An original epic poem inspired from the panchatantra story “The Foolish Sage”, written by our student Sashrika Prasad.

Sashrika is 13 years old, a young writer from Gurugram. The beautiful colors, flowers, and sunsets encourage her to write about deep emotions and feelings. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Sashrika for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Foolish Sage

Once there was a greedy and foolish sage,
Deva Sharma was well-known and respected,
People would offer him gifts,
But he would sell them off and get rich,
All the money stashed in a bag,
Always hung under his right arm,

He trusted nobody with his bag of money,
Which he soulfully protected,
So he never parted with it,
Otherwise, he would feel dejected,
One day, a swindler was sure that the bag held treasure,
Why else would he hold it under his arm with so much pleasure?

He thought about how he could steal the bag,
But obviously, he can’t make a hole in the wall,
Or jump over the high gates like a ping-pong ball,
So he decided to come up with a plan,
To lure the sage with his charming words,
To make himself the sage’s disciple,

The swindler fell at the sage’s feet,
Asked for the peace he wants to seek,
The swindler got accepted as a disciple,
Later to do so the sage initiated the rituals,
Swindler behaved well and showed obedience,

Even then he could not gain trust and confidence,
Swindler started cooking plans to grab the treasure,
Poison, Threat, Fear What should he do? Suddenly,
The Son of one of the sage’s followers paid a visit,
What he revealed, changed the swindler’s plans in a minute,
He invited the sage to the ceremony of sacred thread,

Sage accepted the invite and started the journey with the swindler,
On the way, the sage and the swindler came across a river,
The sage thought of having a bath in the river,
He is scared of getting himself revealed with the treasure,
He folded the money in his robe which the swindler later held,
The swindler got the opportunity he was seeking for a while,
And with the money bag, he ran away a few miles,

When the sage came out of the bushes,
You could see his anger, as it gushes,
The sage then started trailing the swindler’s footsteps,
He wept, swept, and left the riverside,
The sage is the perfect example to learn,
Greed makes a man blind and foolish.

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