A Folktale from Kumaon
In the foothills of the Himalayas, there was an enchanting village on the outskirts of Bageshwar in Kumaon. Here, the skies were a bright blue, the fields lush green and stream waters always sweet. The villagers lived merrily in this paradise of beauty and quiet peace.
Jaidutt was born in this charming village and had grown up admiring the spectacular mountains surrounded by dense forests full of oak, deodar and pine trees. He loved his town so much that he had chosen to be a tour guide and spend all his life proudly showing around scores of eager travellers. Bageshwar was known for its scenic rivers, icy blue glaciers and its famed temples. People came from all over Uttarakhand and the rest of the country to soak in this scenic beauty.
Every morning, Jaidutt would begin his day with a dip in the pristine waters of the Sarayu river. This had been his ritual ever since he could remember and, over the years, he had taught his sons to do the same.
Now in his later years, Jaidutt lived by himself in his humble family home on top of a small hill. His sons were married and had families of their own. His two sons worked in the faraway town of Pithoragarh. But their wives continued to live in the village in separate houses, comfortably settled with their children.
After his beloved wife’s passing, Jaidutt had learnt to manage his home on his own. He cooked his meals, cleaned the house and even washed his own clothes. Of late, he was feeling more and more tired, but he was too proud to ask anyone for help.
One morning, the sky was lighting up with the first rays of the sun and the magnificent Himalayas were glimmering in the distance. Jaidutt, an early riser, started walking down to the river for his bath, when he almost slipped. Luckily, he was able to stop his fall with the walking stick, else he would have had a bad tumble downhill.
Jaidutt realised he was getting too old to care for all his needs on his own and decided to ask for help.
“Hmmm… what if I ask one of my daughters-in-law for help? Maybe one of them could just bring me the water of Sarayu daily,” he thought to himself.
He decided to go for one last dip in the sacred Sarayu and on his way back he stopped by his elder daughter-in-law Paruli’s home.
His elder son Manoj and Paruli had done well for themselves. They had bought a big, spacious village house along with a large piece of adjoining land for farming. While Manoj was away working in Pithoragarh, Paruli looked after their home, farm and children.
When Jaidutt reached their front yard, he called out to Paruli, “Buari! O Buari! Please come out. This is Saurju.”
‘Buari’ and ‘Saurju’ is the Kumaoni way of addressing the daughter-in-law and father-in-law, respectively. Even though Paruli was blessed with material wealth, she was not the most generous person. In fact, she was ill-tempered, selfish and wore a perpetual frown.
When she came out into the front yard, she barely even greeted her father-in-law with a smile.
“Buari, it is so good to see you. Are the children at school?” Jaidutt enquired.
She replied irritably, “Yes, they are! Do you need something?”
“Actually, I have been finding it very difficult to walk down to the Sarayu river for my bath. Since you go down to the river every morning, I was wondering if you could fetch me one small bucket of water daily,” Jaidutt requested.
Paruli responded quickly. “Me? Oh Saurju, you know me, I would if I could. But I have got such a large land to till that I hardly get any time. Why don’t you ask Hansu? I am sure she can easily spare some time. After all, she has a very small field compared to mine.”
Jaidutt was disappointed but he waved goodbye to her and decided to pay a visit to his younger daughter-in-law. The path leading up to Hansu’s house was uneven and Jaidutt walked cautiously with the help of his sturdy walking stick.
When he reached her front door, Hansu was busy patting cowdung cakes on her outer wall. Hansu’s home was a humble one and the cowdung cakes were used as fuel to light up the chulha or domestic stove for cooking.
As soon as she saw her father-in-law, Hansu welcomed him into her home. Jaidutt sat down. Hansu washed her hands and offered him a hot cup of tea.
Jaidutt had been walking all morning and Hansu’s tea turned out to be a refreshing delight. While Hansu was not as rich as Paruli, she was kind and caring towards one and all.
When Jaidutt repeated his request to his younger daughter-in-law, she immediately agreed to help. “Just a bucket of water? Of course, I will fetch it for you, Saurju. It would be my pleasure. Is there anything else you need?”
“Oh Buari! Bless your kind soul. May you live a long and happy life. I will always pray to Gollu Dev for your health and prosperity!” he replied gratefully.
Hansu smiled and waved, as Jaidutt slowly walked back home.
So, from the next day onwards, every morning, Hansu turned up at the break of dawn at Jaidutt’s house with a bucket full of sacred Sarayu water. Not just that, when she noticed that the yard and the house could do with a thorough cleaning, she decided to do that as well.
In a few days, she began cleaning the house and making breakfast for her ageing father-in-law while he finished his bath. She also offered to wash his dhoti at the village naula, a freshwater spring, nearby. She would then hang it to dry in Jaidutt’s yard and take his leave for the day.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Hansu kept her word and every morning, like clockwork, she would come by to help Jaidutt.
One day, as she was washing Jaidutt’s dhoti, something rather strange happened. As she was rinsing it, the water droplets started bouncing up and down. They also looked rather large and shiny. When Hansu bent down to take a closer look, she was stunned to discover that they were shiny white pearls!
“Pearls! These are actual pearls falling from the dhoti! How is that even possible?” She shook her head in disbelief.
