The Story of Lulu the Elephant
Raghu had a cute little Elephant. Its name was Luna. Luna helped him in the farm work
One evening, Raghu was sitting on a hammock reading his novel. Someone came looking for him. The visitor’s disheveled head and crumpled clothes made it clear that he had come from far. The man greeted Raghu.
Raghu brought him a chair and offered him some warm tea.
“What is the matter sir?” Raghu asked
“I’m from the neighboring city, I m not very used to the road. My car fell down the path and I need help in taking it out.”
.“The people say you have an elephant. Can you take the car out with the help of an elephant?” The visitor asked to Raghu kindly.
“Is the car too big?” asked Raghu.
“No, no. It's a small car,” said the visitor.
Raghu picked up some equipment, including a rope, untied the elephant and went with the visitor to the valley.
Raghu patiently watched the car and its condition. The car was small. But Raghu felt that it was stuck very badly in the ravine and his elephant might be injured
Raghu took a rope and tied it to the car and tied the other end to the elephant. He tied another rope to the car and tied it to a small stump
He stood there doing nothing for a while.
Then, he said loudly, “Ram, let's pull!”.
The elephant stood still.
Again, he said louder “Pull Some more!” ,he kept saying this for a while
“Pull fast my dears, our little Luna also join us!” Raghu said.
“My darling .. my love ... My kid .. drag yourself too!” Raghu said.
That is when the elephant started to pull the rope.
After a while the car climbed the ditch .
The visitor thanked Raghu and he asked, “Sir, why did you call your elephant by different names? “
“Sir, My Luna (elephant) would have been very discouraged if she thought she was doing this alone. So I made up some names so she thought she had company. She always had the potential to pull out the car by herself , but she would have been scared”
Parenting Takeaway:
We often don’t realize what a few kind words and some encouragement can do to others. All Raghu did was encourage the elephant and it reached its potential.
Always say kind words and encourage others.
This is exactly what the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal has said, “The glory of words is immense. That’s why when there is an opportunity to speak good words, why speak harsh words”
The Donkey that did not want to work
A long time ago, there lived a merchant and his wife. He used to sell salt in the neighboring places to make his livelihood. He had a donkey to carry the bags of salt on his back and travel along with the merchant.
The donkey hated the same routine and boring work.
One day, both the merchant and the donkey were set on their routine travel. They were walking to the neighboring village to sell the salt. The donkey had bags of salt on its back. It thought, “Hmm… another day has begun!”
Both of them were walking slowly. Then they came across a small river that has a very narrow bridge. The merchant was walking the donkey carefully.
However, the donkey slipped into the river and all the bags of salt fell into the water. The merchant grabbed the donkey out of the river swiftly. But all the salt dissolved. Thus, the bags on the back of the donkey were emptied.
When it walked again, the donkey found that the bags were as light as air! It could not understand what just happened. On giving a little thought, it understood that it was water that made the bag light. It jumped with joy silently. However, the merchant was sad as he lost all his salt
The next day, again the merchant and the donkey set out for selling the salt. They were traveling to the same village as they had, the previous day.. The donkey got a bright idea. It wanted to get rid of the burden on its back. So, it pretended to be giddy and fell into the river. The merchant was surprised.
Immediately he pulled the donkey out of the river. Today also he lost all the salt because of the donkey falling into the water. With nothing else to do, he returned home. That night, he discussed the issue with his wife. They both thought about it and came to an understanding that the donkey must have been doing this purposefully. They wanted to teach him a lesson.
The next day, the merchant loaded the donkey with bags of cotton! As soon as the bags were tied to its back, the donkey felt they were very light. It thought, “Wow, what a surprise! The bags are light even without me falling into water. Now if I fall into water, they might just vanish!”
Thinking so, it walked along with the merchant happily. Soon they reached the bridge again. Without wasting any time, the donkey fell into the river purposely. The merchant pulled it up the bridge. But guess what! The bags on the donkey’s back became heavier than before! The donkey was astonished. It could not understand why the bags on his back were so heavy.
It had nothing to do but shut its mouth, bear the weight and walk silently along with the merchant.
With this incident, thedonkey got its lesson. It never did such foolish acts once again and listened to its master with care.
Parenting tip:
The donkey was too lazy to do the work assigned to it. It had no other problems. But it imagined that the merchant did not like him and created a misconception that his work is boring and wanted to escape it. This notion is very misleading. Every one of us has a job too. We cannot escape it. One should understand this clearly. The donkey failed to understand this.
Whatever work we have, we have to do it with love and joy. It is what keeps us alive and helps to pay for whatever we need in our life
Team Ekdali has curated These short stories for kids . They are meant for parents to have conversations with kids.
About the Author
These short stories were written by Jasmine. Jasmine is a editor, proof reader and a children's short story writer. She writes in English and Tamil. In her free time she likes to read, travel and work on her organic farm.
