This story took place in the dense jungle of Koraput. Koraput is a town of Orissa state of India. The forest there is beautiful with lots of varieties of trees. Among them, there are fruit bearing trees too. They are cashew nut trees and jack fruit trees.
And the forest is a favorite place of honey bees. There are plenty of plants with hundreds of flowers of various types and colors all around. The honey bees extract the juices from these flowers and collect them in the honeycomb they construct. They construct the honeycomb at great heights on the trees to ensure protection from human being and animals. Human beings and animals cannot reach those heights easily. Honeycomb is the storage place for the honey. This honey is produced by the bees from the juices of flowers they collect.
In the midst of the jungle there exists a scenic township of a big factory where they produce the parts required to assemble an aircraft. The township is dotted with many houses systematically constructed and in them live the people who work in the aircraft factory.
Dholu Ram Gadbad Singh’s uncle and aunt live in one of these houses in the township. During this summer vacation, Dholu Ram visited them to spend his holidays with his uncle and aunt.
Near to this township, in the dense jungle of Koraput also lives a family of mom bear, daddy bear and their son Blacky bear. They go to the township in the nights and tap the doors of the houses. Since by now they have become quite friendly with the children and their parents in the township, people are not afraid of them. As they tap at the doors of their houses, they know that the bear family has come to request the food. People open the doors and very happily give them lots of food.
In this way, within a few days Dholu Ram also became their friend, particularly of the little Blacky bear. Dholu thought that Blacky was very cute and interestingly, Blacky thought that Dholu too was very cute. All of you know that our Dholu is definitely cute not just because he is a roly-poly kid but also because he is very clever, courageous, well behaved, disciplined and tidy.
One day when Dholu Ram offered food to them, Blacky and his parents said, “Dholu, you and your uncle and aunt are very good people and have been giving us the food almost daily. Now, we wish to invite three of you to our home in the jungle tomorrow for lunch with us. You need not be afraid of animals there. Since you are our guests, other animals will be quite friendly towards you”. Dholu Ram and his uncle and aunt accepted the invite. The bear family gave the address of their home in the jungle.
Next day, Dholu Ram along with his uncle and aunt reached Blacky’s home. It was surrounded by lots of trees. Blacky and his bear parents had decorated their house nicely and made it clean and tidy. As soon as they arrived, they were welcomed with greetings.
Blacky’s parents announced that the menu for lunch was: jack fruits and honey. Dholu got highly excited since he liked honey a lots. He mentioned that to Blacky’s parents. They said, “Our Blacky also loves honey just like you. It’s great that both of you like honey”.
But Dholu did not see anything in the house, neither honey nor jack fruits. Blacky’s parents understood that Dholu looked a bit puzzled. They said, “We will get for you fresh jack fruits and honey right from the nearby trees". They asked Blacky to go out and get them. Dholu also accompanied him.
They reached a jack fruit tree. Blacky had become expert in climbing the trees and in no time he was up the tree. He plucked six jack fruits and climbed down holding them in his hands. They then went to another tree on which the honey bees had prepared their honeycomb and it was full of honey. "If you disturb the honey bees and try to steal honey, they sting very severely. Their sting is very painful", Blacky told this to Dholu.
“Then, how are you going to get the honey?” Dholu asked.
Blacky said, “Don’t you worry, I have made friends with them. I show them new flowers every day from where they can get the flower juices to make their honey. Ordinarily no one can get honey from them easily but to me they are very sweet and give as much honey as I request them”.
They Blacky whistled his code whistle. The queen of honey bees came out. Blacky introduced Dholu as his friend to the honey bee queen and she smiled. “OK, you want honey, don’t you? You have guests today and I will give you more honey today”. And she gave them lots of honey. Blacky thanked the queen bee.
Now, Blacky and Dholu Ram returned with honey and jack fruits. They all sat down on the dinner table. The dining table was very well arranged with plates and bowls and fork and knife for each one of them, placed over the table mats. The honey and jack fruits were kept in the middle of the table in proper serving vessels.
Everyone served the honey in their own bowl and jack fruit in their plate. After everyone finished serving, they all started their lunch together.
They ate stomach full and felt very happy. After lunch, Blacky and Dholu played for some time. During that time, Dholu’s uncle and aunt chatted with Blacky’s mom and dad.
It was time now for Dholu and his uncle and aunt to return to their home in the township. They all said “bye” to each other before their departure.
You may like to read "Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories" at http://funny-shortstories.blogspot.com/
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