Once upon a time in a small village known as mallur, in the present day state of Kerala there lived a couple. Their names were Arun and Kavida. They were a very poor couple. No matter how hard they worked they were never able to make ends meet.
Kavida worked as a house help in one of the rich person’s houses. Arun did any work that came his way. They usually had one meal a day before setting out for their work. The meal usually used to be rice porridge. Sometimes Kavida made it with just rice and sometimes, if they were lucky they would have some pulses added to the porridge. They normally ate it with a chilli.
Both Kavida and Arun desired to have hot crispy dosas with coconut chutney. But, they never had enough money to get the rice dal and coconut.
One day, the lady of the house where Kavida was working was very happy with her work and asked Kavida what she wanted. Kavida said,” Amma, my husband and I have always wanted to have dosa and chutney . If you can give us some batter and coconut, we would be very happy”. Luckily the lady had extra batter and she gave it to Kavida right away.
Kavida was overjoyed. She reached home quickly and ground the coconut into chutney. She decided to wait for Arun to come before making the dosas so that they both could have it hot and crispy.
That was a particularly tough day for Arun and he had not found any work. He came home empty handed and he was feeling dejected. As he reached home, Kavida said that she had a bumper day and they could have dosas. This lifted Arun’s spirits.
When Kavida was ready to make the dosas, she found that they were out of firewood. Arun volunteered to get some firewood from the forest. He reached the forest and collected some firewood. On his way back, he heard a loud noise. He thought it was an earthquake. But, a one eyed monster stood before him.
The monster shouted, “How dare you take stuff from here. This is my forest.”
Arun trembling with fear responded, “ Im so sorry, great king! My wife was making dosa and we ran out of firewood. That is why I came to get a little.”
The monster’s mouth started watering,” I love dosa. You go on ahead and make dosas. I will come to your house to eat dosas.”
Arun was so happy to get out of the situation alive. He reached home and thought that the monster may not know where he lives. So he didn't bother to tell his wife. Kavida made hot dosas and they finished the batter.
Just as they were about to sleep, they heard the monster. Arun came up with a plan, he took some chilli powder and waited at the door. As soon as the monster entered, he threw chilli powder on the monster’s eye. The monster turned blind and ran away, never to be found in those lands again.
News of Arun’s bravery travelled through the village and people called him to give him work and he found permanent work as a gatekeeper in the village Sarpanch’s house. People also heard about the crispy dosas that Kavida could make and came seeking her dosas. Soon, she was able to make enough money with this business itself. They lived happily ever after
Moral of the Story:
Although Kavida and Arun struggled at the beginning, they were hard working and hard work never goes to waste. In time because of their hard work they were able to make a decent life. This story also tells us that, we don’t often get things instantly, it takes years of hard work to be successful. This is a folktale from Kerala. Team Ekdali has changed the ending a little.
Short stories are great conversation starters . Have you seen pur conversation starter maps, posters and flashcards?
