Once upon a time, there lived a man called Bholu, in a small village. Bholu was illiterate and also belonged to a low caste. However, he was blessed with a power to perform a miracle. Whenever he would stand below a mango tree and utter a charm, the tree would get filled with sweet and ripe mangoes. When the mangoes fell on the ground, Bholu would pick them up and eat some of them and the rest he would distribute to the poor people in the village.

One day, a young boy called Keshav met Bholu and came to know about his charm. Although Keshav belonged to a higher caste, he fell on Bholu’s feet and asked him to teach him the charm. Initially Bholu was reluctant, but later he agreed to teach Keshav the charm on the condition that he would never use the charm to satisfy his greed. He also told Keshav that the charm would only work as long as he does not tell a lie.

Keshav used the charm every day to get large quantities of fresh and juicy mangoes. Soon he became extremely rich by selling those mangoes.

The news of this charm spread very fast and reached the ears of the king. The king called Keshav to his palace and asked him, “From where did you learn the charm?”

The young boy was embarrassed to confess to the king that he has learnt the charm from a lower caste man. So he replied, “I have gained my knowledge by studying very hard in a famous university, under extremely educated scholars.”

The king ordered Keshav to perform the miracle. “Let me see the power of your charm,” said the king.

Keshav was taken to the beautiful royal orchard by the king and his ministers. There was a big mango tree in the orchard. Keshav recited the charm below the mango tree, but to his dismay, not a single mango grew on the tree. Keshav remembered what Bholu had told him and realized that his power was taken away as he had told a lie. Sad and humiliated, Keshav told the truth to the king.

The king became extremely angry and told him, “Go and apologise to your master immediately, for you have been ungrateful to him because of your pride, and perhaps you might get back your power.”
Keshav apologised to Bholu, but he never got back his power as he had misused it by becoming greedy and telling a lie.

Two little mice were the best of friends. They were also first cousins. One of them lived in a town, whereas the other mouse lived in the country. Naturally, because of their place of residence their gestures and mannerisms were very different from each other. Nevertheless, they were very fond of each other.

The country mouse was slow and formal in her mannerisms and dressed soberly, while the town mouse walked hurriedly and dressed in scruffy clothes. However, their friendship was unaffected by any such difference. The town mouse was a frequent visitor to the country mouse’s house. She lived in a tiny house next to a school kitchen.

The country mouse was always more than happy to accommodate her favorite cousin. And the town mouse would often say, “I love the way the country air feels.”

One day, the town mouse visited the country mouse. The country mouse was overjoyed to see her cousin and welcomed her happily. She offered her all of the leftover food that she had from the school kitchen which included cheese, bread, bacon and beans. The town mouse ate the food, and felt that it was a little too rough and dry.

“Dear cousin, I do not mean to be rude, but this food is so dry and of such poor quality! How on earth do you manage to eat such tasteless food every single day? I request you to come to the town once and I will show you what great food we have.” The country mouse was a little confused initially, but finally agreed to the proposal of the town mouse after a bit of persuasion.

Both the cousins set out for the town happily. After a long and tiring journey, both the cousins finally reached the house of the town mouse. The country mouse was surprised to see the house. It was a palatial house with beautiful interiors, much unlike the school rooms that the country mouse has always seen. Exhausted and hungry, the town mouse asked the country mouse, “Cousin, would you like to have some refreshments?” The country mouse nodded her head and both of them headed towards the dining room.

On reaching the dinning place, the town mouse was simply awestruck. Never in her life had she seen such an amazing variety of food. There were leftover cakes, juices, meat balls, cheese, cookies and ice cream all over the table.

Both the cousins started gorging on the luxurious spread. Suddenly, their feast was interrupted by a loud sound of barking and growling.

“What’s that scary noise?” asked the country mouse.

“Oh it’s just the dogs,” said the town mouse, looking quite accustomed to the noise.

“But I do not feel good hearing such noise at dinner,” the country mouse said.

Right then, the door of the dining room opened with a bang and two ferocious dogs came running towards the table and leaped on it in no time.

The terrified mice ran for their lives and never turned back. Later that night, the country mouse told the town mouse, “Cousin, I shall take your leave now.”

“But why so early?” asked the town mouse.

The country mouse replied, “I would rather live peacefully and eat dry food than live in luxury with the fear of losing my life.”

