When Tenali Raman was a child, he always seemed to be at death’s door. His neighbour was a widow, bent with age. Whenever she caught sight of the girl she would shake her head sadly and say: “Oh God, why do you torment that poor child? If you want a life, take mine!”One evening a […]
Three fishes lived together in a lake. The first fish was very lazy. The second was a little wise and tended to make some good decisions. The third one was an intelligent fish. It usually thought a lot and made decisions wisely. One day, the third fish heard two fishermen talk about fishing in their
Chapter-4 July had come, and haying begun; the little gardens were doing finely and the long summer days were full of pleasant hours. The house stood open from morning till night, and the lads lived out of doors, except at school time. The lessons were short, and there were many holidays, for the Bhaers believed
Tenali’s neighbour Gopal was always trying to get the better of him. One day, Gopal saw a mango growing on his tree. He knocked it down, wrapped it in a cloth and waited for Tenali to come by. When he did, he called out to him. “I have a riddle for you,” he said, “Can
Once upon a time, there was a baby lizard, who lived in between the rocks in a jungle with his family. The baby lizard loved to lie down under the sun for hours. One day, when the baby lizard was relaxing under the sun, he noticed that he had lost his tail! He started crying.
Once, Tenali went to a vaidya with multiple complaints.“I see spots before my eyes,” Raman said. “It’s due to too much stress,” the vaidya said. “No food suits me,” said Tenali. “That too is due to too much stress,” said the vaidya. “My back is giving trouble,” persisted Raman, “Sometimes the pain becomes unbearable.” “Too
Once, for a national festival the king asked everyone to sell coloured sweets that would look attractive and good to eat. Hearing this every sweetshop got busy in the process. One day when the king asked about Tenali, he was nowhere to be found. It took some days for the guards to find him and
Once there was a bat who lived in a jungle. One day, a big fight was about to take place between the birds and the beasts of the jungle. The bat was not willing to join any of the groups. When the birds asked him to join them, he said, “I cannot join you because
Once, a priest came to the court and challenged the ministers present to prove that everything was maya, an illusion. While the Rajguru said it was written in the Shastras and they were always correct, he could not prove it. Then, Tenali got up and said that while the Himalayas are at the northern tip,
Once, during a discussion with the king Tenali said that given a chance anyone would lie to which the king said he never lied. Tenali asked to prove it in a year’s time with 1,000 gold coins. During that year Tenali went away and built a palatial house and placed a big mirror on one
Once the chief of army had a son and so he invited everybody to bless the son. When the king said he should grow to be a warrior like his father Tenali said he would be far greater. One of the jealous courtiers then said how he could say that by merely looking at the
Once, the king gave the prime minister a lot of money to build wells around the kingdom. After some time, the king went to inspect and was satisfied with the work the minister showed him. One day, some people came to Tenali to complain about the minister as he had used the money for his
Once, there was a deer who lived with his family. But he was not happy living with them. One day, he decided to move to another place where he could be away from his family and feel happy. And he left his home. After a long walk, the deer met a goat on the way.
Once, the king imported some horses from Persia and gave them to his cavalry men to train along with enough money for their upkeep. Tenali also asked the king for one horse and was granted. He created a barn that was closed on all sides and made a little hole from which he passed hay
Once, a spy from other kingdom with an intention to kill the king came to Tenali’s house and asked to stay saying he was Tenali’s far relative. While Tenali couldn’t recognize him, he let the stranger stay at his place. One day, Tenali had to go out of town for a few days, so the