Category Archives: Story

About how Chiki rode the elevator by himself

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This story is about the time when Chiki was a little boy. He is 8 years old now, so what happened in this story would not happen now!

When Chiki was a little boy, he used to go with his mama and sister to the library pretty much every week as mama was very particular that both Chica and Chiki learn to love reading. They would visit the library closest to their home and so Chiki thought he knew the drill very well.

One day, when Chiki was about 3 years old, they went to the library as usual, this time dad was also with them. Chiki as usual didn’t want to hold mama or dad’s hand while walking since he was sure he was a big boy and knew what was going to happen. Only this time, instead of going straight to the elevator as usual, mama decided to do some window-shopping before they went to the library. So instead of going straight to the elevator, mama and dad turned right to get to the shops.

But since Chiki was walking alone, he didn’t realise this and walked straight into the elevator. As soon as he entered the elevator, the doors shut and it started moving. It was at this point, Chiki realised that he was in fact all alone!

“Mama, mama, where are you?” Chiki cried and wanted to get off and go look for his mama, but since he was short, he couldn’t reach the buttons. However, a kindly man saw that Chiki was alone in the elevator and asked him “Boy, are you lost”. Chiki stopped crying for a moment, thought it over and nodded. The kindly man didn’t know where Chiki’s parents were, so thought of taking him to the information counter so that they could page for them.

In the meantime, mama had discovered that Chiki was lost! She was frantic and started looking for her baby everywhere. But they could not find Chiki at all. Mama was almost in tears and decided to go to the information counter to see if they could help them.

Once there, while they were explaining to the lady at the counter, what did they see? They saw Chiki being led to the counter by a kind man.

“Mama” cried Chiki when he saw his mama. “Chiki” cried mama when she saw Chiki and hugged him tight, never wanting to let go of him. “You naughty boy! You wandered all by yourself” she scolded Chiki.

“Thank you very much” mama thanked the kind man who brought Chiki back. “If it wasn’t for you, I would have lost my son” she sobbed.

That night, while tucking Chica and Chiki back to bed, mama said an extra special prayer for the kind man who brought her son back to her.

Stories from Ancient India: How Lord Ganesh got an Elephant’s Head

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One day Goddess Parvati wanted to be alone and have a bath, so she instructed the bull Nandi who was Lord Shiva’s personal guard to ensure that no one could enter the house while she was bathing. Just then Lord Shiva wanted to meet Parvati. Seeing him, the Lord of Mount Kailash, Nandi immediately allowed him into the area where Parvati was bathing. When Parvati came to know about this, she was furious about the fact that the guard she had ordered to do her work was more faithful to her husband than to her.

In retaliation, she took the turmeric paste from her body and with her powers, created a child whom she wanted to be faithful only to herself and no one else. She named the child Ganesha. At this point in time, no one knew about the creation of this child as Shiva was away from Mount Kailash then.

Soon, the child was guarding the Parvati’s room and did not allow anyone to enter the room as ordered by Parvati. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva entered their home and made his way to Parvati’s private chambers. Following orders, Ganesha stopped the great lord with a loud “Stop! You cannot enter my mother’s private chambers”

Shiva was amazed both at the audacity of this child who was stopping him from entering his own home and with the fact that this child, whom he had never seen before was calling his wife Parvati his mother.

“Who are you to stop me from entering my own home? Do you even know who I am?” Shiva roared in anger.

“I don’t know who you are, but I can’t allow you inside since my mother has forbidden me from doing so” replied Ganesha.

Furious, Lord Shiva sent his army or Gana Sena to attack the child. But Ganesha who was no ordinary child was born with immense strength and he soon defeated the army easily. Shiva then looked at other avenues to reason with the child. He used the services of Lord Brahma who came in the form of a peaceful Brahmin and tried reasoning with Ganesha using the religious texts, but Ganesha did not budge. Then Shiva mobilized the army of the gods or Devas, but the child routed them too easily. Enraged beyond reason, Shiva then goes behind Ganesha when he is battling others and cuts off his head.