The country mouse left and never thought of returning to the town again.

Once upon a time lived a Chucklo (Male Black bird) and a Chuckli (Female Black Bird). They had been happily married for a very long time and their children had flown the nest many years ago.

It was a beautiful sunny morning as Chucklo and chuckli ate thier breakfast across the table from each other. “What shall we have for dinner this evening? ” said chucklo to chuckli.

“I would love some delicious kicheri but there is no rice or dal” chuckli replied “Why don’t you go and get the dal and rice and i will cook up a sumptuous dinner for us this evening”. “That sounds like a great idea” said chucklo as he finished his breakfast and dashed to fetch the rice and dal.

On his return laded with the rice and dal he handed it to chuckli “here you go. I cant wait to have some delicious kicheri after work this evening”

Chuckli took the rice and dal but just then remembered “there is no ghee. We need lots of ghee for the kicheri” so chucklo went back out to get the ghee and rushed back to give it to Chuckli . “Make sure you have it when I get back from work, i cant wait!” said Chucklo and flew off to work.

Chuckli began to make the kicheri and it smelled amazing. The smell of fresh kicheri cooking made Chuckli very hungry and decided to taste the kicheri . It was nice but needed a bit more ghee. After adding the ghee she tried some more . It was better but needed some more ghee so she added a little more. She tried it again and yet it needed more ghee.  This happened for some time until finally there was no more kicheri left. 

Tired and with a bursting stomach chuckli needed to rest so she filled the pot with water and rested her eyes after putting a cloth over them to stop the light getting in.

Soon after Chucklo came home, looking forward to a sumptuous Kicheri dinner.

“Come quick, let’s have our lovely dinner” Chucklo said to Chuckli.

“No I am tired and feeling unwell you go ahead and eat” replied Chuckli.

“No you spent all day making such a lovely dinner let us eat together” said Chucklo in anticipation of a hearty dinner.

But Chuckli insisted she was too tired. “You go ahead and I will come later”

Chucklo was tired and starving so went excitedly to the pot of kicheri to dig in.

He opened the pot and was shocked that there was only water inside.

“Where is all the kicheri?” He asked Chuckli 

“It’s in the pot” she said.

“There is only water in the pot no kicheri!” replied Chucklo in an upset voice.

Chuckli quickly blurted out “Oh no! I know what happened the neighbours dog saw me cooking all day I bet he came and ate it all!”

Chucklo was very upset after looking forward to some fresh hot kicheri all day he flew over to the Neighbor’s house to talk to the dog.

“Why did you eat all of our kicheri?” the demanded from the neighbours dog

“What? That wasnt me” said the dog.

“I have been watching your nest all day from here and saw Chuckli cook the lovely kicheri . But I also saw her eat all the kicheri too. You should be asking Chuckli about your kicheri” the dog said in a clear and certain manner.

Shocked and embarrassed Chucklo flew Back to his nest and asked Chuckli again noting the dog had been watching her all day and saw her eat the entire pot on kicheri all by herself.

Still feeling tired and sick for eating too much and now extremely embarrassed, Chuckli finally confessed, apologies and promised not to lie ever again. “Being selfish and eating all the food and lying about it has left me feeling very unwell and I shall never do it again” she promised.

In Orissa, in the eastern region of India resides a small tribal community called the Saoras. They believe that there was a time long ago when human beings had long tails which they swished along, sweeping the floor.

But soon it led to a lot of trouble. The human population kept on increasing and managing the tails became really tough. In the market place, at marriage parties and even inside their own homes, people were constantly stepping on one another’s tails. They starting tripping on each other and hurt themselves badly. Life became really difficult and painful.

One day Kittung god visited a very tiny market. While he was buying something, someone stepped on his tail. He tumbled and fell on the ground. His face hit against a stone and a couple of his teeth broke and fell out. The people who were watching this incident, burst out in laughter.

Kittung felt very angry and humiliated. He pulled off his tail and threw it way. All the other tails saw this and,out of fear, fell off on their own; they ran away from there and never returned.

Gradually, the chopped off tail of Kittung god, turned into a palm tree and the tails of the rest of the humans turned into blades of grass. This grass was then used to make brooms.

Just the way human tails once swept the ground, now it was the brooms that were used to sweep the ground.