Once upon a time !!

I have heard lot of stories from my grandmother. She had so many varieties of them and the way she narrated those stints that somehow I started feeling those were not stories but incidents. Thought of sharing one of them, ignoring the fact that some of you might already know it. And yes like all Grandma Stories it also starts with…

‘Once upon a time… Husband and wife started their journey for their native which was across few villages. They took the only donkey which they had and loaded the luggage on its back. There was enough space for both of them to sit on it. The donkey was old but kind of royal treatment it got from its owner, he was still fit enough to carry both of them.

Journey started, but it was not long that they found people around; staring at them as if the luggage loaded on the donkey was theirs. ‘But I was sure that I loaded my own stuff’ he thought. He saw a bunch of people standing in a group ahead and murmuring something. He wanted to hear but old age has shown enough harm on his ears, but his wife’s ears were sharp like hare, she always hears the cuss words which are not even out of my mouth. So he said to his wife, ‘why don’t you try and listen what those staring people are talking about?’ and with no much wait she replied, ‘the poor old donkey is dying beneath two cruel ugly looking people that is us’ she replied. ‘What did you say you hippo?’ the man got angry more by the word ugly rather than the tone of his wife.

‘That’s what those people are saying not me’ she added immediately. Now there was a silence for a while and the next moment he was on the ground walking beside the donkey, his wife enjoying the ride alone.

It was not long that his wife started asking him to stop; but his weak ears and the people on the way who were still staring and smiling on him, made him walk few steps more before stopping. As soon as he stopped his wife got down and asked him to sit on the donkey. The man got impressed by her wife’s courtesy which was a rare occurrence and only happens when all the planets in the solar system are aligned in a straight line. He looked up to the sky, smiled and almost jumped on the back of the donkey.

‘Thank You’ he said but she was not even looking at him but staring at couple of people going the other direction. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘These buggers were saying that I am a horrible wife making my husband walk on the ground while I was comfortable on the donkey’ she said and the man unsuccessfully tried to control his laugh.

But all his contentment was lost when an old lady threw a pebble on him cursing, ‘don’t you have any shame? Letting your wife walk while you ride…disgusting ‘. Next moment both of them were walking beside the donkey, two of them smiling, I meant his wife and the donkey.   

They found many people laughing at them in further journey. Eventually they heard someone saying, ‘look at those fools, they are having a donkey with them still walking, as if the donkey is their ancestor’

They both looked at each other and smiled. And when they reached to their destination, both were sitting on the donkey…’

Moral of the story??? There are many, one of it is the first line of the song from movie Amar Prem, sung By Mr. Kishore Kumar and featuring Mr. Rajesh Khanna…. Hope you guessed it right...