Growing up, Hansu had heard stories of such miracles and so she decided to accept the blessing with thankfulness. She collected all the pearls and took them home and put them safely in a big wooden box.
And now the miracle occurred every single day! Every morning she washed the dhoti and collected the pearls that fell from it. Soon, the box was full and Hansu decided to sell them in the market. “I am sure these gorgeous pearls will fetch a handsome price from the jeweller. I must check if Saurju needs something.”
That afternoon, Hansu went to the market and indeed got a great price for the pristine pearls.
Next morning, at Jaidutt’s house, Hansu casually asked him if he needed anything. He was constantly surprised by his younger daughter-in-law’s kind and perceptive nature.
By now, Jaidutt felt comfortable sharing his thoughts with Hansu. “Buari, I have been thinking about this one wish that has been playing on my mind for some time. I want to organise a special puja and invite our entire family as well as all the villagers, who are like my extended family. But I guess we will have to wait till my sons come back home. This will require some money and maybe they both can help me out.”
Yet again, Hansu managed to surprise her father-in-law as she instantly replied, “Don’t worry at all about anything, Saurju. Just leave it to me. I will make all the arrangements and also send out the invitations to everyone.”
Hansu got busy with the puja preparations. She cleaned and decorated Jaidutt’s home with flowers and drapes. She organised for the priest to conduct the puja and collected all the material needed for the puja. She also invited everyone in their family and village and ordered a delicious feast full of traditional foods and sweets.
All the guests admired the thoughtful arrangements and complimented Jaidutt, “How did you do all this alone and at your age, Jaida?”
“Alone? Not at all. This is all thanks to my Buari, Hansu. She has made all the arrangements to perfection. God bless her!” Jaidutt beamed with pride.
While most of the guests had a great time and thanked Jaidutt and Hansu for their warmth, there was one person who was not feeling all that happy. It was none other than Jaidutt’s elder daughter-in-law, Paruli.
Paruli was shocked at the grand event and wondered, “Hmm… No way Hansu could afford all this! Expensive flowers and these fine drapes… and such a large spread of delicacies… All this is way beyond her means… I must find out how she managed to arrange the money for this!”
When Paruli was leaving, she praised the arrangements and invited Hansu for tea to her house the next evening. In all the years they had known each other, Paruli had never been this warm and welcoming. Hansu gladly accepted the invitation and Paruli’s change of heart.
When Hansu reached Paruli’s home, the latter offered her some hot tea and spicy potato snacks. Paruli was on her best behaviour and she was even smiling for once!
“Here, let me pour you another cup of hot tea, dear sister. Yesterday’s event is the talk of the village. But you know me, I worry about you. I worry that Saurju made you spend far more than you could afford for the puja. I hope you were not too careless with your money!”
Hansu smiled and replied, “No, no. Not at all! It was all his money.”
But that only baffled Paruli. “Huh! His money? Where did he get this much money?”
Hansu had a pure heart and so she told Paruli the story of the pearls from the dhoti, “…and then I sold the pearls for the puja…”
A new greedy plan was forming in Paruli’s mind while she absent-mindedly replied, “That was really very kind of you.”
As soon as Hansu finished her story, Paruli placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “You know, I was thinking, since I am the older Buari, actually it is my duty to look after Saurju and take care of him. Don’t you worry about him now. From tomorrow, I will go and help him with his chores. You have already done so much for him.”
“He is an old man after all. I was just doing whatever I could to make his life easy,” said Hansu.
Early next morning, Jaidutt was taken aback to see Paruli instead of Hansu and asked, “Oh! It’s you, Paruli. What about Hansu? Why hasn’t she come today?”
“Good morning, Saurju! Here, I brought you the Sarayu water for your bath,” Paruli said as she put down a small bucket of water. “Hansu wanted to rest. But don’t worry, I am here to help you. I will look after you from now on.”
She waited impatiently while Jaidutt bathed. She could hear him chant his morning mantras and couldn’t help but grumble to herself, “Such long mantras… this is going to take forever… humph… All I want to do is rinse his magical dhoti at the naula and get those pearls Hansu mentioned.”
As soon as her father-in-law stepped out of his bath, she almost snatched his used clothes from his hands, including his dhoti.
“I will send back the washed clothes with one of my farm hands.”
“But Hansu also prepared my breakf– ”
Before Jaidutt could finish what he was saying, Paruli raced down to the naula.
At the naula, she started scrubbing the dhoti while muttering, “Come on! Come on! Show me those precious pearls!”
SCRUB! SCRUB! SCRUB!
But, after an hour of vigorous scrubbing and rinsing, the dhoti was in tatters!
As Paruli looked through the gaping hole in the torn dhoti, she decided to give up. She neither sent back the clothes, nor visited Jaidutt again.
After a month, Hansu visited Jaidutt’s house and said, “Saurju, how are you? I came to meet you, even though I know that Paruli Didi must be looking after you very well.”
But Jaidutt looked bewildered as he said, “Paruli? What are you talking about? I haven’t seen her for a month. She hasn’t even returned my dhoti.”
Hansu was surprised. She immediately offered to help. “Oh, I see! In that case, I will come every morning just like before. Would you like some hot tea?”
“That would be lovely, my dear child!”
Once again, Hansu came every day with a pail of Sarayu water for Jaidutt. And you can be sure that she collected lots and lots of pearls too!