“Motherrrrr” Ganesha screams and dies on the spot. Hearing the noise, Pravati rushes from her private apartment and sees the carnage before her. Seeing her child, her creation dead in front of her puts her in a great rage and she moves into her destruction mode threatening to destroy the entire universe. Seeing this makes all the Gods assembled there very nervous and scared and Brahma decided to intervene and asked her to reconsider her decision

“I will not destroy this universe only on two conditions – one my child be brought back to life and two Ganesha will be worshipped and propitiated before any other Gods” Parvati put down her conditions.

In order to console his wife and stop the world from being destroyed, Shiva agreed to the conditions and sent for his servants and soldiers.

“Go forth and bring to us the first head of any creature you come across which is sleeping with it’s head pointed in the northern direction” Shiva ordered his soldiers and they soon set out to do their Lord’s bidding. The Ganas spread out to search for a creature with its head to the north and soon find an elephant sleeping with its head to the north.

They then bring the elephant’s head back to Lord Shiva who attaches it to Ganesha’s body and with his divine powers, soon brings him back to life. Ganesha soon gets revived and Lord Shiva proclaims him his own son and also the leader of his army, hence his name as Ganapati (Lord of the Ganas). He further proclaims that Ganesha will be foremost of all Gods and will be the first God to be worshipped as well as before anyone undertakes any new undertaking.

This is how Lord Ganesha came into existence, why we worship him first and why he is also called Ganapati

Stories from Ancient India: Lord Ganesh

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These days BB and GG have been asking me stories from the Indian Mythology. This new obsession for them is due to the number of books they’ve been reading on this subject and hence they want new stories about the various Gods and Goddesses. These stories are not new or original, but have been passed down from parents and grandparents to children for the last thousands of years. These are my versions of the stories my grandmother and mother told me which I am retelling to my children, thus keeping the chain of oral traditions alive.

Lord Ganesh Pulls a Fast one on his Brother

One day Lord Shiva was relaxing in Mount Kailash with his wife Goddess Parvati and sons, Lord Ganesh and Lord Kartikeya. Suddenly the sage Narada Muni appeared before Lord Shiva and prayed his obeisance to him. Now the sage Narada was known to cause mischief wherever he goes and it looked like this was also going to be one of these times. Narada had a golden mango in his hands which he gave to Lord Shiva.

Shiva was surprised and asked Narada, “Why have you come so far to Mount Kailash just to give me this mango?”. “This is no ordinary mango” Narada replied, “This is the golden mango of knowledge and whoever eats this mango will be granted eternal knowledge and wisdom. However, there is a condition to eating this fruit” he warned. Lord Shiva, who was in the process of cutting the fruit into four pieces stopped and muttered, “I should have known. If Narada gives something to someone, it has to come with some conditions and I am sure, there is some mischief also afoot”. “Tell me Narada, what is the condition to eating this fruit” Lord Shiva asked Narada. With a smirk on his face, Narada replied, “This fruit has to be eaten by only one person”

While Narada was explaining to Shiva about the fruit, Parvati, Ganesh and Kartikeya appeared there. When the boys saw the golden mango, each wanted to eat it. Both the boys wanted to prove that they were superior and hence should eat the fruit. Shiva was frustrated as he did not want to be partial to one son over the other and neither did Parvati. So they decided to repay Narada with a tactic of their own. “Boys, Sage Narada will decide who gets the mango” Shiva intoned, passing the buck to the person responsible for all this in the first place. Narada was caught in the trap of his own making and so tried to get out of this by saying, “Boys, the person who covers the world three times first will get this fruit”.

Even before Narada finished saying these words, Kartikeya jumped into his vehicle, a peacock and was soon out of sight. Ganesh remained where he was with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Ganesh, child, aren’t you going to go around the world?” a worried Parvati asked her son. “Wait, Mother, let me think” replied Ganesh.

