An original story, written by our student Pratyush Mohile.

Pratyush is 10 years old, a young orator from Mumbai. We are proud to have him as a student of the Little Kathakar Program, an Online Public Speaking through Applied Storytelling & Theatre Program under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Pratyush for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Animals And The Woodcutters

The forest in the ghats was enchanting. Not a crack of light could enter through the dark dense cover. The branches of trees kissed each other, squirrels squeaked, and the leaves made a rustling sound. As the wind whirled around trunks the leaves produced a crackling sound. The birds on the branch – mostly sparrows, chirped endlessly and insects hummed in the night. Animals moaned in the night the rough tree bark had a big hole in which one owl lived and announced that it was night. The dried crumbled falling leaves covered the entire forest. The rotten fruits were falling on the uneven ground and were being ignored by the birds. Shaggy roots underfoot the soil was happy when mild rain came. The rain made the forest floor very slippery; spiders had made their homes on the dead. The wildflowers were extremely poisonous not even a single butterfly would not suck its nectar. The forest floor had an earthy smell.

But near the wildflowers, there was a pair of hummingbirds, new to the forest. They escaped their earlier place as fireworks destroyed it. One day a parakeet was roaming in the forest. She said, “What exquisite weather is this suddenly?”. The parakeet went closer to the hummingbirds and asked “What are you doing here? I
have never seen you before”.

The hummingbirds said, “We just came here last week, we don’t know anything about this forest”.

Suddenly one huge roar came from the west side. The parakeet said, “The lion is calling all of us for a meeting. We must hurry up, otherwise, the lion will eat us. He wants us to reach on time.”

When the birds reached there the lion said, “A few humans have planned to cut our trees, we should stop them from doing so”.

Immediately, a squeaky voice came from the inner crows of animals, it was a mouse that was saying ‘‘Who told this to you?”

The lion roared ‘‘I overheard that from the woodcutters”. The parakeet asked, “Oh no!  What should we do?”

The male hummingbird suggested, “We should leave this forest so simply”.

The parakeet said, “No, we should not do this, this forest now is our home, you don’t know even if you search the whole of India you won’t find a place like this, you can get everything, food, water, a place to make nests. This forest hardly has predators but even if you choose to leave this forest it’s your wish”.

“No, now I agree that we should save this forest. I didn’t pay attention to the resourcefulness of the forest. I am sorry”, replied the male hummingbird.

The next day when the woodcutters were approaching the forest, the lion roared, and the parakeet shifted its nest near the hummingbird’s nest, they heard the lion roar and all the animals again gathered near the lion’s cave, and they made a plan.

When the woodcutters approached the forest, the birds welcomed them by scratching their foreheads. The cat and dog family roared and barked on them, they got shocked tripped upon a porcupine, and screamed and landed on a hedgehog. The mice family almost tore their all clothes. After, some time the woodcutters got petrified and left the forest. They never returned. When the whole world got to know about it nobody dared to come to that forest. The animals, the parakeet, the hummingbirds, and the mighty lion enjoyed their life and lived happily ever after…..

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