Akbar (1542 − 1605) was a famous Emperor belonging to the Moghul Dynasty of India. He relied heavily on his minister, Birbal’s judgement in matters of state. Birbal’s exceptional wisdom had earned him the Emperor’s respect time and again and he was one of the nine jewels of Akbar’s court.
One day, Akbar and his minister, Birbal went to hunt in the forest. After about an hour of unsuccessful attempts, they heard a couple of owls on a tree branch shrieking at each other. By now, Akbar was becoming irritated and needed some entertainment.
He asked Birbal to interpret the birds’ argument. Birbal, being fond of animals, did not like the idea of the hunt, but could not oppose the Emperor directly. He took the opportunity to drive his point home. Birbal explained that the owls were negotiating the dowry for their children’s marriage. The father of the groom was demanding 10 forests devoid of animals from the father of the bride. However, the latter was pleading that he can provide only 6 such forests right now.
On seeing the humans looking up at them, the birds took flight cooing even louder. Again Akbar needled Birbal to interpret the latest conversation. Birbal replied that the father of the bride had recognized Emperor Akbar and was confident that in a couple of months, he can provide the father of the groom with the additional 4 forests without any animals.
Akbar got the hint and ordered an end to the hunt.
~ A David Singh
~ A David Singh
Hi! Just happened upon this from facebook. Love Akbar and Birbal - still keep quoting relevant stories to my registrars! All the best for this blog - obviously a lot of effort has already gone into it. I especially like the name - wish I had thought of something like this!! All the best and just a query - what happens to SPRH?
ReplyDeleteWhat a pleasure to have you here, Arpit! Glad you liked the title - we had a brainstorming session where we both came up with several titles, then selected top two, then repeated the process several times till we had a set of names we both liked. Then we voted on them, each of us giving points to each title on a scale of 1 to 10, and this title won! Since we both like historical and fantasy-related themes, runes featured high on the list. 'Tablet', of course, is a pun!
ReplyDeleteI might do away with SPRH altogether - still thinking about it. That blog was not well thought out - it had a very 'miscellaneous' sort of feel for me. Moreover, since Amitabh and I both enjoy writing, it made more sense to have a combined blog where shared duties would make the task of maintaining and updating easier without compromising on other aspects of daily life.
Hi
ReplyDeleteAmitabh and Swati
Nice to read the good old Akbar and Birbal tale.
Just that ther have been so many people who share Akbar's likemindedness in having forests devoid of animals rather an earth devoid of forests.
What we need now and in great nos are people who match Birbal's wit and concern for nature to bring back or preserve the beauty in our dear planet
Good to see you here, Shalini!
ReplyDeleteThat's an apt observation - not just forests devoid of animals, but the earth itself devoid of forests...
I guess we can all do our bit by reducing our carbon footprint in our own little way.
LOVED IT...I have always loved their tales...would you not post on this series....:) Please post some more on them.
ReplyDeleteThat Anonymous was me - Pratibha :)
ReplyDelete@ Pratibha: Always glad to see you around. And yes, Amitabh is going to keep updating his Birbal series. Those stories are relevant even today. :)
ReplyDelete