Indian Short Stories for Kids

The following two short stories for kids are adapted from Indian folk tales and they are meant for kids to broaden their thinking and build perspectives on various life situations that they might face.

Story one on Importance of Forgetting and Forgiving:

Once upon a time, there live two merchants – Raghu and  Bishu..  They bought stuff from a different town and sold it in their own town. In time, they struck a good friendship. Their families got to know each other well and they also started  to partner in their business .

They often had to travel together for work.  In the olden days, there were no vehicles. People travelled on foot or they used Animals to carry them.

Raghu and Bishu had to travel together to get some dates and dry fruits from the neighboring town. They had to cross a great desert to reach the city.  They carried some food and set about for the journey

Raghu was the calmer of the two. Bishu was quick to get angry but he was generally a good friend and very helpful

As they were going through the desert, it became very hot and they grew very thirsty. With the rising mercury levels, Bishu’s irritation levels also started to rise.  He started picking fights with Raghu. At one point, he slapped him.  Raghu felt very bad , he wrote in Sand the words

MY FRIEND BEAT ME TODAY.

The wind blew away the letters. After a little while, they continued their journey.  Raghu got down to fetch some water. As it happened, he didn’t know how to swim. His leg slipped and he fell into the water.  Hearing him cry for help, Bishu ran to his aid and helped him out of the pond. After this incident, Raghu carved something in stone

MY FRIEND SAVED ME FROM DROWNING.

Bishu was surprised and asked Raghu why he wrote the first thing in sand and the second incident he was carving in stone. To this Raghu responded, I want to forget and forgive my friends mistakes, like how the wind blew away the letters. On the contrary, when my friend does something good for me, I want to remember it forever

Moral of the Story

This story is a great conversation builder. You can use it to ask if something like this has happened in your kid’s life, where she was wronged? And what she did about it? You can also ask the kid for instances where a friend had helped her.

This is also a great story to share to remind children about the importance of forgetting and forgiving the negatives and always being grateful for the positives.

 

Story two on words and how we should use them wisely:

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” – Albus Dumbledore (J. K. Rowling)

Once upon a time and group of frogs were travelling around in the forest.  They were jumping through a new part of the forest. There was a very deep pit and two of the frogs fell inside. The frogs were called Sweety and Babloo.

Both Sweety and Babloo tried to jump out of the pit. They both gave it their best. The frogs gathered outside the pit saw how hard the frogs were trying. They started shouting that  it is a waste of effort to jump out of the pit.  Sweety heard this and gave up trying and in sometime cried and fainted.

Babloo on the other hand never stopped trying. He tried and everyone kept shouting, “ Stop it! You will fail! You are making yourself tired. Just give up !”As everyone was shouting, one of the jumps had enough spring it in to land Babloo out of the pit. Everyone was surprised and they asked him how he managed to jump despite so much discouragement.Babloo said he is a bit hard of hearing and could not hear what the others were saying so he thought they were encouraging him and it helped him try harder and he jumped and saved himself

 

Parenting Takeaways:

There are two lessons for kids in this moral story.  The first lesson is from the onlooker frog’s perspective. We often forget how much our words can affect others. We must never use our words to discourage others.

The second story is from the perspective of the frogs in the pit. It is always best not to listen to discouraging words from others and give up on your hard work.  When you feel negativity around you it is best to ignore it and change the environment.

There is also a parenting tip from this story.  It is to pay head to what words we use when our children are trying something.  Studies have indicated that a child internalizes a parent’s opinion and that becomes his own voice when he grows

See our Posters and Flash Cards, they are designed to help you keep kids away from screen and build conversations.


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