Scamper
“Uncle, my plane doesn’t fly. Tell me, how do you fly your plane?” Rahul asked Pilot Sudarshan, showing his paper plane.
“Lot of power is needed to offtake. Real planes have powerful engines.”
“Uncle, why do that need this high energy?”
“For any object to fly, the two main obstacles are gravity and inertia.”
“What does they mean?”
“Gravity refers to its weight. An object cannot fly due to its weight.”
“And Inertia?”
“According to Newton’s principle, an object tries to maintain its state unless an external force acts upon it.”
“I have understood it uncle. That is why you need the such a tremendous power to offtake.”
“One more thing. When you try to offtake, everything will try to obstruct you even the thin air.”
“Then, what do you need to do?”
“Increase your speed. The same air will then start helping you to take off.”
“Oh, will everything then help us to fly?”
“No. You will find some obstacles like birds, animals and clouds. You should avoid those things. It would be disastrous if a plane crashed against any of those.”
“Uncle, you are an expert. Can’t we avoid these obstacles?”
“You have to fly very high to avoid these obstacles. All of those things will be left behind and you can fly at a great speed.”
“You must be having lots of fun.”
“Yes, but remember that you cannot fly high forever. The destination is always on the ground.”
Hearing the conversation between uncle and the nephew, Rahul’s mom said “What has happened Sudarshan? You have become a philosopher!”
“Mom, who is a philosopher?”
“Someone who shows us the right way in life.”
“What is this right way in life?”
“Oh my god! Sudarshan, you please handle your beloved nephew yourself!”
Treasure
Muralidhar was not married and now he was old. His younger brother’s family gave him food, two times a day. There was a rumour in the village that Muralidhar had stored his entire savings in a pot buried in the mud floor of his house. People’s speculation varied from a thousand to a five thousand silver coins. Muralidhar’s three nephews always spent time with their uncle. Even if one of them had to go somewhere, they would leave someone in their family with the uncle so that the other two brothers do not turn him towards them.
The three of them always tried to outdo the others when it came to taking care of their uncle. They knew that these were the last days in their uncle’s life and he could give the treasure to anyone. One would get milk with saffron while the other would get hot Jilebi in the morning. Another would get him new clothes.
Everyone came to know that the pot was buried in the mud floor. The bulge could be seen from outside. Uncle always had the pot in his sight wherever he sat in the house. He always locked the door when he had to go out.
Uncle passed away one day even as he was getting good care from his three nephews. Even at the funeral, the three of them kept thinking of the treasure. As soon as they came home, they dug up the floor and took out the pot. When they removed the boulder on top of the pot, they found stones inside the pot. There was a white paper on which was written “Dear nephews! You took good care of me! I didn’t have anything but I spent my old age in comfort using my clever thinking. Please take care of my brother. He is a straightforward person!”
