Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

              Once there was a wood cutter. His name was Ali Baba. He lived in Arabia. One day he went to cut wood in a dense forest. It was at the foot of a mountain. Suddenly he heard a fearful sound. He saw some men on horseback approaching. He had himself behind a tree and watched them. They were the forty thieves. They stopped near a cave. It was closed with a stone door. One of them said, “Open Sesame”. Immediately the door opened. All the thieves went in. After sometime they came out. One of them told, “Close Sesame”. The door immediately closed. Then the robbers rode away. Ali Baba wanted to see what there was in the cave. He came near the cave and said, “Open Sesame”. The door opened and Ali Baba went in. He was surprised to see gold and jewels lying heaped there. He took as much as he could. He came out and closed the door saying, “Close Sesame”. Ali Baba then became very reach.

The Honest Wood Cutter

            Once a poor wood-cutter was cutting down a tree by the side of the river. Accidentally his axe slipped in to the water. Losing his axe, the poor man sat down and wept. A God heard him cry and came out of the water to help him. He heard the poor man’s story, dived in to the stream and soon came out holding in his hand a golden axe. “Is this the axe you lost” He asked. “No, my axe was not so beautiful as this,” replied the poor wood cutter. The God dived into the river again and brought up a silver axe. The poor man would not take this either and said that it was not his. So the God went in to the river for the third time and brought up the iron axe the man had lost. This the man received with great joy. The God was pleased that the wood cutter was honest. He gave him the silver and gold axe as a reward in addition to the one made of iron.

The moral of the story is "Honesty is always rewarded".

The Honest Candidate

         A Sultan wanted to find an honest man who would look after the revenue (income) of his kingdom. An experienced and wise friend of Sultan advised him to announce publicly his intention and then to invite all the applicants to his palace.

“I shall show you the honest person among them when you will ask all of them to dance.” The wise man said.

The candidates for the post arrived. They were invited to meet the Sultan at his palace once after another through a corridor dark and solitary. As soon as they gathered in front of his throne, the Sultan declared, “Gentleman, I want all of you to dance joyously.”

But all of them refused, became red in face in embarrassment, except one who danced well and with much gaiety. The wise philosopher declared, “Here is the honest man.”

As the wise counselor of the Sultan had arranged bags full of gold along the dark and lonely corridor, all the dishonest candidates had filled their pockets with gold before appearing before the Sultan, If they had danced the gold in their pockets would have jingled and that is why they had refused to dance.

The moral of the story is ‘honesty has nothing to fear’.

The Fox and the Grapes

One hot day a fox was passing along by a vineyard. Ripe grapes hung in the vines. The fox was very hungry and thirsty. The sight of ripe grapes was a joy to him. He wanted to get some of the grapes. But they were beyond his reach. He jumped again and again but he failed. He could not reach the grapes in any way. He was very sorry at this.
The fox said to himself, “The grapes are sour. I don’t want to have the grapes.”

Never follow the Blind

        Once there was a snake that had two heads at its ends. One of the head had eyes while the other head had no eyes.

The snake followed the head that had eyes. The blind head also wished that the snake also follow it. But the snake did not agree to do so. This made the blind head angry.

Once the snake was passing by a tree. The blind head coiled round the trunk of the tree. So the snake could not proceed any further. At last, finding no other alternative the snake agreed to follow the blind head.

Now the blind head began to lead the snake. On the way there was a very deep pit. But the blind head could not see it. So the snake fell into it and died.

The moral of the story is “always see where you are wrong”.

The Wolf and The Lamb

          There was a wolf in a jungle. He was very wicked and cruel. He killed smaller animals for nothing. One day he was very hungry and moved about in the forest for a prey but found none. They made him thirsty. He went to a stream to drink water.
To his great joy, he found a lamb drinking water. He wanted to kill the lamb and eat her up. He went to the lamb and said, “Why do you muddle my water?”
The lamb said “What do you say Sir? The water runs from you to me. How can I muddle your water?”
The wolf angrily said, “Do you argue with me? You scolded me a year ago.”
The lamb said, “fine indeed. I was not born a year ago.” The wolf said, “Then it was your father who scolded me. I will not let you go.”
Saying this, the wolf fell upon the poor lamb and ate her up.
The moral of the story is “a bad fellow has always an excuse for its misdeed”.

ARSENIC POLLUTION: ITS SOLUTION

               Arsenic is a grayish-white element which forms a poisonous compound when heated some areas in the world including West-Bengal, Bangladesh, Hungary, New Zealand and Thailand have heavy concentration of this element which when remaining under deep water is relatively harmless. But if it comes into direct contact of sun it volatalises and forms the noxious compound. This compound taken unknowingly with water causes serious skin diseases including cancer. The layer of iron sulphide abounds in arsenic when sunk in water it is not harmful. But when the water layer goes down and the iron sulphide layer comes into contact with oxygen it becomes highly damaging. Arsenic is also found in factory affluents, garbage and insecticides used in agriculture- all of which pollutes the air and water if proper precautions is not taken. Arsenic infection is initially difficult to detect. Patients suffer from cough and feel weakness. In advanced stages arsenic infection leads to cavatolene gangrene and skin cancer. Fatal result of arsenic poisoning have also been reported. Towards the eighties of the last century only a few cases of arsenic poisoning was reported in west Bengal. But by 2005 the number of arsenic infection has gone up to a million or more. It is not east to surver all areas which are potentially arsenic prone. The only safeguard against the danger is to drink pond and canal water after purification instead of water from wells. It is the duty of local bodies like the panchayats to determine with the health Dept. to conduct a survey of the regions and make the people conscious of the dangers of arsenic poisoning and its remedies.