curse you all to become birds."
On hearing this all the kids were very frightened. They have never seen Bhikhu so angry. Tuppu was also very sad and was feeling sorry for the misdeed he has done. All the kids went to Bhikhu and started repenting for their bad actions. Some of the smaller kids even started crying. On seeing this Bhikhu's anger calmed down a little bit. He said - "What you have done is wrong and i cannot take back the curse i have put on you. But i can see that you are truly sorry for your misbehavior. So i will tell you a way to get out of the curse. Now listen to me carefully. Tomorrow morning you all will trun into birds. So stay away from harm. But at the same time you have to help someone who is in distress. Only a good deed can mitigate the effects of a wrong deed. Now i wish you all the best."
Next morning true to Bhikhu's words all the boys along with Tuppu were turned into different kinds of birds. Someone turned to Parrot, someone to Mynah and someone else to Bulbul. They all found themselves magically shifted to the big banyan tree outside the village. It was extraordinary scene. There were so many birds of different variety sitting together on the tree. The good news was that, they all could understand each other and were able to talk among themselves. Now all the other birds started discussing with Tuppu who was a black crow on figuring out a way to get out of this problem.
Tuppu replied - "Remember what Bhikhu said. The only way to get out of this problem is by helping some one in need. Unless we find some one who needs our help we will not be able to go back to our homes. So lets all fly together and try to find some one who can use our help." All the birds liked this idea and they all followed Tuppu the crow. But as it turns out, it is not so easy to do a good work and find salvation. The birds flew all morning from this tree to other tree and from this corner to other corner. But no one seemed to need their help. Everyone was happy and doing their own work. By noon time all of them were very tired and hungry too. They were losing hope. But Tuppu being a true leader called out to them and said - "Friends we cannot loose hope. We must continue our search. Remember how sad our parents will be when they don't find us soon in our homes. We cannot make our mothers cry. We must do what we need to do to end this curse."
With this encouraging words, birds were again filled with new vigor and they started searching for the single needy soul who can use their help. And soon they found a very young boy on the mountain side near the border of the village. He seemed to be less than 5 years old and was sobbing and crying continuously. God knows how long has been in this situation. The birds didn't recognize the boy so it seemed he was not from this village. Now Tuppu and his gang of birds have found a little boy who can definitely use some help, but the big problem was that they were birds. And the boy has no way of knowing bird talk. Tuppu said - " We must get some one from village to come here and have a look at this boy." Others replied - "But how we will be able to do that. Remember we cannot talk to villagers. Further if we go near them, they wont recognize us and someone may hit us with either a stone or stick like we used to do." Tuppu said - "Friends what you are saying is true. But if we don't help this boy soon, he may fall into danger of some wild animal or die of cold in the night. So we will have to think of some plan and take some risk to get help for this little boy." He continued - "First i will request 3 or 4 big birds to stay here and look after this boy. Rest of us will go with me to the village."
All of them had no other choice in this matter and they were also feeling very sorry for the little boy. So they did as Tuppu said. When they reached near the village Tuppu said - "Friends, we should go to the house of our village sarpanch (head of the administrative and judiciary council in village) Mr. Sukhawat Singh. He is a very kind fellow. Further there are always a bunch of people always with him, consulting on the matters of the village. So it is high probability that we can attract folks from there and bring them to the mountain.". They all agreed that this was indeed a good plan with only one problem - "How will they attract the attention of people?" This indeed was a tough question. Suddenly someone said - "Remember our dancing in a circle. We will do the circle dance. But instead of doing it in on the ground, we will do it in the air."
Tuppu was very happy to hear this proposal. He said - "This is indeed a brilliant idea. Lets divide into three groups. So we will have 3 circles in the air. And the circles will fly one after the other. First we will fly near the house of Mr. Sukhawat. I am sure someone will notice this strange behavior."
And as they thought soon people saw that birds of different variety were flying in circles in air near Mr. Sukhawat Singh's house. It was really a very curious sight. Soon people started talking about it. "Look at those funny birds. What are they doing?" A crowd started forming there. When Tuppu saw that they have been able to grab attention of enough people, he decided to follow the next step of his plan. He asked the group one to fly by to a tree which was little bit distant from that place. So the first clircle of birds flew there. After some minutes the second cirlce of bird also flew to that tree. People noticed that the circle of birds were flying away, so they also started going in that direction. Then the third circle of birds reached to that tree. Everyone was curious on this development. - " What is happening?" Some naughty boys even tried to throw some stones at those birds but were rebuked by Sarpanch. "Why are you throwing stones at these birds. Have they done anything to you? It is very bad manners to hurt someone who has done nothing to you."
So the circle of birds flew from one tree to the other one by one, which followed by the group of people on the ground. Soon they reached near the mountain. To their dismay, they saw that four birds were hovering around a little boy who seemed to be lost in that place. Now they understood the reason of this bizarre behavior of birds. One of the man in the group recognized the little boy. "Hey, he is Molu. He is son of my sister who lives in the village on the other side of this mountain. Looks like he lost his way while playing. Thanks to these birds we have found him. Lets take him to my home. Poor fellow seems to be hungry and thirstly. Oh my sister will be worrying about him too much. Lets send someone to her house and tell her that Molu is safe and with me."
All were quite excited and amazed on this development. They had never thought that birds were actually trying to help this little boy. It became talk of the village. To show their gratitude they gave food items to the birds, which all of them needed very badly. Soon it was evening time. All of the birds were very tired with today's activity and they decided to go back to the banyan tree and rest there. They were not sure if this will really nullify the curse on them, but nonetheless they were happy on the good thing they did today. Soon all of them were fast asleep.
But we all know that good actions don't go unrewarded. So in the morning they again found themselves in their bed in their respective homes. Boys had learn a very valuable lesson. They all went to Bhikhu and thanked him for teaching them the power of good work and they grew to be the noble men of that village whom everyone respected and loved.
(c) Anup Mayank 2014
