These Short Stories for kids are adapted from the timeless Panchantantra Tales. The First story is about knowing one's strength and picking the right battles. The Second story talks about how just planning is not sufficient, planning and action are both important for success. Panchantantra stoies are over two millenia old. Each story is packed with important messages for children and the moral of the story is relevant even in today's context
Short Story one: The Sun and The wind
Long long ago, an old man named Partabh was walking along a road. In those days there were no cars or buses , people made most journeys on foot or used a bullock cart.
As the man was walking the sun and the wind were up in the sky watching him. It was an uneventful day and both the sun and the wind were a bit bored. Since the sun and the wind are both up in the sky they don’t really have too many things to do other than look at the earth and enjoy an argument or two about the various earthlings
Today, the wind suddenly spoke out and said, “Hey sun, am mightier than you and stronger than you.” The sun knew this to be untrue, but because he was bored and had nothing else to do, he shot back at the wind, “ No, I’m stronger than you, this is a no brainer.”The wind could not keep quiet. He said, “ I’ll tell you what, why don’t we have a contest to find out who is stronger among the two of us. Whoever is able to get the traveller to get his jacket off is the strongest among the two of us.” The sun agreed to take part in this contest.
The wind decided to go first. The wind blew hard. But as the wind blew harder, Partabh felt colder and colder. He wrapped the jacket tighter and tighter around him. The wind tried even harder, but with every attempt Partabh held the jacket closer to him and the jacket wouldn’t just come off. After trying this for many times, the wind gave up. The wind told the sun,” Ok, you go now. I give up.”The sun did what he does best, he started to shine bright and hot. As the heat grew, so did the loosening of Partabh’s grip on his jacket. After a bit, the sun was so strong, that he started sweat and off came the sweater.
The wind accepted that the sun was stronger than him, much to sun’s sunny delight!
Parenting Takeaway:
This is an adaptation from Panchantantra tales. This story has many takeaways. The first and the most obvious one is that when you know someone is stronger than you better not to pick up battles with them. The second more nuanced takeaway is that , if at all you do need to pick up a contest, know your strengths. The wind in the story could have chosen some other parameter, instead of getting Partabh to remove the jacket.
It is also a good idea to ask the kid what her takeaway from the story is.
Story two: Rohan’s Day Dreaming
Rohan was a 25-year-old man. He lived in a small village in the northwestern part of India in what is today known as Punjab. As it happened, Rohan did not have too much money. He worked in the field and milked the cow and barely made enough to feed himself.
As you can imagine, he was always looking for ways to make a little extra money. But instead of doing anything, he would always just be talking about it or trying to find something to do. But he would never actually do anything.
One day, a neighbor of his took pity on him and gave him a big bowl of milk. Rohan now started thinking. He started thinking that he could have a small glass of milk to satiate his hunger and sell the rest of the milk for 10 Rs.
With the 10 Rs he would get from the first sale of milk, he would buy more milk from his neighbor and sell it for 20 Rs.
With this 20 Rs, he would buy more mils. This time he would sell some as milk and the rest he would make into paneer. Because Paneer was costlier, he could sell it for more. He would then make 60Rs.
With the 60 Rs, He would buy more milk and only sell Paneer. This time he would make 150 Rs.
When he gets the 150 Rs, he would buy a donkey with some money to get his load of paneer to the market.
While he was thinking thus, Rohan had drifted into a deep sleep. His thoughts continued in his dream. In the dream, his donkey came inside the house and was trying to chew at the paneer. Rohan got angry and kicked.Unfortunately, Rohan just didn’t kick in the dream but also kicked in real life and the bowl of milk that the neighbor had given him fell and spilled.Rohan was very sad about this. But the sight of spilt milk and the shattering of his dream, changed something in Rohan. He decided that instead of just dreaming and thinking, he would do something about this dreams
He walked up to his neighbor’s house and asked for some more milking. The neighbor was a good lady and gave Rohan some more milk. Rohan went straight to the market and sold the milk for his first Rs10. He then did exactly what he had been day dreaming about . In a year’s time Rohan had made enough money and he was no longer poor.
Parenting Takeaway:
This story is an adaptation from an age-old tale from Panchantantra. This story is drives home an important message that just planning and thinking about something is not enough. We need to have a clear action plan and implement it to be successful.
These stories are meant for kids to understand some key aspects of success. Hardwork and picking the right battles. Have you seen our Success Rules Poster?
