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Long, long ago, there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. To find one, he travelled all over the world, but in vain. There were plenty of princesses, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was something not quite right about them all. So he came back to his place again and was unhappy, for he so much wanted to have a real princess.

One evening there was a terrible storm, with thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down. Then there was a knock at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.To his surprise, he saw a girl who was a princess standing out. But my goodness! She was completely drenched by the rain and the water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the shoes and out at the heels; yet she insisted she was a real princess.

“Well, we shall soon find that out!” Thought the old Queen-mother; But she said nothing, went into the bedroom, took off all the bedding and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eiderdown quilts on top of the mattresses. The princess was asked to sleep on the bed.

The next day morning she was asked how she had slept.”Oh, horribly!” she said. “I hardly closed my eyes all night. God only knows what was in the bed! I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It has hurt me so much!”

Now they could see that she was a real princess, because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that. So the prince married her, for now he knew that he had a real princess.

The pea was put in the museum, where it is still to be seen, if no one has stolen it.

And, that is a true story.

Source: www.hca.gilead.org.il
Image Credit: www.in.pinterest.com

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Akbar was one of the greatest emperors in India. His capital was Delhi and belonged to the Mughal dynasty. Birbal the wise man was a minister in the court of Emperor Ashok. His real name was Maheshdas.

The wisdom of Birbal was incomparable during the reign of Emperor Akbar. The name and fame earned by him made Akbar’s relative extremely jealous of him. He asked the Emperor to relieve Birbal from his position and appoint him in his place. He also assured him that he would do his duty more efficient than Birbal. Akbar was confused and could not take a decision on this matter.

But this news reached Birbal and he resigned. Akbar’s relative was made the minister in place of Birbal. Akbar was unhappy about Birbal’s resignation. He decided to test the new minister.

He gave three hundred gold coins to him and said, Spend these gold coins such that, I get a hundred gold coins here in this life; a hundred gold coins in the other world and another hundred gold coins neither here nor there.

The new minister found the entire situation to be a maze of confusion and hopelessness. He spent sleepless nights worrying over how he would get himself out of this mess. Finally on the advice of his wife he sought Birbal’s help. Birbal said, just give me the gold coins. I shall handle the rest.

Birbal walked the streets of the big city and noticed a rich man celebrating his son’s wedding. Suddenly Birbal got an idea and gave a hundred gold coins to the merchant and bowed with respect saying, “The Emperor Akbar sends you his good wishes and blessings for the wedding of your son. Please accept the gift he has sent”. The merchant felt honoured that the king had sent precious gift. He honoured Birbal and gave him expensive gifts and a bag of gold coins as a return gift for the king.

Next, Birbal went to the market and bought food and clothes worth 100 gold coins and distributed them to poor people in the name of the Emperor.

He came back to town and organized a live concert of music and dance for which he spent the balance hundred gold coins.

The next day Birbal went to Akbar’s court bowed down to the king and announced that he had done all that the king had asked his relative to do. The Emperor was very eager to know how he had done it. Birbal explained the sequences of all the events and then said, the money I gave to the merchant for the wedding of his son – you have got back while on this earth. The money I spent on buying food and clothing for the poor – you will get it in the other world. The money I spent on the musical concert – you will get neither here nor there.

Image Credit: www.njkinnysblog.com

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The Panchatantra is a fabulous collection of short stories originated from India in 3rd century BCE. It is written in sanskrit by Pandit Vishnu Sharma. The purpose behind the composition was to embed moral values in children.

The term ‘Panchatantra’ is a combination of two sanskrit words, ‘Pancha’ means five and ‘Tantra’ means practice/principle. The characters of the stories are animals and birds.

To quote Edgerton (1924)
…there are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages, and three-quarters of these languages are extra-Indian.

It is “certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India”, and these stories are among the most widely known in the world.

A hungry Jackal by name Chandru went to a village in search of food. A group of dogs in the village started chasing the Jackal as they did not like Jackals entering the village. In an attempt to save his life he ran into a washerman’s house and fell into a bucket of indigo (blue) dye and the entire coat of hair turned blue.

