How the tortoise got its shell!!!

We had to choose an animal and write a story about the how they got one of their physical attributes.

I chose Tortoise (which apparently is different from a "turtle" in certain characteristics).. and wrote a story about how it got its shell!!!

I enjoyed researching about tortoises and all the mythologies attached to it. I have a new found appreciation for them and they are like MY favourite animal..

So here it goes..

In the beginning, on an island named Galápagos Island, which means “the Land of the tortoises”, there lived a giant tortoise name Akupara. In those days, tortoises didn’t have a shell and they could move around quickly with ease.

However, Akupara, was a very, very, very, lazy tortoise. He was also considered a very wise Tortoise. Whenever any animal was having a dispute on the island, they would approach Akupara for a solution. The advice given by Akupara would be apt for the situation and all the creatures would walk away be satisfied.

But there was one problem. Inspite of all his knowledge, Akupara was not keen to help any of the animals.

For e.g.: One day when Akupara was having a nice warm bath, the mouse came running to him. The mouse squeaked and said “Hey Akupara, the lion, who once had let me go, got entangled in a net of a hunter. I don’t know how to save him and even if I do, he might eat me. Akupara annoyingly replied, “Why don’t you just bite the net and run away?” The mouse thought that was a good idea, did what Akupara suggested and became famous for its bravery.

On another occasion, Akupara was having a nice breakfast of green leafy vegetables. When a fox came running and said “Akupara, For a long time, I have been trying to jump and reach a bunch of grapes and how much I try to jump, I am not able to reach them." Akupara who didn’t like to be disturbed, got irritated and replied “Well, foxy, maybe, the grapes could have been sour”. The fox kept quiet, thought for a moment, smiled and said, “Yes, the grapes were sour” and happily walked away in satisfaction announcing the same to every creature on the island.

Now Akupara, felt that all the animals were taking it for granted. While all the animals were used to asking Akupara for help, it would try to avoid them all. One day Akupara got fed up. And thought, enough, is enough. Just because I’m smart doesn’t give all the animals the right to make use of my intelligence whenever they want. So, in a fury of rage, Akupara wanted to go somewhere, where no creatures would bother it.

It looked around on the island and didn’t know where it could hide since the island was filled with animals everywhere. Then it turned to the ocean, and decided to go into the ocean. It dived into the bright blue ocean. It swam deep and deep, until it reached the bottom of the ocean. By then, Akupara was tired and it lied on the mud floor of the ocean and in a few minutes, it dozed off. It slept for days and nights together inside the ocean.

Then suddenly, one day, Akupara felt the sun rays glaring on its face. It slowly opened its eyes and noticed that it was floating in the middle of the vast blue ocean. It also felt something different under its body. It had to reach the island. So floating away, Akupara finally managed to land on the Galapagos Island. It started to walk and shrug off whatever the heavy thing was on its back. How much ever Akupara shrugged, the thing would not budge.

Apparently, when Akupara was lying lazily on the bottom of the ocean, the mud and the water had mixed and formed a layer on its back. When Akupara was floating the layer it hardened more and took the form of a huge domed shaped shell.

Akupara tried to topple upside down and break the shell, but the shell got cracks all over it and nothing else happened. It had completely fused into Akupara's back. Akupara not only got stuck with the shell on its back, it also had to be very patient since it could not move around asquickly as it used to. It could make only slow movements because of the weight of its new shell.

Akupara noticed that all the animals coming towards it and thought that they were angry with it for having avoided them so long, but to its surprise, all the animals were very concerned about it and were sorry that they disturbed it all the time.

Akupara learned a valuable lesson on that day, that having intelligence wasn’t enough, if it couldn’t use it was effectively, for helping itself and other creatures.

Since then, Akupara would always listen calmly to all the animals and give valuable advice with the huge shell on its back.

How the frown became laughter!!!

During the storytelling workshop, Group Story had to be made with the words,

• Pencil
• Cow and;
• Laughter

This is what I came up with.
Pencil, Cow and a Frown

Long ago, so long ago, actually some years back, there was a special school named Jungleeeee. Most of the creatures used to go to Junglee school in order to learn and improve their life and survival skills. The principal of Junglee was a white old cow called MOOoooo. Everyone liked to attend MOO’s classes because she used to teach with lots of interesting stories. This helped all the animals to remember concepts as well as enjoy learning at the Jungleeeee school.

