A Grandma story

'Hurry up Archu grand ma is starting her story!' shouted little Arthi from the downstairs.'In a moment" Archana shouted back while arranging the misshelved toys she played with her friend a while ago. Her mom ordered that she wont be listening to grandma's story if she hasn't finished cleaning up the mess in her room. A little while later Archana came down sprinting on the steps and cuddled neatly on the rug near the grandma's wodden chair.

The two of them looked like two hungry wide eye kittens waiting for a glass of milk.They were always excited to listen the grandma's stories. Meanwhile their mom Saritha mixed some dal and ghee in hot rice and started feeding them in the form of small balls. She perfectly knew that to make them eat is a chance like this. In a shrivelled voice grandma started her story.

" In the Kigdom of Hastinapura there lived a great king. He wasn't blessed with any children so...." ."Oh Grandma! we knew this story already tell us a new one!" interrupted the two in unision. "Oh have I already told you that story ...ok then I am going to say a different story today, It about a ..ahh that would spoil the suprise so I will start like this...." .

'Once upon a time in a Kingdom of'.....' the Middle earth there lived an evil king sarov,He created a ring which dominated the entire world of.. OUCHH!!! What you doing aunty Saritha, I was just narrating the greatest legend of all times' yelped kittu holding his smaked head. Kittu was their cousin who came to spend their christmas holidays with them. He was a a year older than Archana. He lives in the nearby street. His mother sent him away from the house as he is such a nusince and headache to her who is right now having troubles with her new baby boy. Kittu, got bored of an RPG game in the hall room so he came down to granny's for the sole purpose of disturbing the peace.

Saritha mixed some more rice and dal as one more mouth added in the story group. This time the three of them sat crossed leged aroung the grandma munching balls of rice and stared at her to hear some story. Smiling grandma resumed 'The Kingdom of srihara, which lies in the west of Nandadevi mountain range, was ruled by a foolish king. He made his subjects suffer by giving them weird orders and he never cared for his people. One day while walking down the river of iravathi..' BUZZZZZZZZ the pressure cooker whistled and the sound echoed down the ear drums. Saritha hurried to put off the stove. 'Oh where have I stopped the story?' ..."Its when the king is taking a walk down the river Iravathi grandma" Kittu replied first...though he came down to jeer he soon got engrossed in the story.

'while he was walking down the river he noticed many people bathing on its banks, some filling their pitchers and some diverting the river waters for the irrigation. He suddenly came up with a thought that stunned the court subjects the very next day. "As you are well aware of the necessity of the water to human life, I have come up with a wonderful idea of increasing the gold in our treasury and also a way to defeat the kingdom of Simhapura". Simhapura, an arch enemy who lies to the east of Srihara. He complained that the people of Shimhapura never payed the taxes for the waters of Iravathi, which is born in the mountains of Nandadevi and flows towards the east into the land of Shimhapura. He sent messengers to the king of shimapura saying that they had to pay taxes for the waters otherwise they wont be sharing the waters of the Iravathi to them any more. When the latter did not respond to the warning of the king, king got frustated and ordered for the construction of a dam across the river. Slowly the waters begain to rise and started flooding the feilds and then houses of the Srihara kingdom. Various diseases spread through out the kindgdom. People suffered from the loss of food and shelter. But the king did not budge. In one week after the dam had been bulit the prosperus kingdom of Shrihara turned into pitiful state. " Now kids please remeber this well. Hate and foolishness only brings only destruction. Think twice before to act..got it?."YES GRANDMA" replied the audience in unision. Now they dont even know that Sarthi is feeding them curd rice balls which they hate most.

"So.." garndma continued.."The king had a respectful and wise prime minister in his court. He thought of a plan and implemented the very next day. In olden days when they had no alaram clocks there used be big bells in the high towers of the palace which served those purpose. Every morning the bell boys rings the huge brass bell thrice at the court tower daily in the morning to wake up the king and the people of the palace. So as usual the king gotup at the first bell ring but was amazed to find it was still dark. He asked his minister what is going on? y has the bell boy rang his first bell before the sun has rise. The wise minister told him that the just as you stopped the water flowing into their kingdom since they were not paying the taxes in the same way they stopped the sun rising from the east as we were not paying them the taxes too." The horrifed king gave the order to break the damn the next minute. As the third bell rang the sun slowly began to rise and the minister assured the king that this treaty will be gud for both the kingdoms. From that day onwards the people of both the kingdoms lived happily ever after."

The children bed a gud nite to grandma and went to sleep ginning n giggling.