Slowly the Jackal climbed out of the bucket and saw no dogs there, proceeded to the jungle. All the animals were surprised to see Chandru the Jackal’s appearance and became terrified and ran off in all directions.

Jackal decided to take advantage of the situation, continued into the woods to meet the King of the Jungle Lion. On seeing the Jackal Lion asked him who he was? Jackal proclaimed that he was sent by God to protect all the animals in the jungle.

Lion believed the Jackal and ordered all the other animals to obey him and take care of his necessities. In this manner Jackal was leading a peaceful life. One fine day rain started pouring and without knowing what is going to happen Jackal started dancing in the rain, and slowly the blue dye had run off Jackal Chandru’s coat and he was just a normal Jackal again.

Before the Jackal could come to know about this, other animals realised this and chased him far into the woods, where he was never seen again.

Moral: “Cheats never prosper”

Image Credit: www.hubpages.com

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Akbar was one of the greatest emperors in India. His capital was Delhi and belonged to the Mughal dynasty. Birbal the wise man was a minister in the court of Emperor Ashok. His real name was Maheshdas.

Akbar the great was interested in asking strange questions. One fine day the king asked his courtiers, “How many crows are there in Delhi?” The courtiers got confused. They were thinking it would be possible to count the number of human beings in Delhi, but how could one count the number of crows?
Nobody was able to answer the question. They looked at each other and finally everyone’s head turned towards Birbal. Birbal said, “It is not possible to give the answer right now, give me on day time”.
Next day all were present in the court, Birbal too was there. The King asked, “Birbal are you ready with the answer?” “Yes, Your Majesty, Eighty five thousand four hundred and thirty two crows are there in Delhi” answered Birbal.

The King got surprised and asked him “Are you sure?” With full confidence Birbal answered, “yes indeed”.
On hearing Birbal’s answer the King got confused and asked him, “How come you are so sure about the number? Suppose if there are more crows than you say” Without any hesitation Birbal answered, “It is possible, the relatives of the crows in Delhi might have come to meet them.
The King was not satisfied and asked him one more question, “Suppose there are less crows than you say?”Immediate reply came from Birbal, “Possibilities are there Your Majesty, crows might have gone to meet their relatives outside Delhi.

On hearing this all the courtiers and the king laughed out loudly. King Akbar was very much pleased by Birbal’s witty and quick reply and applauded him.

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A hare was making fun of a tortoise for being so slow upon his feet.

“Wait a bit,” said the tortoise. “I’ll run a race with you, and I’ll wager that I win.”

“Oh, well,” replied the hare, who was much amused at the idea, “let’s try and see.”

And it was soon agreed that the fox should set a course for them and be the judge. When the time came both started off together, but the hare was soon so far ahead that he thought he might as well have a rest. So down he lay and fell fast asleep. Meanwhile the tortoise kept plodding on, and in time reached the goal. At last the hare woke up with a start and dashed on at his fastest, but only to find that the tortoise had already won the race.

MORAL: “SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE”

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Children let us read the stories of Birbal the wise man who was a minister in the court of Emperor Ashok. Akbar was one of the greatest emperors in India. His capital was Delhi and belonged to the Mughal dynasty. Birbal’s real name was Maheshdas.

During the rule of Akbar the great all the talented scholars, artists, musicians and poets were recognised and rewarded with rich gifts.

Birbal a young man who had many talents, wise and good natured heard about Akbar wanted to meet him.

Birbal went to the palace and when he tried to enter, he was stopped by a guard who was corrupt and dishonest. He demanded a gift from Birbal to allow him enter the court. Birbal said,”I am very poor and I have nothing to give you. If I get any gift from the king, half of it I shall give you.”

The guard found this deal profitable and allowed Birbal enter the palace.

When Birbal saw the royal court he was amazed by the beauty and richness of the court. When he saw the emperor he offered his respects and introduced himself as a poet and story teller. He told some humorous stories and recited his own poems. King Akbar, courtiers and the people were very much impressed by Birbal.

