Three Fishes

2007-03-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

There were three big fishes living in a lake who were very close friends. All three of them were very different from one another. The first one believed in fate. He thought things cannot be changed and what had to happen will happen no matter what. The second one was intelligent. He thought he knew how to solve a problem if he had one, with his intelligence. The third one was the wise one. It thought long and hard before acting.

So one day, the wise fish was happily playing around in the water, when it over heard a fishermen talking to another. " Look at that one, what a big fish.. This lake is full of big fishes like this one. Let's come tomorrow and catch some."

It hurriedly swam to it's friends to tell the news.

"Let us get out of this lake before those fishermen come back. A canal I know can take us to another lake," the wise one said.

The intelligent fish said, " I know what to do if the fishermen come and catch me."

The fish which believed in fate said, "Whatever to happen will happen, I was born in this lake and I am not going to leave it."

The wise fish didn't want to risk its life so he took the canal and went to another lake.

The fishermen came back the next morning and cast their net. The rest of the two friends were caught in it along with many other fishes.

The intelligent fish thought of a way to escape, it acted as if it were dead. The fishermen threw him along with other dead fish back into the lake.
But the other fish which believed in fate was still jumping in the net and the fishermen struck him dead.

Panchatantra Story : The Cave That Talked

2007-02-25T23:37:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a lion which was very hungry. It was searching for food but did not find any animal to kill and was getting hungrier and hungrier by the minute. While it was roaming, it came upon a cave.

Seeing it, the lion thought that there must be an animal living in the cave. So it waited behind some bushes for the animal to come out of the cave so that it can pounce on it and kill it for it's food. It waited for a long time but no animal came out of the cave. After some time the lion thought that the animal might have gone out so the best thing to do would be to go inside and wait for the animal to come. So it went in and hid himself.

The cave was the home of a jackal and it soon came back after the lion went in. But the jackal was no ordinary one, it was very intelligent. As it was about to enter it's cave it saw the footprints of the lion and thought they belonged to some big animal and knew it was dangerous to go inside as it must be still in there. So it decided to find out for sure.

In loud voice the jackal said, "Hello Cave! Hello Cave!" There was total silence. Then the jackel said, "Hello dear Cave, what's the matter? You always welcome me when I get home, why are you so silent today? If you don't reply I shall go to another cave."

The lion which was hiding inside thought, probably this cave always welcomes the jackal but today it is afraid since I am there inside. Afraid that jackal might go away if not welcomed, it roared back, "Welcome home dear friend, welcome."

The clever jackal cleared it's suspicion and smiled to itself thinking that the lion was indeed very hungry and fled the place.