Saturday 20 August 2011

Bhai Dooj's Story

by Chitragupt Pariwar (Hum Kayasth) on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 3:10pm



 In a village there was a girl. She had a younger brother whom she loved with all her heart. After marriage she went to far off village. Every year on the festival of Bhai dooj and Rakshabandhan she used to visit her parents' house. When the brother grew up his marriage was fixed. Before his marriage he went to his sister's house to meet her at her in laws house . Sister made laddoo and matthari for his return journey .  


After seeing off her brother she threw out the left over of laddoos' choora. This leftover was eaten by a dog who was standing there, within seconds the dog died. The girl was shocked to see this .What happened? On close observation it was revealed that while grinding the ladoo material by mistake snake skin lying there was also grounded.


She got scared for the well being of her brother and ran after him. After running for long she found her brother sleeping under a tree. She sat there and waited for her brother to wake up. Then she heard the voice of two talking birds (Chakwa and Chakwi).The female bird ( Chakwi) asked,- "Why is this girl so tense?" The male bird (Chakwa) replied- "The one who is sleeping is her brother. By mistake along with ladoo ingredients, snake skin was grounded thereby rendering ladoos poisonous. When the dog ate the left over of laddoos he died. That is why this poor girl came running to stop her brother from eating the laddoos."


Female bird ( Chakwi) asked-"Are the boy troubles over".
Male bird (Chakwa) said -Yes, for now but this boy has to face lot of problems.


On hearing this girl was scared, and with full attention started listening to their conversation.


On Chakwi's query the Chakwa replied that "next month this boy is getting married and then on every occasion and ceremony there will be a threat to his life. Anything could happen. "Then Chakwi's enquired "how it can be avoided?" He said -that the only solution is that all the marriage customs be performed first by somebody else and then by the boy, then his troubles will be over"


When the girl heard this she was frightened. She decided not to tell anyone as nobody would believe her. So she decided to behave like a crazy person and perform all the rituals herself first before her brother could do it. This way she undertook to shoot all his troubles .


When her brother woke up, he was surprised to see his sister sitting beside him. Sister asked him "have you eaten the laddoos?" Her brother replied, "That I don't know how the knot of the bag opened and all the laddoos fell down on the way and not even one was left for me. In her heart Sister thanked God and went home.


Next month was her brother's wedding. She came to her mother's house few days ahead of the wedding day and started interfering in all the preparations that were going on. Her parents and brother tried to convince her otherwise but she did not listen to them.


On the day of the marriage, when henna was to be put on her brother's palm then she insisted that henna be applied on her hands first. All the guests were a little surprised but they obliged. By mistake some glass and thorns were ground with henna. As soon as henna was applied on her hand she started bleeding. On seeing this freshly prepared henna paste was applied to her brother.


Like this when the 'Teeka Charai' was to be performed, she sat down for the ritual first. The moment coconut was picked a scorpion was found under it. Everybody got scared. The scorpion was killed and teeka was offered to the boy.


Similarly when the time came for performing rituals of tail charai and ubtan ceremony, the sister insisted that they be performed first on her first then on her brother .


When the time came for tying sehra on groom's forehead she was adamant that it be tied to her forehead first .Now everybody was convinced that she had gone crazy, yet they complied to her requests. The moment it was tied on her head a small snake fell out of the flowers. After killing the snake and checking thoroughly it was tied to the boy's forehead .


Even on the horse the sister sat first. At that time due to noise of firecrackers the horse got upset and went out of control. After the horse regained his cool then only the boy was allowed to mount him.


Even in her brother in laws house, she performed all the rituals first because in her heart she believed in what chakwa had said .Therefore she was adamant and kept on protecting her brother from evil.


At the time of departure from brides house she stood with her brother. When they reached back to their house a very old tree stem fell on the gate where they were standing. The girl was hurt but brother was saved. She took the lead in all the rituals in her house.


During night she even slept with her brother and his wife. On the very nights thieves entered their house and entered the same room .They hit them with sticks which all hit the sister and she got badly hurt .On hearing bride's shouts everybody woke up. Thieves ran away. Somehow rest of the night passed off peacefully .


Then next day after taking her bath and getting dressed up nicely she blessed her brother and his wife. She told everybody about the conversation she had heard between Chakwa and Chakwi. She told them that now there is nothing to worry about and said that all rituals have been performed nicely. Now the danger is over. You can live in peace. I will also leave for my home. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief and showered praises on the girl


Since then every year her brother along with his wife used to go to her house. This tradition is still going on to show the love among brothers and sisters.

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