Akbar asked Birbal to tell what gift he would like to have, “Respected King! I am happy that you liked and enjoyed my poems and stories. Your happiness is my reward”. Akbar was very much pleased by this reply and insisted him to ask for a reward.

“Your Majesty! I want hundred lashes with the whip as reward” on hearing this entire court was shocked including the king. Akbar told Birbal to ask for some other gift. But Birbal was very firm in his decision. So with no other option left Akbar ordered that Birbal be given a hundred lashes with the whip.

A servant began to whip Birbal and after the fiftieth lash Birbal asked him to stop. He told “I promised my partner that I will give him half of my reward”. Emperor Akbar asked him who his partner was and Birbal said “the guard at the gate is my partner, he let me in with a condition of sharing half of my reward with him”, so he has to be given the balance fifty lashes”.

The king understood what would have happened and ordered that guard be given the remaining fifty lashes with severity.

King Akbar gave Birbal rich presents and appointed him as a minister in his court. Akbar dismissed all the corrupted and dishonest servants and guards.

And this is how Birbal entered Akbar’s court.

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In a pond there were three fishes by name Anagatavidhata, Pratyutpannamati and Yadbhavishya who were friends and used to be together along with many other fishes.

One fine evening some fishermen were crossing the pond and to their surprise they found the pond was full of fishes and planned to catch them. But since the sun was about to set they decided to come the next day and catch the fishes.

On hearing the fishermen’s decision the three fishes got worried. Anagatavidhata has made all the fishes to assemble and said,

“Some fishermen have planned to catch us tomorrow morning, so it will be better if we vacate this place and go to a safer area. I have decided to leave this pond with my family; you too can come along with me.”

Pratyutpannamati agreed to Anagatavidhata’s decision and said,

“I totally agree with you and it is a wise decision.”

But Yadbhavishya did not agree and said,

“The decision of vacating is nothing but foolishness. Enemies are there everywhere and we cannot leave the pond which has been our home for so many years. I have decided to stay here and whoever agrees to my decision can be with me in this pond.”

Half of the fishes decided to stay back and the rest along with Anagatavidhata and Pratyutpannamati left the pond. Next day the fishermen came and caught all the remaining fishes in the pond.

Moral: Wisdom is better than strength

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It’s Christmas Eve, Santa and Rudolf are getting ready for Christmas. Santa puts on his red jacket and his red hat

There are lots of presents in Santa’s sleigh for children around the world. Now they are off!

Santa leaves a present for good boys and girls. He eats one mince pie. Then Two..Three..Four!

Amy is asleep at home. Santa climbs down the chimney with Amy’s present. But oh dear..he is too fat. He can’t move!

“Thank you Amy. Can you help me to take the presents?”
“Yes, Santa. Let’s go”

Amy and Santa fly into the air.

They go all around the world with the Christmas presents.

Amy goes down the chimney. “Catch Amy” “Okay Santa.”

And puts the presents under the tree.

The sleigh flies back to the North Pole for more presents.

Santa’s toy factory is very busy. There are robots, dolls, balls and teddies.

Amy is at the North Pole. It is snowing.

Amy and Rudolf throw snowballs. They have lots of fun.

Amy and Santa flew back home again.

“Thank you Amy. Here’s a special present for you.”

“Thanks Santa. See you again next year!”

Thankful to: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/sites/kids/files/short-stories-santas-little-helper.swf

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In the 16th Century all the people believed that 1st April is the New Year’s Day according to the Julian calendar. But people Gregory XIII introduces a new calendar in Feb 1582 and he said that Jan 1st is the start of a new year. Some of them believed his opinion. But most of them didn’t.

So they planned to do something to the believers group.

So they sent a box to every believer’s house. When they opened the box there is a paper written ‘April Fool’.

France is the 1st country to celebrate April fool’s day. Then after some years most of the people believed Pope Gregory’s Opinion and followed Gregorian calendar and today every country is following Gregorian calendar.

But, today also we are celebrating April fool’s day!

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