Friday, November 20, 2009

A Friend in Need Is a Friend Indeed

One fine day, early in the morning, Blacky bear was whistling and humming while he was strolling in the forest around his home. He was fond of singing too. He was crooning his favorite tune, “Tra ra rala, tra ra rala, tra ra rala…..” He was always in his excellent mood on breezy sunny days and surely, the day was sunny and breezy. The birds were in good mood too and they were chirping. They were continuously chattering and were keeping themselves very busy doing this or that. Various types of flowers with different colors were in bloom and their fragrance was spread in the air.

Affected by the wonderful environment all around, Blacky was in an utterly playful mood. He started chasing the butterflies of yellow, red, orange, violet and many other colors. Some of them were the polka dot types and others were plain. They were all very friendly with Blacky bear since they all stayed in the same jungle where Blacky bear resided. One of the butterflies, who was more playful than the others by name of Bina challenged him, “Blacky, you just can’t catch me. Run. Run after me and catch me. Can you?”

Blacky bear is all sports when challenged like this. He said, “Why, I will catch you. Don’t you know that I run faster than you, Bina?” And he started chasing the butterfly Bina.

Bina butterfly went on flying, fluttering her yellow and black polka dot wings. As Blacky bear reached near her to catch her, she would go high up in the air and Blacky would miss her once more. This game went on for a long time. Bina and Blacky were running in all kinds of directions and could not keep track of where they were going.

While playing this game, they did not realize that they had already entered into a nearby village. This village was not the familiar village for them. They had never been there earlier. They did not know anyone there. They did not have any friend in the village.

So, they decided to return to their forest. But as they were about to run away from the village, the villagers saw Blacky. Though Blacky is still a child, being a bear, he looks huge and anyone can spot him even from a distance. The villagers saw him but not the butterfly Bina since Bina butterfly is pretty tiny and not easily visible. Not only that, the villagers are never afraid of butterflies but they are always afraid of big animals like bears and leopards and tigers.

So, when the villagers spotted Blacky bear in their village, all of them got panicky. They started shouting and shooing him away. Blacky is a very clever bear. He started running away from the villagers but he did not know the exact way to return to his house. He had lost track of the direction.

Suddenly he saw a river nearby and he got a brilliant idea. He said to Bina, the butterfly, “The villagers are chasing me. They may try to throw stones at me to scare me. I wish to save myself from them. Therefore, if I go into the river and stand in the middle of the river, none of them will dare to swim into the river and come near me. So I will go and stand in the river. In the mean time, I request you to fly fast and go to Dholu Ram Gadbad Singh’s house. Tell him about what has happened. Ask him to reach this river in this village. He will figure out some tricks to save me and get me out of here.”

Accordingly, Blacky swam into the river and went right in the middle of it and stood still there. Villagers stayed on the banks of the river but none of them was brave enough to swim and go near Blacky.

Butterfly Bina flew very fast and reached Dholu Ram’s house in no time. She told the whole story to Dholu Ram and requested him to save Backy.

Dholu Ram said to Bina butterfly, “You show me the path and I will run behind you.” So, Bina flew in the direction of the river and Dholu Ram ran behind her real fast.

Within a few minutes, Dholu Ram reached near the river. He saw the whole lot of villagers there and also Blacky bear right in the middle of the river. He waved at Blacky bear and Blacky waved back. He gave a sigh of relief seeing Dholu there. He was fully confident that Dholu would find out some way of rescuing him.

Dholu Ram found out the chief of the village among the villagers and spoke with him. He said, “All of you need not be scared of the bear. He is Blacky bear and I know him very well. He is a great friend of mine. Did you see me waving at him and him waving back a few minutes ago?”

To this, the chief of village nodded in affirmation. Then, Dholu Ram said to the chief, “You ask the villagers to move away from the bank of the river. Nobody should throw stones at Blacky bear and no one should shout or panic. As you will clear the bank of the river, I will ask Blacky to come out of water. No one needs to be scared of him at all.”

The village chief ordered all the villagers to clear the bank of the river and they quietly obeyed him. Dholu Ram whistled at Blacky to indicate that it was safe for him to come out of the water and reach the bank of the river. Blacky swam and reached the bank.

Dholu Ram introduced Blacky bear and also Bina, the butterfly to the chief of the village and all the other villagers. All of them exchanged pleasantries. The villagers apologized to Blacky for their misbehavior with him. All of them became friends with each other. The villagers invited Dholu, Blacky and Bina to visit their village often.

Then Dholu, Blacky and Bina started for their homes. On the way, Blacky thanked Dholu Ram as well Bina for helping him out of the tricky situation he had got into. Dholu Ram and Bina said almost at the same time, “Blacky, You need not have to be formal with us and thank us. After all, what for are the friends?”

You may like to read "Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories" at http://funny-shortstories.blogspot.com/

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