Now, since MOO was very old, she could not read aloud and teach. She had a large white board and a special thin and black pencil named PICHKU. Pichku used to write down everything old MOO softly said to him, on the large board. And then, all the animals used to read from the board and learn everything by themselves.

Everyone was happy until came along a big huge FROWN. Now, Frown was very different from all other creatures. It neither mingled with other animals nor spoke to them. And whenever any animal spoke to Frown, Frown would Frown. This made the other animals feel reluctant to not talk to Frown again. Frown was not attentive in class either. It would not study most of what was taught in the Junglee school. So Frown, would always be scolded by Moo, the cow. This would make Frown, frown more.

Pichku, the pencil, used to watch this and felt sad for Frown. However, he did know why FROWN couldn’t cope in the class and why it was always lonely. One day, Picku decided to talk to Frown and find out the reason.

Pichku thought it would be better to tell a joke to break the ice with Frown.

So Picku looked at Frown and said, "Did you hear the joke about the pencil?"
Frown turned and looked at Pichku and of course, frowned. But then it was curious, so Frown said "No, what’s the joke."Pichku replied "Well, It's pointless.”

Frown got the joke and turned into a smile.
When Pichku noticed that Frown smiled, it got excited.

So then Pichku asked
Now tell me, What do you call a grumpy old cow?
Frown thought for a while, then gave up and frowned and asked “What’s the answer?”
Pichku replied “Moo-dy” (MOOoooo-dy)

Frown turned into a big wide smile.

Pichku now thought, since Frown is smiling it was a good time to ask him.
So Pichku took the courage and asked Frown, “Hey Frown, why don’t you read and study in Moo Cow’s class?”

Frown ‘bent’ its smile and frowned.
It hesitated for a minute and then replied “Well, Pichku, I don’t study because. Because.. I, I am not able to read what you write on the large board. I can’t read, and since I can’t read, I can’t study them”

Picku listened and was silent. It felt said for Frown and didn’t know how to help it.

Pichku went back to Junglee school and thought it would tell Moo about this episode and get some help.

However, Moo, the cow, didn’t feel sad for Frown, and instead she was angry.
She said, “If Frown doesn’t know to read, maybe he should leave Junglee school and go to some other school to learn where they teach creatures with such problems. We don’t keep such weak creatures in Junglee school.”

Pichku felt very bad and didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, it thought of something and suggested that to Moo. Moo at first, didn’t agree. But after continuous persistence by Pichku, Moo agreed.

So in the next day, at Junglee school, when all the creature gathered to learn, Pichku went and took his position near the board and looked at Frown, who sat in a corner, frowning.

As the class started, Moo, her usual self, softly spoke to Pichku.

Pichku wrote whatever Moo told it and to everyone’s surprise, started reading aloud everything it wrote.

Suddenly, Frown became attentive and began listening in the class. As it kept listening, Frown began to understand what was being taught in the class since Pichku explained everything. Frown slowly started to change into a smile.

Smile listened attentively and began to study properly since it understood everything what was being taught. Smile even started doing better than other creatures in the life and survival skills at Jungleeeee.

As time went by, with more confidence in itself, smile turned into laughter.

Laughter would go around telling the jokes and make Pichku write them on the board to delight all the other creatures and even old Moo enjoyed being with laughter.

Now that’s the story of the Pencil, Cow and Frown who became laughter.

So, whenever you see a cow chewing its mouth, remember that it could actually be softly speaking to a pencil, to turn the frown into laughter.

Once upon a time...

I successfully managed to complete a workshop with Kathalaya in "The first steps of Story-Telling".

The workshop was a worthwhile journey and gave me the confidence in my ability to weave facts along with stories and present them in a interesting manner.

I also became aware of my weakness as a listener and that i hadnt made the best use of my imagination to the extent that i should have.

Now, i would like to move "forward" and maybe "backward" to read all the folktales and fables i had loved reading in my childhood.

So all i can say, now is...