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Sweet Sixteen

Only sixteen, but it seems to me like I started this blog aeons ago!!!

Yesterday, I read in the newspaper that Karnataka stood second in the country when it came to deforestation.
From 2021-2023, we lost 460 sq km of green cover. We have no right to complain about animals and birds invading our space...

My annual 'story share' is from the Jataka tales - reiterating the fact that we humans have always been insensitive about the creatures who share the planet with us. As long as we get what we want, we do not care/ think about their needs. 

The story 👇🏼

On a mango tree beside a river lived a monkey king with his subjects.

During the mango season, the monkeys ensured that no fruit fell into the river - they did not want humans to know about the fruit. Humans, they feared, would destroy them and their habitat for the delicious fruit.

One day, a mango fell into the river unnoticed by the monkeys. Downstream, it caught the attention of a king who was bathing in the river. He couldn't resist the smell and tasted the fruit. Enchanted, he ordered his men to go upstream in search of the tree that bore this fruit..

Soon enough, the search party found the source and brought the king to the tree. The king ordered his men to kill the monkeys so that he could have all the fruits.

To save themselves, the monkeys decided to cross over to the other bank of the river. For that, they bent a bamboo tree to form a bridge. Soon, they realised that the bridge fell a little short of the bank. The king of the monkeys stretched out his body to complete the bridge. Crawling over him, the monkeys crossed across to safety. The last one to cross did not like the king. When crossing, this truant monkey jumped and trampled over the king, harming him fatally.

The human king, who was watching all this, felt sorry for the monkey king and tried to revive him with the help of the royal physicians - but, to no avail....some damages cannot be reversed 😕 


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Comments

  1. Swarna Bhat13 November, 2025

    Thought provoking story....guess we don't learn!
    Enjoy reading your blogs .... here's to many more years! ❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous13 November, 2025

    Good to read your blog after a while. Nice story.

    ReplyDelete

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