Selfish Giant

Long ago, there was an exquisite garden which not only had lively trees, but also had a collection of flowers that gave out a wonderful fragrance. The birds that used to regularly visit the garden sang the most melodious songs. It was truly a lovely garden.

There were some children who regularly played in this beautiful garden. It was their play area, where they used to spend some lovely afternoons after school and the even more time during holidays. The birds that lived in this magnificent garden, used to sing melodious tunes, which even made the kids stop their games and listen to them.

However, there was a truth that no one knew, not until the day when a giant, returned one day. The garden, in fact, belonged to the giant who had gone away for a long time, and no one knew about him. At times the little ones used to talk among themselves, wishing that the owner never returned.

One day, the kid's fears came true as the owner of the garden returned.

The owner, a big fat giant, came back stamping his feet with a loud thud. The children playing in the garden felt themselves being lifted from the ground and back as the sound got stronger.

When the giant saw kids playing in his garden, he became very angry and then built a huge wall all around it and put a notice board, which said that any trespasser will be punished.

The selfish giant had closed the door on the kids. They would come back from school, and would talk about the garden. The children were sad and wished that the giant had never returned.

Then spring came, beautiful flowers bloomed everywhere. An array of colors was spread all over the country, but what was the garden like, no one could see.

The reality was that spring did not visit the garden this time. It was still winter in the selfish giants' garden. The trees had forgotten to blossom and the birds were in no mood to sing. Even the little flowers were so annoyed with the sign to ban children from coming in, that they slipped back into the ground, as they were as sad as they could be.

The only ones who were happy were snow and frost. Having the whole space to them, both were happy to be up in spring. They thought that spring had overlooked this garden, and considered themselves as the undisputed master of the now "frozen" garden.

The snow had painted everything white and the frost had turned all the trees silver. Both rulers of this white world now invited the north wind, who came roaring in furs and moaned over the garden day in and day out. He roared so much that he blew all the chimney- pots down. And, if this was not enough, one day the north wind had an idea. Since we are having so much fun here, is it not a good idea that we invite hail.

Then came Hail, dressed in grey with icy cold breadth. Every day for hours, it rattled on the roof on the roof of the castle, until most of the slates on the roof were broken. He ran and ran, around the garden like the fastest roller coaster ride, casting havoc on the once beautiful garden.

One day the giant heard lovely music while lying on his bed. He thought that it must be some of the king's musicians, who were passing by the garden.

However, as the giant went towards the window, he saw a bird singing. He thought that spring had finally arrived and even a little bird's song, felt like the most melodious music in the world to him.

The north wind stopped dancing, the hail stopped roaring, and a deliciously sweet perfume came to him through the open window.

The giant jumped out of his bed and looked out of the window, but what did he see?

He saw the most beautiful sight; a few children had come in through a small hole in the gardens wall.

The children were on every tree, the trees were happy that they covered themselves with flowers.

The grass was happy and so were the flowers, each one of them was waiting for the kids to come back and here they were laughing with glee at the sight of innocent children playing around the garden. The birds tweeted, as they had never done before.

However, in a corner of the garden, there was a little boy, who could not reach the branches of a tree.

The tree was still covered in snow and frost and hail was still roaring around it. The tree bent its branches to help the boy climb up, but to no avail. The child was too tiny to do so himself.

The giant felt guilty about his selfish behavior, and was very sorry for what he had done. I should have let the children play in my garden, he thought to himself. The giant was indeed very sorry and he decided to help the small boy.

He then proclaimed, "From now on the garden will be the children's playground forever and ever, and I will knock down the walls of my garden, and I'll do that for sure."

The giant slowly went down stairs, softly opened the door, and slowly went into the garden.

All the children ran away except for the one who was crying, he could not see the garden because of his tears. The giant picked the boy up and placed him on a branch of the tree. The flowers and birds came back and so did the other children, when they saw the giant being kind to the boy. The boy hugged the giant and kissed him.

From that day on, the giant played with all the children every day, until he grew old and week, that was when he confined himself in his room and used to watch the children play.

The boy, who had kissed him, the giants' first friend, never came back and he longed for him to come. He used to ask the other children about him, but they had the faintest clue as to who he was and where he lived.

One winter morning, the giant was getting ready, he saw the most wonderful sight from the window, the boy was standing in the farthest corner of the garden, the same boy the giant loved the most. The tree above the boy had blossoms on it and silver fruits hung from the tree.

The giant ran towards the boy and hugged him, he saw blood in his palms, the giant was angry because the boy was hurt. The giant asked the boy to name the person who hurt him and that he shall punish him.

The boy calmed him down and asked him not to worry, as they were wounds of love. An unusual calmness came on the giants' face.

