Thursday, December 29, 2005

Two stories

I like reading short stories especially folk tales, because of many reasons like

* They have some history and some cultural relevance

*Second and more important, they are not long.

Some of the greatest short stories are not given by master writers but actually they are folk tales. I am going to write two of them [I want to share with you all] from my memory. One is Persian folk tale and other one is Chinese. I hope you all will like these two. If you didn’t it will be fault of my writing.

Long time ago, in a small village of Persia, one man used to live with his servant. One day servant came running from the market. When his master asked him the reason, he replied that in market place he saw death and death was looking towards him with scary eyes. He then begged his master to lend him his fastest horse so that he could go to Baghdad and hide there for a few days. His master granted him permission. After his servant was gone he went to market to buy the ration. There he saw death again. He asked death angrily why he scared his servant. Death replied innocently “I did not mean to scare him. I was just surprised to see him here, because I have an appointment with him in Baghdad in the evening. So I was surprised.”

Second one-> Chinese folk tale. I like this one because this one is romantic and I like romantic stories.

During Chin dynasty when China was growing as an empire, the emperors were worried about the protection of the frontiers from foreigners. So they started building a wall [The Great Wall of China]. Peasants and soldiers were forced to make the walls. Walls were made by ramming. Though walls thus made were weaker than the concrete walls they can be made much faster. The peasants from the frontier villages were forced to work. Sometime around this time, in some frontier village, there lived a newly wed couple. Both used to love each other very much. This man also went to frontiers to make the Wall. There he died due to overwork. The captain of that platoon was a cruel man. He ordered his body to be rammed in the wall itself with the soil. After some time anxious wife came to the work station in search of his husband. Everybody knew that she love her husband very much. Just by thinking how heart breaking it would be for her, nobody dared to tell her the truth. They just said that he was not working with them; ask at the next work station. At the next work station, she got the same reply. Her tale always preceded her and she was getting the same reply at all the workstations. Everyone thought that someday she would get tired and return home. But she kept on walking continuously. She walked about 100 miles along the wall. Her tale was getting famous. Then at someplace when she asked someone, he mocked her back that your feeble husband was dead and his dead body was rammed in these walls. It is said that after listening this news, she neither screamed nor cried. Only one drop of tear fell from her eyes out of love passion and anger and this drop created a big hole in the “Great Wall”. She turned around, walked a few steps and then she fell on the ground, dead. The place she died now stands a temple on her name and women come there and pray for long life of their husbands. And the hole is still there.

24 comments:

kosha said...

hey!!!!!

cool post....
liked both the stories :-)
keep writing more of them...they are really interesting :-)

Athena said...

cool ones yaar :)))))

second one is so touching :)) waise ye first one kahan padhi tumne?? :))

not to mention inspirational ones :)

Avinash singh said...

"If you didn’t it will be fault of my writing." .. poor literature,acc to me..

neway.. first story..very popular n a gud one..

2nd story.. who was the bastard who mocked.. and wat happened to the general.. n even though it was emotional.. it didnt feel like a story,i wanted more in it.. except her trying for 100 days and her death,nothing else happened.. i mean it was gud to know that the love n passion n anger simulated enough power in her one teardrop to make a hole in GW of china.. but wat abt justice?? shudnt the general be hanged by his balls for such cruel misdeeds..

Voice said...

@kosha

thnx ... :)

@athena

waise maine to j archer ke book me padha hai. J archer ne bhi ishe master piece mana hai. but it is an arbian folk tale.


@avinash
dunno abt this exact story but similar stories are popular.
yeah i know poor literature... :(

second story is longer ... just written a summary kind of thing. Justice and injustice sometime doesnot matter.

Samiran Ghosh said...

Humm... Good stories. The first one i have read somewhere. Second one is touching... great post.

Voice said...

thnx samiran

Arvind Iyer said...

refreshing.
hope you post more stories written by others in your blog :)
happy new year.

Anonymous said...

yups i will write more stories written by others.. in hope that someday i will b able to write my own.
thnx for commenting AI

Anonymous said...

Happy new year..
Great stories....
Sad endings....
and one message for the chinese...

....

....

Fire in the hole... :P

Voice said...

happy new year kritik.
thnx for commenting

Anonymous said...

bahut jyada hi short stories thi :P


saurabh
saurabhkumar4@rediffmail.com

Anonymous said...

the first story is a classic by W Sommerset Maugham "AN appointment in Samarra"
Probably ranked 2nd best short story ever.

Voice said...

@suru n soham
thnx for dropping by.

suru story was short becoz i know no one will b reading any longer story :P

soham i dunno abt the Maugham. i read the first story in J archer's book titled death speaks and he claimed that it is a folk tale.

sonik said...

Aapke blog ka huliya badla hua sa lag raha hai.Bahut achha hai.

I agree with you about folk tales.They're short,practical,inspirational & witty.

Both stories are nice.I had heard the 2nd one in TV on Discovery Channel.Ending nahin pata tha, thanx to you, wo bhi pata chal gaya.

Voice said...

thulika
thnx for commenting.. happy new year to u too


sonik
kya badal gaya :O.
maine bhi discovery me hi dekha tha.. but it is a folk tale.
ab tum bhi blog likho jaldi se :)

Raja said...

Nice post

the second story is a love-cliche

Voice said...

raja
:)

Mohan Kodali said...

nice stories :)

Samyak said...

hey.. both are nice stories !!
thnx for taking an effort to put thme here :)
Guess wht, I was thinking of having a grp blog to post all the folk/inpsirational stories we heard in our childhood from our grannies..

anyways.. keep posting :)
--
Thnx for not haivng image verf. irrespective of spams here. Commenting here is easy :)

Voice said...

@chandu
thnx

@siege
thnx...
Nice Idea.

curious said...

good ones!enjoyed it!

Deepshikha said...

How true! Destiny, does defy all logic and precautions and wit doesn't it?

Great tales... so u keep them in stock... thanks for sharing them...:)

btw I always find something interesting in ur blog! ur next post is ...?

Bini said...

I liked the 1st one.. as for the second one, there was hardly any romance in there. Its a tragic story.

Anonymous said...

Romance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdLoBGk39Sk) versus Love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-HnmVg0-O8)