THERE were two friendly sparrows named Shanti and Kanta. Shanti was very meek , introspective and of very good nature, on the other hand, Kanta was cunning and clever. A few days later of their friendship, they got married and began to live together as wife and husband in a nest.





First, Shanti entered the nest and then Kanta , as there was only one gate in the nest. It often happened but they were eating , sleeping and spending their normal life . One day Shanti asked Kanta, " Kanta, why do you enter the nest daily after me?"

He said, " Shanti ! you are my sweetheart , my duty is to save you from all sides ; so, when you enter the nest I become confirmed with your intrinsic entrance ; and on my entering later, I perform the duty of a watchbird that no other one could enter my nest and harm you anyhow , my wife !"

Shanti was convinced but in actual sense Kanta was always afraid of some unauspicious hazard . He thought there might be a snake in the nest and if he entered first he would be swallowed by . REALLY he was making a bluff with Shanti, yet Shanti believed in him.


Some days later, Shanti again looked up that Kanta always tested their baits first . He was very selfish, greedy and of all bad nature that one could imagine of, but despite his wit, he always had narrow escapes from Shanti's questions.


This time again , Shanti asked Kanta, " why do you eat everything first and never ask me to tongue it anyhow , Kantha ? Aren't I your wife ?"


" No, Shanti, you always get angry. I save you always by testing it first. you know the foods from outsiders may have life threatening stuff; they may have toxins to kill you, that is why I do it merely. Again she was satisfied but she concluded there might be the other reasons , so she began to comprehend the matter and nourish suseptive views over him.

They , always in the morning , came out from their nest and ,after the day run , every evening , entered into it.


One night, there came a storm drastically blown in the sky . The nest shook twice or thrice in a pendulum mode and broke down to the earth. Kanta was , as on the gate , flied soon away, but Shanti , as could not come out so swiftly , was a little hurt . God bless her life! she soon recovered and began to live as usual.



That she was a little afraid since then and that sleeping on the gate late at night was a little elating were the two reasons that she also intended to sleep sometimes at the gate of the nest.



"Why you not let me sleep at the gate? sometimes I also like to enjoy some sweet gusts of the air , .....so enjoying...wow!," she said.


It was true that Kanta was a little luxurious and he felt that she had caught him red handed . At it , Kanta grew very angry and said, " You! luxurious bird ......blunt... unable to understand right and wrong . I fully protect you & that is the reason."



Since that day, Shanti remained sad and pulled out . She made a plan not to live together for some days and to make him persuade her . She began to coax him.


She said that she had promised with God of two days' fasting when he had been saved in that dreadful Storm, So he had to complete it as soon as they could, otherwise, if the Storm came, they could avail any hail. At this , Kantha agreed with her after a second of silence. He was terrified.



A nest was made hanging with the same limb of the tree, but upward. She said that , as the sacred rules of fasting say , they will sleep separately and no one will enter her nest for these 2 days.





A snake , Seeku was living in the great hole of the same tree. Many a time he attempted but he failed to devour them for he suspected that the other would have drilled him into pieces with their bills, till he would swallow anyone of them Shanti & Kanta.


But it was a good chance. They were separate. Seeku was a hunterbeing. He felt, that night, flapping wings in the nest. He knew Kanta was not getting sleep for the separation from Shanti . He hit the mark at Kanta and hunted him . Seeku gut Kanta after a simple fight between them . He had caught his bills under the prickly jaws.


Thither Shanti was taking a calm sleep at the gate of the other nest. She was enjoying the sweet gust of Summer . She could not rise,too.


Seeku thought he would hunt her the other day as he was fully satisfied with his one day meal.

In the morning , Shanti woke up but found Kanta nowhere . She wept & wept bitterly for his remembrance: he used to tell he was saving her from the snakes.





Till the evening she had scattered into voices. She had been scared . She had rather sail up and flit in a distant world.



Deduction of Moral values :
1. A negative thinking always results in negative.
2. Respect your life partner as she is the virtual part of your flesh and blood. Never tell a lie with her & others too.
3. Don't bluff others you will be bluffed sometimes by the God.
4. A foe strikes iron while it is hot.
5. Love sustains only till the last breath. After death everything blends into dust . So life is more important than everything.

№ : This story has been awarded by Pratilipi.

#Fable #Tale

© Krishnakinkar Bhaktisarowar Tylent