At this point, Kartikeya zoomed past them shouting, “I’ve finished one round, Ganesh get yourself off the ground and atleast start, I don’t want to win just like that!” Kartikeya was 100% sure he would win. His vehicle was the peacock as against that of the lowly mouse that Ganesh had and he had already completed one round while Ganesh was still sitting in Mount Kailash.

By this time Ganesh had decided what he would do to win this competition. Just as he started to get up and move, Kartikeya zoomed past shouting that this was his second round complete and he just had one more round to win.

Ganesh slowly made his way to his parents and bowed low before them. He then started circling his parents three times. Shiva and Parvati were perplexed and asked Ganesh, “Child, you were supposed to circle the world, so why are you circling us instead?”. The answer they got surprised and impressed them for Ganesh replied, “You, my parents are my universe and my whole world. So if I circle you, it means that I have circled the entire world”. Saying this, he finished his third circle just as Kartikeya reached Mount Kailash after finishing his third trip across the world.

“I won, I won”, yelled Kartikeya. “Ganesh, you are still here, while I have circled the world three times”.

“No my son”, said Lord Shiva, “Ganesh is the winner”.

“But how, he was still  here when I finished all three rounds”, asked Kartikeya with a pout.

Lord Shiva explained what Ganesh did and handed over the fruit to him. Kartikeya was upset that his brother had pulled a fast one over him, but he could do nothing as what Ganesh did was absolutely right and had proved to be much more intelligent than him.

Chica learns something new

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Every day, around 4 pm, Chica could be found at the window of her room. She would be in for about an hour and when she came out, she would be in a very funny mood. Her mother was perplexed at this and one day decided to go down to the root of this mystery.

So one day when Chica was, as usual at the window, her mother, entered Chica’s room and peeked out of the window too. When Chica saw this, she quickly turned her face, but not before the game was up!

“Chica, why do you sit here every day?” mama asked. Chica didn’t want to reply, but had to reply to her mother and said “Mama, I want to learn how to ride a bike like these girls there”. “So what’s stopping you?” replied mama. “I’ve heard you fall when you learn to ride, so I am scared”, this from a scared Chica.

“Nonsense” countered mama, “Yes, you will fall down a couple of times while learning to ride a bike, but that is part and parcel of the learning process. If you have the will to learn, you will learn”.

So Chica decided to start learning to ride a bike. The next day, she went down when she saw the girls riding their bikes and asked them to help her learn. The girls were happy to teach her and with so many teachers around her, Chica quickly learnt to ride. Of course, she did fall a few times, but remembered what her mama told her and didn’t bother too much about that.

A week after Chica had learnt to ride a bike, there was a surprise waiting for her – a pink, shiny new bicycle just for her. Chica was overjoyed and soon was happily playing on the bike with all her new friends!

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap – A Chiki and Chica Story

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One day when Chika and Chica reached school, they found the whole school abuzz with some exciting news. The king of Rhysunds, the forest where they lived was going to come to their school’s annual prize distribution and was going to give a special prize for a very special competition. This competition was a story-writing competition to commemorate the golden jubilee year of their school as the school was now 50 years old! There were very cool prizes to be won and the best one was a special plane ride with the King himself in his Majesty’s airplane. Now, his Majesty King Rivas had a very special airplane which Chiki had only seen from a distance and a chance of actully going inside the plane for a ride was too much of a temptation for him. “I’m going to write the best story that anyone can write and i will win this competition, you just wait and watch” Chiki told Chica, his friends, his teachers and anyone who spoke to him that day.

Later in the day when the teacher spoke about the competition, she told them the deadline which was a week from that day. The stories had to be written neatly on a paper and handed over along with the submission form. Saying this she passed along the submission forms to all the students asking them all to take part and even if they didn’t win, the experience would stand then in good stead.

