Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Once upon a time there were two daughters in a farmer’s family. The younger one was happy, content and frank; she had a cheerful and obedient disposition and always had a smile on her face. On the other hand the elder daughter was selfish, always grumpy and discontented, she had a reserved nature.
As is the custom in all farming families, they worked together drawing water from the well, fetching firewood from the jungle, husking rice and cooking the meal for their family.
One hot summer’s day, the two sisters went to a far flung part of the jungle to get firewood. On returning home the younger sister felt very hungry and asked her sister to give her some food. But the elder sister refused and asked her to fetch some water from the well instead.
At once the younger one picked up the bamboo cylinders –which villagers carry water in –and ran to the well that was a distance from the house to do her elder sister’s bidding. Then she asked her sister for food, but the elder one asked her to husk the paddy instead.
Though she was very hungry, being an obedient child, she took the basket of paddy and husked it clean in no time at all. The eldest sister then asked her to cook the rice, though there was cooked rice in the house left by their parents for their mid-day meal.
The younger sister obeyed her sister and began to cook the newly husked rice. While cooking, she began to lick a few grains of half-cooked rice that had stuck to the ladle when she was stirring the pot. When the elder sister saw this, she became very angry and, snatching the ladle from the younger one’s hands, began to beat her with it mercilessly, all the while calling her greedy, lazy and good for nothing.
The younger one, out of extreme hunger and the pain inflicted by her sister, fainted and lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she no longer wanted to be in the company of her sister. She wanted to go very far away from home. So she tore her body shawl into three strips. She tied one each to her hands and let the third strip hang from her waist like a tail. She then tried to imitate a bird, hopping on her legs and flapping her arms like a bird’s wings. In this way she went out of the house towards the jungle facing the courtyard, singing:
Firewood I have fetched sister,
And plenty of water too
Husked the rice and cooked it
All on your order, sister.
But when I asked for a meal
You hit me instead,
And in return for my love and obedience,
You give me hurt and words so cruel.
So I’d rather be a bird than be with one
Who is no real sister.
As soon as she left her courtyard, she was transformed into a bird and flew away.
When the parents returned home in the evening and asked for the younger one, the eldest sister only covered her face with her hands and began to cry. At that very moment the little bird hopped on to a tree near the house and began to sing the same song. This is how the parents came to know of the cruel treatment meted out by the elder sister to the younger.
The parents began to plead with the little one to give up her bird form and come back to the family. Even the elder sister began to entreat with her, asking forgiveness for what she had done. But the younger sister refused to listen to any of them.
The elder one became so desperate and remorseful that she began to weep uncontrollably. She began to call out to her younger sister from the courtyard and when she went out of the courtyard toward her sister, she too was transformed into a bird. She sat on the same tree with her sister but in such a way as to appear suppliant, as though asking for her little sister’s forgiveness. The helpless parents could do nothing but weep and mourn for the loss of their daughters. The birds often came to the tree outside their home and seemed quite happy together.