| A Trip To Heaven |
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| Arts - Art Of Dumbness | |
| Written by Heaven | |
| Tuesday, 24 November 2009 18:29 | |
A TRIP TO HEAVEN
"Surely this is Airavata!" Shankar exclaimed excitedly. "Tired of the delicacies in heaven, he must have flown down to earth for a change. If one can hold on to his tail, he will take me back with him and I shall see all the wonders of heaven." Shankar jumped out of bed, tiptoed out of the house so as not to wake his wife, and ran quietly towards the elephant. Hiding behind a tree, Shankar watched the elephant. After eating the grass, the elephant turned towards the tender leaves of the saplings and the half-ripened fruit on the mango trees. Shankar did not utter a murmur of protest. He was so anxious to go to heaven that he did not want to risk offending the elephant. Just as dawn was breaking, the elephant finished his meal. He raised his trunk and trumpeted with satisfaction. Shankar knew it was time for him to depart. He ran up and caught the elephant's tail. Airavata rose from the ground like a helicopter. Soon he was flying high above the clouds. Shankar looked down cautiously. The royal garden was just a speck in the distance. Shankar turned white and beads of sweat appeared on his Face. Just then, they landed in heaven. Shankar released Airavata's tail and looked around him. Mia eyes filled with wonder. "Think must be paradise... The garden of heaven!" he exclaimed delightedly . "Look how big and beautiful the trees are! I wonder what kind of manure Indra's gardener uses?" Shankar wandered around marveling at everything. the trees were ten times larger than those on earth, the leaves ten times as lush, the fruit ten times as tasty, and the flowers ten times as colorful. Shankar spent the day touching the leaves, feasting his eyes on the flowers, and tasting the juicy, delicious fruits aroung him. At dusk he suddenly remembered that his wife must be worried about him. "I will take her something - a peanut from heaven," he decided. He chose a betel-nut which was as large as a coconut, and a pan leaf as big as banana leaf. As soon as night fell, the elephant trumpeted. It was time to return to earth.Shankar ran and grasped his tail. In a few minutes he was back in the royal gardens. He rushed home to his wife who had been waiting anxiously for him. Where have you been all this time?" she asked angrily. "Don't be angry," replied Shankar placatingly. "Just see what I have brought for your' And he showed her the betel-nut and pan. Lakshmi was utterly amazed. "Where did you get such giant-size things?" she demanded excitedly. "From heaven, of course," Shankar replied and told her the whole story. At first she would not believe him but right before her eyes were the enormous betel-nut and pan. She was ultimately convinced. then shankar warned, "You must keep this secret. this marvelous nut will last us a week. But remember not to disclose our secret to anyone" Lakshmi readily promised but found it very difficult to keep her word. She was a woman who liked to talk. When Shankar made another trip to heaven and returned with an enormous fruit, which was very juicy , she became even more eager to tell her friends of her luck. But she resisted the temptation. Then her husband went to heaven a third time and brought back a gigantic flower whose fragrance pervaded the entire cottage. One of her friends said, 'What wonderful scent you are using. Where did you get it from?" "I am not using any scent," replied Lakshmi. "That's the fragrance of the giant flower in my house." Her friend questioned her further and she had to tell her the whole story. Lakshmi made her friend promise not not to tell anyone else her secret. The friend promised, but being a gossip could not keep the secret to herself. So she told it to her closest friend after making her promise not to tell it to anyone else. Her closest friend readily promised. Nevertheless, she too told the secret to her friend after extracting the same promise. And so it continued till soon all the women of the town knew the secret. And they their husbands. So the whole town came to know Shankar's secret. One morning, all oke town's men and women flocked to Shuakar's cottage. They insisted on going with Shankar on his next trip to heaven.Shankar was furious at his wife's foolishness.But what could he do? So he reluctantly agreed. "Tonight all can gather in the royal garden. But everyone must stand absolutely still." That night, the royal garden presented a strange sight. There were more men and women than there were trees but while the trees swayed with the wind, the human beings were as still as if they had been carved in marble. Even when Airavata appeared, no one stirred or uttered a sound. At dawn, Shankar beckoned silently. Then he rushed up and grasped the elephant's tail. Lakhmi held on to her husband's feet. Her friend held Lakshmi's feet. the friend's husband held his wife's feet, another man held his feet and that man's wife held her husband's feet and so on. When the white elephant rose up, a long chain of men and women followed him on his journey to heaven each one clinging desperately to the other. During the voyage, the last woman in the chain could no longer contain her curiosity. "Lakshmi told us that the fruit and flowers from heaven were very, very big," she said to her husband. "But she did not specify exactly how large. Will you please ask your friend above you?" So her husband asked the man above him. The man asked his wife who asked the woman above her. The woman asked her husband who asked the man above him and so forth. Ultimately Lakshmi was asked the question and she said to her husband, "They want to know exactly how big the fruit and flowers in heaven are." "You will see for yourself when we reach heaven." replied Shankar curtly. But the woman who was holding Lakshmi's feet was so impatient that she kept repeating her question. Lakshmi implored her husband, "My friend refuses to wait. You must tell her immediately how large the fruit and flowers in heaven are". Shankar was so upset at this foolish impatience that he said angrily, "Each fruit is ten times as big as a fruit on earth. You know that the betel-nut was that big ..." In attempting to demonstrate the exact size with his hands, Shankar released the elephant's tail and ... The entire chain from Shankar, whose feet were held by Lakshmi, whose feet ere held by her friend, whose feet were held by her husband, whose feet were held by his friend, till the last person, came tumbling down to earth. Then no one was alive to ask any questions.
A story By LEELAWATI BHAGWAT from A Trip To Heaven
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 November 2009 17:52 ) |
Shankar was the King's Chief Gardener. He had to work from dawn to dusk as the royal gardens stretched for miles and were an expanse of multicolored flower-beds, lush green lawns and clumps of majestic trees. His work consisted of sweeping the fallen leaves, watering the flowers, attending to young plants and saplings, rooting out weeds, raking the soil, manuring the ground and trimming the buss.