Chiki took the form and went home, not before telling the bus Aunty and the canteen uncle his plans. Once home, he told his mother, “Mama, tonight after dinner, I will go to my room and start working on my story, so don’t disturb me. I am going to write such a wonderful story that his Majesty will have to give me the first prize”

After dinner, Chiki did go his room to think about his story. “My story has to be different and wonderful, so that I win the competition” “i wonder how the plane will look when I enter it?” “I hope I don’t become sick in the plane when I enter it” thoughts like this kept coming to his mind and all thoughts of the competition flew out as he fantasised on what he would do with the king once he won the competition and got to ride the plane. He soon fell asleep and when he woke up the next day he consoled himself that he still had six days in which to write out the story.

“Chiki, have you completed your story?” mama asked him once he was back from school the next day. “No mama, I will think out my story today and write it up later” Chiki replied and as soon as he finished his homework and dinner, he went to his room to work on his story. He did think of a wonderful story, one that involved airplanes, dinosaurs, race cars and everything that a boy could dream about. The next day, he excitedly went to his sister ad asked her if she had finished her story. “No Chiki, I am still working on it”, Chica replied, but I just can’t seem to get story to have a good ending”. “Show it to me Chica, maybe I can help” offered Chiki and he gave his sister the perfect ending to her story.

The next few days flew by with homework, swimming and the myriad other classes that Chica and Chiki went to and every day Chica and his mother would ask him about the story and Chiki would reply “I will write it down tomorrow, I promise”. The day before the children had to submit the story, their teacher reminded them about the deadline the next day and asked them all the make sure they had neatly written their story and filled up the submission form that went with it. The forms needed to have their parent’s signature in it too.

Chica and Chiki went home and made sure their mama signed the forms for both of them. Chica then asked Chiki if he had finished writing his story. Chiki had loads of homework that day, so he said he will do it once the homework is done. Later that night, once the homework was complete, Chiki started to write his story. But he was very tired and it was late and soon he was asleep with the story half done. The next morning he woke up and frantically started writing the story, but because he was in a hurry, his handwriting was extremely bad and he missed writing out many points in his story.

All the children submitted their stories to the teachers, but Chiki knew that he had not done justice to his story. He also had doubts if he will eventually win the competition. The next few days till the results were in were nailbiting for the whole school. During recess, this was the only topic of discussion between the children. Everywhere they went, it was the competition – at school, in the bus, at the supermarket, at the gym – everywhere! Soon this also percolated down to the parents and they too got sucked into ‘The Discussion’.

At last the day of the results arrived. The King arrived at the school for the annual prize distribution and Head of the school went up to the stage. “We have had a lot of very interesting stories for our competition. In fact, there was one story which started out very well, but around the halfway point, we could not make out what the author wanted to say. Anyway, in a competition, there will be just winner, so the winner is….Chica!” Chiki was very happy for his sister, but also very, very sad that he did not win the competition. Of course, he knew the head of the school was refering to him, but there was nothing he could do at this point.


Chica went up to the stage to receive the award from His Majesty. Once there, she whispered something into his ears and His Majesty smiled and nodded. Then he took the microphone and made an announcement “I just heard that there is a little boy who so desperately wanted to have a ride in my new plane, that he made up a fantastic story, but unfortunately, he did not finish his work on time, so could not win. Chica would like her brother Chiki to have the ride in the plane instead of her as he helped her with the ending of her story and also because although he did think of a wonderful story, he could not finish writing it. Can Chiki come up on the stage now?” Chiki very self consciously went up to the stage and the king continued speaking, “Because Chica so generously decided to give up her prize for Chiki, I will take both the children with me on the plane”.

Chica, Chiki and their parents were thrilled to hear about the King’s offer. A week weeks later, a big car came to take the chilren to the airport where the King was waiting to take them on a spin in his new airplane. Chiki and chica enjoyed the trip. At the end they were showered with gifts by the King and went home happy.

Chiki vowed that in the future, he will never do things at the last minute and will always make aure that he has ample time to finish his work.