Short summary of a bottle of dew
Answers
Answer:
Sudha Murty
Ramanatha has been neglecting all his responsibilities in search of a magic potion that turns everything to gold, much to the chagrin of Madhumati, his wife. So when he meets the famous sage, Mahipati, who claims to know the secret to the potion, Ramanatha cannot believe his luck.
Explanation:
- have a nice day
This is a tale from South India.
Ramakrishna was the son of a rich landlord. His father left him a large tract of land when he died. But RamKrishnan did not spend even one day looking after his land. This was because he had a funny idea – that there exists a magic potion which, if touched to any object, turns it into gold.
He spent all his time trying to learn more about this potion. People cheated him often, promising to tell him about it, but he did not give up. His wife Madhumati was tired of this and also worried because she saw how much money Ramakrishna was spending. She was sure that son they would be left paupers.
One day, a famous sage called Mahipati came to their town. Ramakrishna became his follower and asked him about the potion. To his surprise, the sage answered, ‘Yes, in my travels in the Himalayas, I heard how you could make such a potion. But it is difficult process.
‘Tell me!’ insisted Ramakrishna, not believing his luck.
‘You have to plant a banana tree and water it regularly with your own hands. In winter, the morning dew will settle on its leaves. You have to collect five litres of dew, and bring it to me. I will chant a secret mantra, which will turn it into the magic potion. A drop of this potion transform any object into gold.’
Ramakrishna was worried. ‘But winter is only for a few months. It will take me years to collect five litres of dew.’
‘You can plant as many trees as you want. But remember, you must look after them yourself and collect the dew with your own hands’
Ramakrishna went home and, after talking to his wife, started clearing his large fields which had been lying empty all these years. There he planted rows and rows of banana trees. He tended them carefully and during the winter months collected the dew that formed on them with great care. His wife helped him too. Madhumati gathered the banana crop, took it to the market and got a good price for it. Over the years Ramakrishna planted more and more trees, and they had a banana plantation. And the end of six years, he finally had his five litres of dew.
Carefully, he took the bottle to the sage. The sage smiled and muttered a mantra over the water. Then he returned the bottle and said, ‘Try it out.’ Ramakrishna sprinkled a few drops on a copper vessel and waited for it to turn to gold. To his disappointment, nothing happened!
‘This is cheating,’ he told the sage. ‘I have wasted six precious years of my life.’
But sage Mahipati only smiled and called Madhumati to come forward. She came with a big box. When she opened it, inside were piles and piles of gold coins!
now the sage turned to shocked and surprised Ramakrishna and said, ‘There is no such magic potion that can turn things into gold. You worked hard on your land and created this plantation. While you looked after these trees, your wife sold the fruits in the market. That’s how you got this money. It was your hard work that created this wealth, not magic. If I had told you about this earlier you would have not listened to me, so I played a trick on you.’
Ramakrishna understood the wisdom behind these words and worked even harder on his plantation from that day on.