Fox and the Crane - Aesopica Series Ep. 1

 

 

Do you have any memories of listening to stories? Well, I have many. When I was a toddler, my mother used to tuck me inside the bed and tell me sweet bedtime stories to put me to sleep. 

As I grew a little older, I often used to complain,” Gawd! I’m so booooooooored!”. Just then, my grandmother would sit me down and tell me stories of scary witches and wonderful fairies. When I was in college and lived in the hostel, a few of us girls would get together in the night. We would close all the doors and windows of the room, turn off the lights and burn a single candle. We’d sit around it to tell spine chilling…. teeth chattering stories of ghosts.

   Reading novels, watching movies and web series are all fun, no doubt. But to listen to someone narrate a story is a different kind of fun. And that is exactly what we are going to do now, I am going to narrate stories for you from the famous Aesop’s fables. Not 1, not 2 but 4.

  About 2600 years ago, a Greek slave named Aesop narrated many stories which were later compiled and presented as Aesopica or Aesop’s fables. The interesting fact here is India’s Panchatantra and Aesop’s fables have many stories in common. Researchers are of the opinion that during the ancient times, when India and Greece were involved in international trade, they probably also exchanged stories. Cool right?

You can listen to this story in

English https://youtu.be/tDx75JSTKOM

Tamil https://youtu.be/UGls_AgyZLA

Hindi https://youtu.be/8eG4W47b1pE

    Let me now tell you my first fable, in my style of course.  It is the story of the fox and the crane.

There was a dense forest. It was home to many animals, birds and insects. There lived two friends in the forest, they were the fox and the crane. One day, the fox went to his friend and said, “Hey, wassup! Crane bruh, ma homie for life. I am so lucky, I repeat, so lucky to have a gem like you as my friend, man. In honor of the special bond that we share, I am throwing a feast tonight, at my house.”

   That was totally unexpected, crane was on cloud nine. He thought, ‘Wow! What a great friend I have. He must really love and respect me to be hosting a dinner in my honor’

He gladly accepted the invitation and said, “Sure man, let’s make memories tonight, see ya”.

It was evening and the crane left for his friend’s house with a skip in his step. As he neared fox’s house he was swept away by a strong aroma. “Oh My God! I wonder what sumptuous meal fox has prepared for me”, Crane thought to himself and excitedly rang the bell.

    Fox answered the door. “Welcome yo! I have made the creamiest soup in the whole wide world; trust me Crane, you’ll go cray cray over it. Come on, have a seat”, saying so, he brought two dishes from the kitchen. He placed one in front of the crane and the other in front of himself and said,” Let the dinner begin!”

  The crane leaned forward to look at the dish, it was fish chowder with finely cut carrots and peas. It looked like the brightest full moon adorned herself with rubies and emeralds. The cream garnish on the soup looked like it was smiling at the crane, like it beckoned him to eat it.

He eagerly put his beak on the chowder and “tuk- tuk”. It was the sound of his beak knocking against the dish. Crane realized that the soup dish wasn’t deep enough for him to dip his beak entirely, suck in the soup and eat it. All he could do was merely dip the tip of his beak.

“Doesn’t matter, let me tilt my head sideways, put my tongue out lap up the soup. I might look funny if I do that, at least I’ll get to eat it”. But he was unsuccessful at that attempt. He thought for a while, “Ah I get it now, I’ll lift up the dish with my wings and slowly pour the chowder into my mouth”. And when he tried doing that, very little went into his mouth, the rest of it spilt all over him. He looked like a big mess.

    Discouraged, he looked up to see what his friend was doing. The fox was happily slurping and lapping up his soup without a care about the world.

Crane was furious, “I was happy minding my own business. That is probably what bothered him, so he called me for a dinner that I can’t have. Is this how you honor friendship? Is this how care for a friend? Is this what you call hospitality? What kind of a host is he to not know such basic courtesy”?

Thinking so to himself, he also decided to teach a good lesson to fox. He pretended to have enjoyed the meal. “It was a sumptuous meal man. I’m very impressed by your gestures that I want to reciprocate the love you showered upon me. I want to treat you for lunch tomorrow at my place”

  Fox immediately accepted the invitation. After all, who doesn’t like a treat?!

Next day, the fox made sure to not consume a morsel of food since dawn. He was making space in his stomach for the grand lunch. He was that eager. It was afternoon already and fox left for his friend’s place. Halfway through, he could smell the powerful aroma of fish. Like a sailor who follows the star, foxy followed the aroma with eyes closed and reached crane’s house.

Crane opened the door, “Hey man, come on in”

“What’s cookin Homie? I know you have made fish, but the smell of it is unlike anything I’ve ever had before”

“Oh, I have made pan fried fish with lemon butter sauce. This is the best meal you’ll ever have”, Crane said.

He then served food in two pitchers, one for the fox and the other for himself. Fox couldn’t see what inside the pitcher, so he started imagining. He pictured palm sized chunks of cod fish fried to perfection - tender and succulent on the inside and crispy on the outside. The sauce made with garlic butter and flavorful lemon juice and finally the dish garnished with basil. His mouth watered, he could wait no longer, he grabbed the pitcher and put his snout into it. Apparently, his snout was too short to reach the bottom of the pitcher where the fish was. He then put his hand into the pitcher hoping to pull out the pieces of fish, but he didn’t have fingers or claws that could catch hold of things. His paw could only touch the warm pieces of fish. He pulled out his hand and licked the sauce stuck on it. Mmm…. it would be a crime to not eat this. He was determined to find a way out. He held the pitcher upside down and shook it desperately hoping for the pieces to fall out. But the neck of the pitcher was quite narrow that the pieces couldn’t fall out.

At this point, he felt frustrated and embarrassed. He looked up and saw his friend, the crane deftly put his long beak into the pitcher, used it like forceps to pick up the fish, pulled his beak out and quickly gobbled the fish. That’s when fox realized that only a crane can eat from a pitcher and asking him to eat out of it was downright insensitive.

Now, fox was infuriated, “Hey Craney, what’s all this about? Did you mistake hostility for hospitality? This is the best meal I’ll never have. You know I that I don’t have a beak to eat from a pitcher. How about serving food on a plate? I thought you were my homie, but you don’t even know me”

“Calm down man”, said the crane, “In case you haven’t noticed, your homie doesn’t have a tongue to lap up the chowder from a dish. That didn’t look like hostility to you, did it? I don’t know what you mean by hospitality. After all, you only got served!”

‘People say a lot of things. So, I watch what they do” Between any two people in this world, there ought to be differences. Whoever understands and accommodates these differences and treats others as he would have them treat himself, is a true friend. So, no matter what sweet things people say to us, we must see if they do as they say. Any disparities between speech and action mean only two things. They are either ignorant about the ways of the world or their relationship with you is pretentious. Neither will do any good to us.

  That marks the end of the 1st story. If you liked it, give me a thumbs up, share it with your friends and subscribe to my podcast/channel/ blog. This story is also available in Tamil and Hindi, you can watch/listen, like and share them too.

 You take care and I’ll meet you soon with the second story. Ciao!

foxandthecrane #கொக்கும்குள்ளநரியும்
#सारसऔरलोमड़ी #storyseries #shrinikaneedhi #podcast #aesopsfables #aesopica #moralstories #fox #crane #redfox #shrinika