Tag: Brahma

Animal Tales

Why the cuckoo doesn’t build a nest

The Wag

Update: 

This story is one of my most favourite ones! It was the first story we ever published as a picture book and gave us a sense of how Amma’s Tales would look! Illustrated by the supremely talented Archana Sreenivasan, this story has featured in workshops, discussions, in fan conversations and so much more! You can see snippets of the published books right here (a new print is in the works now or you can order your very own copy) and you’ll know why it was such a hit with the kids! (Pls note all images are the copyright of Amma’s Tales and any plagiarism or utilization of this content without written permission from Amma’s Tales will be contested.)

Here’s the original blog post from 2009!

My daughter D came home one day from school with a strange question: Why doesn’t a cuckoo build a nest? Turns out, they had been on a nature walk with a birdwatcher who had picked the cuckoo as an easy bird to talk about to 5-year-olds. He’d also individually hand carved bird whistles for the children and they all got a cuckoo whistle (see picture). At some point in his talk he had mentioned the cuckoo lays its eggs in other birds’ nests and doesn’t make its own. I was reminded of a story amma had told me years ago. The story goes:
Once upon a time, Brahma, The Creator, assembled all the birds in front of him. “I have made all of you and soon you will begin to lay eggs. You must build nests to keep the eggs warm so that they can hatch. Tomorrow, you must assemble at dawn here and I will teach each of you how to build a nest. But don’t be late,” he warned. “I may not be able to teach you anything then.”
So there was much excitement among the birds and they went home to sleep early so they could meet the next day at Brahma’s house. The weaver (baya) bird couldn’t sleep for excitement. “Oh, I should get there first,” thought the little bird. “I want to build a beautiful nest to keep my babies safe and warm.” And so she kept everything ready and even before dawn could arrive, she was the first one standing at Brahma’s door. All the other birds started filing in behind her.
Everyone chattered excitedly and as Brahma opened his door everyone suddenly turned quiet. Brahma saw the long line of birds and got started on his task. For the punctual and sweet weaver bird he reserved his best nest as reward. She learnt how to make the most beautiful nest and line it well so her chicks would never be wanting for warmth. And so he progressed down the line, to the peahens, the quail, the hens, giving each one a special nest they could build for their children. The last bird in line was the crow. “Aha!” said Brahma, “overslept as usual, have you? I’ve told you not to be so lazy! Now I can only teach you how to make a rather crude nest of sticks.” The crow was sad but thought, “I have only myself to blame. At least my children will have a nest.” After Brahma had finished teaching the crow how to make its nest, he looked up and saw the sun was climbing higher in the sky. “Ah! My work is done,” he thought. But something niggled at him and he felt his work remained unfinished. He was just about to shut his door when he heard flapping of wings above his head. He looked up startled to find the cuckoo landing at his feet. “Oh Brahma,” sang the cuckoo (for she had a really lovely voice that she was very proud of!), “Forgive me for I am late! I was up last night singing to please my friends and I just couldn’t get up in time. Could you please teach me to build a nest now?”
Brahma was very angry. He said “You are a vain bird, cuckoo. You couldn’t even be bothered to come here though I had warned you against coming late. As punishment,your eggs will never have a nest of their own.”
Brahma was about to slam the door when the poor cuckoo fell at his feet. “Oh Brahma, you are the Creator!! If my eggs have no nest how will my chicks survive the winter and snakes and other animals that want to eat them? The world will never have cuckoos and children will never hear us sing again. Oh, please don’t punish me like that!” she wailed.
Brahma’s heart softened. The cuckoo was right. Children would never be able to hear the beautiful voice of the cuckoo if she didn’t have a nest to bring her chicks up in. So he said, “All right. You will forever be a thief trying to hide your eggs in other birds’ nests. If they are kind they will bring your children up as their own but beware, some are not. But that will be your punishment. You can never bring up your own children and will have to depend on others to do it for you.”
So to this day, the cuckoo lays her eggs in the nests of the crow or other birds that look like her and hopes for the best and flies away. Sometimes she is mean and pushes out the other birds’ eggs to make place for her own. At others, she just leaves the egg and goes away. So, children today can hear the cuckoo’s song only because of the kindness of birds who bring up her children as their own.

