Niharika Sharma
In a small village where people depended on sugarcane farming and breeded cattles, there lived Kishan and his small family .
Kishan, his wife and two daughters lived in a small home. Kishan worked hard everyday in his field to grow good quality sugarcane which he would seasonally cut and sell to sugar factories.
Though the family barely earned enough to live a comfortable life, they were god loving, honest people who wished best for everyone. Every morning the family would wake up early and start their day with morning prayers. Kishan would milk the cows and go for door-to-door deliveries, while Reema would continue with household chores.
The family would end their day early since their village had no electricity after 7 pm.
One late night when everyone was fast asleep, Kishan heard noises and woke up.
Curious to know where the noises were coming from, Kishan got up and softly came close to the window.
“That’s unusual! Who is working in the fields at this late hour? Maybe I should go and help out if it’s so important.” thought Kishan
Kishan quickly got out and headed for the field. As he got closer, he realised the noises were different, as if there were many people. He got a little worried.
He hid himself by the edge of the farm and tried taking a peek. He couldn't believe his eyes!
“Is that an elephant? Why is an elephant here?” - he looked puzzled. He had never seen an elephant in his life, only read in books.
It was a magnificent elephant. The elephant was using his powerful trunk to pick ripe sugarcane and was enjoying eating them.
Kishan was mesmerised and wanted to get closer and so he quietly started taking steps closer to the elephant. The elephant soon realised his presence and started to leave. The elephant took two giant steps and then spread out his big wings and flew away towards the starry night!
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Next morning when Kishan woke up he was still confused and unsure of what he saw. Kishan told his wife about the flying elephant he saw eating sugarcane last night, she laughed it off saying he must be dreaming.
“Was I really dreaming?” he went with his usual day thinking about the flying elephant. As the night approached he started getting anxious and curious.
He decided to wait in the field and see if the elephant would come.
Three hours went by and there was no sign of the elephant and Kishan was half asleep, yawning. And then suddenly there was heavy flapping in the air and “thump” with that sound the elephant landed. Unaware of Kishan’s presence the elephant started enjoying his delicious sugarcanes and once he was full, he flew away.
Now Kishan was sure that he was not dreaming and that he really witnessed a flying elephant! His curiosity was now greater than ever! He wanted to know more, know where this elephant lived. He thought the best idea would be to wait for the elephant to come the next night and try flying away with him.
With that in mind Kishan sat hidden in the farm again the next night and as expected the elephant came and started eating. Kishan realised when the elephant was almost done, as he spread his wings to fly, Kishan grabbed the elephant’s tail tightly and flew away with him.
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Kishan was scared as the elephant got higher, they were now between the clouds and he couldn’t see any land.
The elephant landed before a beautiful big gold covered palace.
He quickly let go of the tail and cautiously started walking towards the door. The door opened and there was God, aware of a man’s presence, he called him “You don’t have to hide, come out my child.”
Nervously Kishan walked towards him.
“I realise you came here along with my elephant. Now since you are here tell me what do you want? I shall fulfill your wish” said God.
Kishan being a simple man, he had no greed and always relied on his hard work.
“Thank you, but I wish for nothing. I only came along with the elephant out of curiosity” answered Kishan.
Happy with the man’s goodwill and honest heart God gave him a bowl of rasgulla!
“Here my child, you should enjoy these sweets with your family.”
Kishan happily accepted and was sent home.
He and his family had not had such tasty sweets ever in their life. What was weird is that these rasgullas had a solid core. Unable to see what it was, they threw away the core and ate the rest of the sweets.
Next morning there was chaos outside Kishan’s home. When he came out, he saw gold ginnis near his door. These were the cores he threw away last night after eating the rasgullas!
The villagers enquired where all this gold came from, Kishan explained his encounter with the flying elephant and that God himself gave him these. Now everyone wanted to meet God!
The villagers decided to wait for the elephant to come at night and fly to meet God. Everyone started thinking of all the things they wanted, some wanted huge houses, some wished for lots of money and many more things.
God realised what all these people wanted and could see their greedy hearts. He forbade the elephant to ever visit those farms again.
No farmer ever came across any flying elephant despite waiting every night for many weeks.