The Lost Butterfly

“Tell us a story” was the demand. I couldn’t help but feel a bit blackmailed. The plates were set and dinner was served; “eat” I said still deluded that I was in command. “Story First” came the reply, their crossed arms stood testament to their resolve. “Alright” I conceded grudgingly, as I plotted my revenge against the 5 and the 3 year old.
“What Story do you want”? “hmmm, new English story “The Lost Butterfly”.
The migration of Monarch butterflies was still fresh in their minds.
“English”? Of course this conversation was happening in Kannada, almost all of the conversations and stories do. “Engleeeesh” came back in unision! it was a coup. I had to get them for this.
“OK! here goes”

Once upon a time a poor man lived in a village right next to a dense forrest. In the forrest there was a mountain. On the very top of the mountain was a small temple of Shiva. The man walked into the forest everyday, climbed up the mountain and worshiped Shiva in the temple. There was only one small path in and out of the forest to the temple. Every day he would go into the forest and do his duties as the priest. One day when he was in the temple a huge storm descended on the forest, it rained and rained heavily the whole day. The rain wiped out the path. There was mud and fallen trees every where. The man saw the rain stop and started walking home. He walked and walked for miles but couldnt find his way home. The narrow path home was gone. He was lost. Meanwhile the good people at the village saw his worried wife waiting outside his house and asked her “where is the priest”? “He hasn’t come back home, he must be lost in the forest and it will be dark soon” She replied. The villagers started searching for him at the edge of the forest, but they could not get into it without the path. The priest, now lost of all hopes, sat down, closed his eyes and prayed to Shiva to save him, to take him back to his house. Shiva heard. Shiva’s invisible hands lifted the man in the air and took him through akasha-marga/sky route to the village. The villagers were all outside looking for the priest, they looked at him coming down to his house and exclaimed “Look, look at the Lost Bhatru Fly”.

Appendix: I got my revenge, kids got a huge laugh out of it, this story is still a favourite repeat request. I learnt how much kids, even 3 year olds enjoy puns and word play. For those who do not know Indian languages Bhatru or ಭಟ್ರು means priest, I am putting this in the middle of this paragraph to hide the spoiler. When searching for Shiva+butterfly I found the below picture from Ramesstudios on instagram. It captures the cute irritation of the kids being trolled waiting for the butterfly show up in the story, followed by unbounded laughters at the realisation of being hoodwinked and of course Shiva . thanks!

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