Tradition and tidbits

A match made in heaven

The Wag

This is a little tale I made up for my daughter D when I was trying to get her to eat (no small feat, let me tell you). As it happened she was eating thairu saadam (curd rice) and keerai kootu (spinach/dal mixture) a combination I was telling her was a match made in heaven and she wanted to know what that meant. And so the story goes thus:
Once upon a time, Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu were huddled in conference. Brahma said, “People are losing faith in us. They are tired of having to go the temple to think of us and they’re too lazy to pray at home. What do we do?”
Shiva said, “I have an idea. Let’s give them something they can see every day and because of how great it is they will say ‘it is something made in heaven’ and think of us.”
Vishnu nodded in agreement. “What will make them think of us?”
And so the three thought long and hard but couldn’t come up with anything. Then it was time for lunch. Saraswati, Parvati and Lakshmi called their husbands for lunch. “It’s going to be a light lunch,” said Parvati. “Someone forgot to get the vegetables from the garden,” she said, glaring at Shiva, who looked at his plate sheepishly.
“Oh, that’s all right. We have things to discuss…not think about food,” said Brahma importantly.
And so the wives served their husbands rice with keerai kootu made with the keerai Parvati had hastily plucked from her garden. The three gods ate their food without paying attention to it. Brahma and Shiva were careful to wipe their plate clean because if the gods wasted even one speck the whole world would go hungry. But Vishnu was careless and left a bit of the kootu behind while waiting for the next course. Without noticing this, the wives served the rice for the next round and poured a lot of fresh tasty curds (yogurt) over it. The gods absentmindedly mixed their rice and curd and began to eat. Suddenly Vishnu’s head shot up and in an amazed voice he said, “This is something heavenly!! Supercaliflagilisticexpialidocious fantastic!!”
“What are you talking about?” said Brahma and Shiva impatiently. “This is just thairu saadam.”
Vishnu looked at them doubtfully, and thought maybe he was wrong and went back to eating. He ate another mouthful and he said again, “This is something heavenly!! Supercaliflagilisticexpialidocious fantastic!!”
Now Brahma and Shiva got irritated and said, “Vishnu! Can you be serious?!! We’re eating the same thairu saadam and it doesn’t taste that different from every day. So stop getting distracted.”
Then Vishnu looked at his plate and saw that his thairu saadam looked green. Brahma and Shiva also noticed that. But theirs was white as usual. “Vishnu, why does yours look green?” said Shiva. Vishnu said, “Here taste some of mine! I promise you it is Supercaliflagilisticexpialidocious fantastic!!”
Hesitantly brahma and Shiva took small mouthfuls from Vishnu’s plate. Their eyes lit up and they said “”This is something heavenly!! Supercaliflagilisticexpialidocious fantastic!!”
Hearing all the noise the gods were making, their wives came running in. “What’s the matter?” asked Saraswati.
So Shiva explained how Vishnu’s thairu saadam alone tasted so good. Lakshmi took one look at Vishnu’s plate and said,”You really are too much! I am sure you didn’t wipe your plate clean after the keerai kootu! So wat you are eating is a mixture of the keerai with the thairu saadam. That’s all. And now I have to make sure the poor people in the world aren’t hungry because of your carelessness.”
The three gods turned to each other and said together, “We have found what we were looking for. Thairu and keerai are a match made in heaven. Whenever people eat them together they will say ‘Ah! a match made in heaven’ and they will think of us. Our search has ended.”
And so from that day forth, when people eat thairu and keerai together they say it is a match made in heaven and think of how great the gods were to discover two things that tasted so good together!!!