Suryakanti Mohanty
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Puducherry- 605002
Miss Suryakanti is a spiritual and kindly person based at
Puduchery. She has considerable interest in literature and philosophy.
A short story for my children
Sarat and Sisir were two little
brothers who studied in a boarding school. Once they had come to their village
to spend their summer vacations. One fine morning their grandmother called them
to show something spectacular. And on seeing the beautiful rainbow across the
sky, the two kids were filled with amazement. Grandmother said, “It is a heavenly
rainbow you see there. Also there is a pot of gold at the end of it.”
“Let’s go in search of it. It
will be fun”, the boys exclaimed.
“That’s fine, but for hunting
treasure one must have great courage and hope”, Grandmother warned.
The boys set out on their
journey, each carrying a bag for the precious gold. Sarat headed towards the
hills. After a long day’s walk he felt tired and thirsty. As he was looking for
water he met an old man who was very kind to him and invited him to visit his
green farm nearby.
The farm was full of flowers,
fruits and vegetables. Birds were chirruping. The old man gave Sarat some
fruits to eat; then Sarat drank some pure spring water. Sitting under the shade
of a tree, the old man explained to him how important trees are to the earth.
Then he filled Sarat’s bag with fruits and vegetables. Gratefully thanking his
new friend, Sarat bade him good-bye and returned home whistling with joy on the
way.
Sisir, meanwhile, took a narrow
road. He walked and walked and walked till he came to a river where he stopped
and drank water to his heart’s content. There he was surprised to see a man
throwing a net into the water and wanted to know what he was doing. So the man
taught him how to catch fish with that net and then gave it to him to have a
try. Sisir caught a number of fish and filled his bag. Then he thanked the man
and returned home singing songs.
On the way back home, the two
brothers met and returned together.
Surprised to see them,
grandmother asked, “Your bags are full. Where did you get these from?”
“From an old man in a farm” said
Sarat.
“From a fisherman on a far-off
river” replied Sisir.
She exclaimed, “What a good work
you have done!”
Sarat answered, “But these are
not gold.”
Grandmother smiled softly and
spoke, “this is real gold.”
Sarat said, “We have decided to have our higher education on
farming and fishing. We will have a project to conserve rain water to nourish
the trees.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Grandmother, “You are going to help
build up a world without hunger.”
