Four Morals from my book Folklore of Kathiawar

Four Morals

In Varahnagar king Janak Sen was ruling. He was intelligent, clever, lover of arts and he himself was an expert in poetry. As he was a devotee of knowledge many experts used to come to him and he gave them good rewards, so his fame had spread all over.

One time in his court four wise people came. The king was sitting with his full court. The wise men gave him blessings and they sat on their seats.

The first wise man said: “When in anger, thinking is the moral.”

The second wise man said: “In front of enemy, the emotions are the moral.”

The third wise man said: “The secret is the moral when dealing with ladies.”

The fourth wise man said: “The moral of the moral if ‘Ghee’.”

On hearing these four short sentences the king rewarded each of them. He got these sentences inscribed on a big board and kept the board in his bedroom in such a way that he could see them at the time of sleeping and at the time of waking up. He thought of testing those morals.

One day in city the city artists came to play ‘Bhavai’. As the artists were very good even the king thought of going to see them. The accepted their invitation of watching their bhavai. The king’s princess was of a big age. She also wished to see the bhavai; so she got dressed in man’s clothes and went to see the bhavai. She returned home at late night. She was feeling much sleepy so without changing her male dress she slept along with her mother.

The king returned late in the night after seeing the bhavai. On entering the bed room he saw his queen sleeping with some other male. On seeing this, the flames of anger erupted in his mind and he got ready to kill both of them. He unsheathed his sward and was about to strike them, at that time he saw the first moral, “Thinking is the moral when angry.”

The king thought, “According to this sentence I should not do any misadventure. To think when one is angry is a big moral. From here where can this man run away? Let me wake up the queen.” He woke up the queen by calling her and asked, “Who is this man sleeping with you?” The queen laughed and said, “He is not a man, she is our princess. She had gone to see the bhavai in this dress. As she was much sleepy she slept in this way only.” On hearing them talks the princess also got up and the king’s doubt was removed. To think when angry was truly a moral and it was proved. Because of this sentence the king was saved from the sin of killing two women so he thanked the God.

One day an astrologer told to the king Janak Sen, “On the North direction, there is a snake hole under the Shami tree. From there a snake will come after fifteen days and bite you at twelve O’ clock.

On listening the king was much worried but he thought about the second moral so he thought to put it in practice. When the day told by the astrologer arrived, then the place where there was the snake hole, from there to the king’s bedroom, he got the path cleaned and made it beautiful by spreading flowers on the full way. At small intervals special pots filled with sweet milk were kept. He decorated his bedroom also with various fragrant flowers. He kept the milk pots at all the four sides of his bed and he sat on the bed and started singing hymns.

At twelve O’ clock in the night when the snake came out of his hole, he was very pleased by the fragrance of the flowers. Little away he saw a pot of milk and he was satisfied by drinking milk from it. On the full path he saw that there were fragrant flowers and also the milk pots were kept. “All this arrangement will be made by the king only. How can I bite the person who welcomes me in such a way? Thinking this snake moved ahead and reached the palace.

As he advanced in the palace he saw more and more flowers, sandal wood etc. On coming near the king’s bed, he saw that on every side of the bed a milk pot was kept. He drank some milk from one pot and thought, “I cannot climb the bed from the place where I drank milk.” He moved around the bed from all the directions and drank milk from all the sides. He was very happy by such a welcome and said, “O, king! I am your enemy then also you welcomed me in such a way so I cannot bite you. Actually I have been ordered to take your life by biting you, then also I will request on your behalf to spare your life.”

The king thanked the snake. The snake went to his Guru and told him that he had granted life to the king as the king had welcomed him very nicely. The guru of the snake requested the death god and after pleasing him made an arrangement that the blessing of the snake becomes true.

“Emotions towards enemy is the moral”, this moral was also proved to be true so the king was very happy.

