“Knock ,knock”
“Who’s it”, asked granny, putting the book aside which she was reading in her bed.
“It’s only me, dear granny” replied her grandson Sunny, who- as usual- had come to his grandma’s room for his daily dose of stories.
“Oh, you must go to bed now sunny, it is quite late and it’s time you should be sleeping. You should not be loitering around here and there at this time of the night.”
“Come on, granny open the door just for a few minutes. I promise, I shall not take more than 15 minutes, come on granny, please” insisted the young fellow.
“Ok, Ok. This kid is so stubborn!”spoke she, getting out of her bed.
As the door got open, Sunny quickly entered the room and jumped straight into granny’s bed and in no time was beneath the quilt. Granny followed him back to the bed.
“What is it child, didn’t I tell you, no stories today? I have to finish my book.”
“Hey granny, look I have brought you a gift” said Sunny, pulling a packet from his sweater.
“Now, what is it?”
“Ha, find out yourself”, said the grandson with an air of nonchalance.
“Oh , no”, she sounded perfectly devoid of any joy. “It’s a bunch of flowers!”
“Yes, a bunch of red roses. Aren’t they beautiful! I stole them from our own garden, only for you.”
“I know, child, how much you love me but they don’t belong to this place, they belong to somewhere else; to the garden.”
“Oh, come on granny, they are beautiful and they are for you.”
“But still....”
“No, No, No....... don’t dodge the real topic: give me my daily share of stories now and make the deal complete,” insisted the kid.
“It’s fine, if you are being so adamant. But, today’s story is going to be of my choice and it’s going to be about flowers. Say, do you accept the terms?”
“Ok. If you are being so adamant, then I suppose, I shall have to accept your terms”, Sunny mocked his granny.
“So, let’s start, but you first lie down properly and let me put my book back on the shelf.”
When they settled down on the divan, both faces facing the ceiling, granny began, “you know, kid, there was a time when all flora and fauna used to speak the language of us- the human beings. This story belongs to that era. So, long- long ago there happened to be a king who ruled a kingdom which was not just big but very strong also; militarily and economically. Prosperity reigned supreme in his kingdom. The king was very popular among the residents of his kingdom because he was extremely generous towards all his subjects. He was a law abiding man and never took sides while making decisions. In other words justice was served under all kinds of conditions and circumstances in his rule. Everything was hunky- dory.
In his family he only had one daughter. The king loved his daughter immensely. He wanted to give her all the worldly luxuries, and had provided her with everything that eyes could see and brain could imagine. From top to bottom she was clad in gold, her food was cooked by the best cooks of the nation, she had a humongous fleet of servants who never let her do anything by her own hands, when she wanted to go somewhere for enjoyment or wanted to browse around, there were sandal wood chariots waiting for him; not one but many: in other words she was living the life of a princess at its best.
Yes, she had everything, every item of luxury; but she loved only one thing with all her passion –red roses. Her weakness for the roses was such that she never had enough of them. The king would bring cart loads of roses everyday for his daughter; but the heart of the princess was always yearning for more. King being king, always wanted to get more and more flowers for his daughter, no matter from which source and no matter how. Famous flower merchants would come to the king’s palace and sell him huge amount of flowers at exorbitant prices. Then there were numerous gardens surrounding the palace, in the garden there were only rose plants. Every day the king would go those gardens and pluck all the flowers from the plants. Gradually, the gardens started to wither because there were no flowers on any of their plants; they were nothing better than a forest of thorns. Slowly but surely, there was a conspicuous scarcity of rose flowers in the country. Then came a day when there was not a single rose in the entire country. The gardens of the private courtyards were raided; nothing came out from there too.
The good and jolly king was now a grumpy old man, who never smiled and never listened to anyone. The frustration of not being able to provide his daughter with what she loved most was tormenting him day in and day out. All the works of his office were halted now; he has stopped attending his own state council. The hunky - dory state was now a jilted and deserted country. Then one day his prime minister came and suggested him, “my lord, your humble servant has one suggestion to give. If thou allow me, I would like to say something.”
“What is it prime minister?”, said the king without any interest.
“Sir, why don’t we make an announcement in the entire country that whoever is able to bring some flowers to us will be awarded a grand prize? My lord, my humble opinion says that this ploy will pay dividends.”
“If you think that this ploy will work, do it. But I don’t think that anything concrete is going to come out of it.”
And the announcement was made.
A week passed, nothing happened. Then on the 8th day a man clad in a ochre robe came to the RAAJ DARBAR. He said that he wanted to see the king; he had something to say about the flower issue. He was brought to the king. He said, ‘if my lord is interested in rose flowers I have a humble suggestion to make, with thy permission.”
‘Yes, go ahead,’ said the king, ‘but remember, don’t you dare lie otherwise you shall be hanged’.
‘No my Great master, I shall not lie. I have come here to tell you about a rose garden where you can pluck as many a flowers as you want and the garden will never wither.’
‘Where is it, tell me.’
When the man told the king about the eternal garden, he said one more thing, ‘sir, the garden will not be visible to anyone else but you, so it’s only you who can go there and get the roses for your daughter.’
The king agreed, and, the ochre robed man was offered his prize which he did not agree to take.
The next day the king headed for the eternal garden. When he reached his destined place he was dumfounded by the sheer size and beauty of the place. He entered the garden greedily and headed towards the most flowered bush. When he was about to pluck his first flower, a miracle happened. The rose bush suddenly turned into a man; a demigod. The king was extremely flabbergasted by what transpired in front of his own eyes.
‘What art thou doing, King’, asked the demigod.
‘Why, plucking flowers for my daughter. We both love rose flowers immensely. We love to adorn our palace with roses every day,’ said the king, somewhat gathering himself.
‘Oh, this is the matter. You can take the flowers, king, but answer my one question first. You love the rose flower as you have just said, that’s why you want to adorn your daughter’s room with it. Now, tell me do you love your daughter?’
‘Why, yes, immensely.’
‘I see, then why don’t you adorn the palace with the head of your own daughter. She is also very beautiful and you love her very much. It will be fun, wont it?’
‘What are you speaking, you nutcase, she is my daughter, my own flesh and blood. How can I even think of doing what you have just said,’ shouted the king, shivering with anger.
‘What do you think; the flowers are not anything to the plants. Listen you foolish King, the plants love the flowers in the same way as you love your daughter. When you pluck a flower from a plant, the plant bleeds tears. Only because you are a man and a King, you don’t have the right to hurt a hapless creature. The plants are also a creation of god as you and I are.’
The king had no answer and he did not want to answer. Tears had wet his eyes. He had understood perfectly well what the demigod standing next to him was saying. He could only manage to say, ‘ forgive me my lord ,I have understood my folly and I promise I shall never ever touch a flower in my life. I shall make such a law that no one in my country will pluck flowers from now on.’
‘I see that you have fathomed your fallacy. So it’s time for me to leave, but , before leaving I would like to bequeath upon you this rose flower. You give this to your daughter as a token of love. This flower is called the eternal rose; it never fades and shall keep her happy forever.’
And the demigod disappeared into thin air. The king returned back to his place, resolute never to touch any flower again in the future. The old times returned and they lived happily ever after.
This, dear boy, was our story.”
Granny looked at sunny who had tears in his eyes. “What happened, son?”, asked she.
“Nothing granny I shall never pluck flowers again.”
“Ok, child, let’s sleep”, said granny patting his forehead.
The End