“The secret in front of a lady is also a moral.” To test this moral the king started telling about his all work to his queen. One time he got angry on a servant and decided to remove him from job. This thing he discussed with his minister. He also told this matter to his queen. While talking with a maid when the matter about the servant came out then the queen told the maid that the king would remove that servant. The maid was in love with that servant so she told this immediately to the servant.

The servant came running to the king and begged to forgive his mistake. The king said, “If you tell me truly about the person who informed you about this matter then I will forgive you.” The servant answered, “A maid told me this.” When he was asked as why the maid informed him about this matter then he said that she was in love with him. The king called the maid and it became clear that the queen had told her about the matter. From this the king understood that even if we tell our most secret matter to ladies then also it will come out. So this moral is also useful was proved.

The king ordered that, “There should not be even a single drop of ghee in my food; use oil where the ghee is used.” This order was executed. After eating the oily food for three to four days the king started suffering from cough; then also he continued eating oily food. His health spoiled more. The king’s doctor examined him and said that this problem has arisen because of not using ghee.

So the king believed that ghee is also a type of moral. On finding all the morals to be true, the king declared that these true morals be circulated among the people. Only the person following these morals can live a good life. The person who does not think about any moral, that person will be thrown back from everywhere and would be thought as his birth as a human was useless.

You can access my book from www.felixpublications.in

Kedarkantha Trek

We reached Delhi and we were to take another flight to Dehradoon. We took metro train and on scanning my luggage the hawaldar asked “Where are you taking this sward to?” That was my walking stick sitting in my bag. On learning that we were going to board a flight, he let us go telling that they have tighter security than us.

We reached Dehradoon base camp of youth hostels for our Kedarkantha trek. We met a new friend while walking towards the taxi stand, Vijay so it was a good start. We stayed at night at the base and as usual we had not registered for the trek as our schedule was not fixed (it never is) and we wanted a spot registration. We were briefed about the trek at the night and asked to register at the Sankri base depending on the number of registered trekkers. It rained at night and we got a little relief from the heat.

Next morning all the trekkers were in the bus while some of us were in the SUV as we wanted to do shopping of certain items we had forgotten such as snow glasses etc and we were supposed to shop for our fellow friends also. So we reached the market and bought necessary things and reached Sankri before the bus reached so we went to bazaar which comprised of 4-5 shops and passed our time. The bus arrived after three hours and we were told that they had multiple tire punctures on the way. They also enjoyed much time in the tea break on the way which we didn’t get the chance. The bus takes normally 8-9 hours to reach Sankri from Dehradoon. Our camp was in the “Govind Sanctuary” and the market was about five minutes by walk from there.

The camp in-charge was angry on us as we had gone to bazaar but we did inform him our arrival and asked for a tent but he refused and told us to wait so what we were supposed to do. Anyways we got the last chance for tent allotment and that was supposed to be our punishment and it was after the dinner time. We passed the night at the camp.

Morning came and on coming out of the tent I was awe struck by the beautiful scene unfolding before my eyes as the sun rose. It was simply awesome and worth everything we came for. Still it was the first day of the trek and a lot more such scenes awaited us.

The scene out of my tent

We trekked up to “Juda ka Talab” in rather comfortable pace as it was near. What a scene on reaching the half frozen lake. We passed our time leisurely as we had lot of time. Some of us exercised, mainly push-ups on the semi-frozen floor of the lake.

This is our full team

 My partner in Crime

 The Lake

The tea stall

We moved ahead and stopped at a tea-stall for tea as the atmosphere was very good and after some time the snow started. I saw the snow fall first time in my life so it was superb experience. Vijay, my partner in crime and I stayed till last and then the guide called us so we went after enjoying the dance of the snow. We reached our camp site. It was surrounded by small hills and we were provided clean toilets and good tents. At night there was camp fire outside while my tent members played with cards and I sat there eating some home-made snacks we had carried with us and then slept. The snow fall started at night and on lighting my torch out of the tent I saw small diamonds lying scattered on the floor. It was a splendid sight so I ventured out and when I saw up I could see more diamonds there, though a little farther than the ground ones. It was simply awesome.

We woke up in morning by hearing other trekkers shout to come out. We went out and saw that there was almost 2 feet snow on our tent and it could cave in so it was needed to be cleared which we did.

Our next base was near the Kedarkantha as we were supposed to leave the camp early and summit the peak mostly before sunrise to see the rising sun from there. It was snowing heavily already and all were shivering but it was fun.

Vijay kept on falling so the guide advised him to wear his socks over his shoes for better grip. After wearing his extra pair of socks over his shoes he got some better grip and the falling stopped. We reached the camp and it was all white with the snow but the added delight was pakoras and hot tea, yummy enough to make us forget the cold and shivering.

We slept at 6 in the evening and started out trek towards summit at 2 o clock almost. Everyone was equipped with a torch and a stick. It was also snowing so it was enjoyable. There was a big layer of fresh snow on the path so it was easy to walk. Later when we reached it became more difficult to walk as the snow was not fresh any longer and it had become slippery by the footsteps of the trekkers ahead of me. Anyways all started to fall and rise and more ahead. It looks funny till we don’t fall, that’s human nature.

The Summit of Kedarkantha

Finally we reached the summit of the Kedarkantha peak, the scene around was stunning but there was no sunrise as the Sun opted to hide behind the clouds to make its absence felt by us. I mention Parth here for he managed to summit the peak with his broken shoes, kudos for that daring feet bro. We started the descent after a group photo. The descent was more slippery and we all fell sometimes all together and sometimes turn by turn. Our guide also fell once so after that we were no longer shy to fall and some of us did sliding to enjoy the snow. When my brother and his friend were passing under a tree its big branch fell on them due to the weight of the snow. They were saved just by inches as if fell on the rucksacks they were carrying, it was so close that the water bottle of my brother’s friend broke so the guide told that water is life and it did take life. It was very good luck that they were saved. The guide then urged us to move faster to avoid any such accidents and the clear the jungle as fast as we could. I had the habit of putting my walking stick in the time of the fall, I did so once and my stick was bent at ninety degrees but I didn’t fall much that was the benefit. When we exchanged the falling records, I came to know that my brother had fallen around 72 times and I had fallen around 15 times.

The snow fall continued and we actually enjoyed the snow fall, everywhere the thick sheet of white was spread. We all reached almost drenched in water and mud as at the lower levels there was much mud. We didn’t get time to change as a bus was waiting for us. The bus was almost full so some of the friends were thinking of hiring some alternate vehicle but we assured them that it was fine that the bus was full and we can take turns to sit as this was the last journey of all the trekkers which would be for 8-9 hours so why anybody should be left alone.

We reached at night to Dehradoon and rented a hotel and woke up next morning and in evening we visited the forest University of Dehradoon. It is very huge and has lots of museums (around 6-7). We also took a private bus to visit famous places of Dehradoon. Well it was not as interesting as the trek. Our next day was for shopping so we did that. Almost all left and our small group of four people stayed.

Then we went to Rishikesh and rented a hotel and putting our luggage there we went to Haridwar. Our goal was to attend the famous “Ganga Arti”. We returned to Rishikesh. Nest day was for Rishikesh where we saw Ram-Julha and Laxman-Julha. 

We took lunch in a good restaurant as we had some time, at least we thought so. On seeing our flight ticket we found that just one hour was left in the flight time. We rushed but there was no taxi available so we asked for lift and a guy was kind enough to give us the lift. He was going to receive his mom from the airport. He informed us that the gates close before 45 minutes and he set our stomachs churning in worry. We thanked that guy and rushed at the table and after lots of requests and swearing about our connecting flight; we were allowed but were told to check in all luggage and to carry nothing. I checked in my now not closing walking stick and my friend checked in the bottle of ganga jal.

All set and we relaxed in the flight at last. It was an awesome feeling on recollecting the memories in my flight and I slept with a smile on my face.