The little boy then took his hand and told the giant he was taking him to the garden of paradise.

Later, that afternoon, when the children came to play in the garden, they saw the giant lying on the ground with a calm smile on his face. On closer inspection, they realized that he was dead, his body covered with white flowers.

The Poor Man's Wealth

Ramchand and Premchand were neighbours. Ramchand was a poor farmer. Premchand was a landlord.
Ramchand used to be very relaxed and happy. He never bothered to close the doors and windows of his house at night. He had deep sound sleeps. Although he had no money he was peaceful.

Premchand used to be very tense always. He was very keen to close the doors and windows of his house at night. He could not sleep well. He was always bothered that someone might break open his safes and steal away his money. He envied the peaceful Ramchand.

One day, Premchand call Ramchand and gave him a boxful of cash saying, “Look my dear friend. I am blessed with plenty of wealth. I find you in poverty. So, take this cash and live in prosperity.”

Ramchand was overwhelmingly happy. He was joyful throughout the day. Night came. Ramchand went to bed as usual. But, to-day, he could not sleep. He went and closed the doors and windows. He still could not sleep. He began to keep on looking at the box of cash. The whole night he was disturbed.

As soon as day broke, Ramchand took the box of cash to Premchand. He gave away the box to Premchand saying, “Dear Friend, I am poor. But, your money took away peace from me. Please bear with me and take back your money.”

Moral: Money can not get everything. Learn to be satisfied with what you have and you will always be happy.

Think Before You Judge

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He answered the call asap, changed his clothes and went directly to the surgery block. He found the boy’s father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor.

On seeing him, the father yelled, “Why did you take all this time to come? Don’t you know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t you have any sense of responsibility?”

The doctor smiled and said, “I am sorry, I wasn’t in the hospital and I came as fast as I could after receiving the call and now, I wish you’d calm down so that I can do my work”.

“Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would you calm down? If your own son dies while waiting for doctor than what will you do??” said the father angrily. The doctor smiled again and replied, “We will do our best by God’s grace and you should also pray for your son’s healthy life”.
“Giving advises when we’re not concerned is so easy” Murmured the father.

The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy, “Thank goodness! your son is saved!” And without waiting for the father’s reply he carried on his way running by saying, “If you have any questions, ask the nurse”.

“Why is he so arrogant? He couldn’t wait some minutes so that I ask about my son’s state” Commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor left. The nurse answered, tears coming down her face, “His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was at the burial when we called him for your son’s surgery. And now that he saved your son’s life, he left running to finish his son’s burial.”

Moral: Never judge anyone because you never know how their life is and what they’re going through.

The Wet Pants

There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet.

He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it..

When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives. The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, “Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.” He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap.

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!”

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out.

All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. “You’ve done enough, you klutz!”

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

Susie whispers back, “I wet my pants once too.”

Moral: All of us go through all good and bad things in life. We should always remember how we felt when we were in same condition and should not mock others for being in it. Always try to understand their situation as if you are in it and help much as possible praying to god that today you are in a condition to help someone who needs it.

The Smartest Man In The World

A doctor, a lawyer, a little boy and a priest were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane. Suddenly, the plane developed engine trouble. In spite of the best efforts of the pilot, the plane started to go down. Finally, the pilot grabbed a parachute and yelled to the passengers that they better jump, and he himself bailed out.

Unfortunately, there were only three parachutes remaining.

The doctor grabbed one and said "I'm a doctor, I save lives, so I must live," and jumped out.

The lawyer then said, "I'm a lawyer and lawyers are the smartest people in the world. I deserve to live." He also grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the little boy and said, "My son, I've lived a long and full life. You are young and have your whole life ahead of you. Take the last parachute and live in peace."

The little boy handed the parachute back to the priest and said, "Not to worry Father. The smartest man in the world just took off with my back pack."

Moral: Your job doesn't always define you, but being a Good Human being Does.

Who's Deaf?

Sammy always worried about his wife Dolly. They were married for almost 15 years. While, Dolly was a village girl, Sammy was raised in a city. Although, they had a lot of cultural differences in life, Dolly managed everything to perfection.

The latest worry about Dolly was that she was losing her hearing. Sammy was worried that due to aging, Dolly was gradually losing her hearing capacity.

It happened one day, when Sammy was in the living room and asked for a cup of tea from Dolly. Dolly did not respond. He increased his voice and once again asked her for some tea. Still, he heard nothing from Dolly. He got up and slowly walked to the kitchen and asked Dolly for some tea. Dolly was a bit surprised and said that she would bring it in 10 minutes.

A few days after that incident, Sammy had to leave town for a week. After his return, he decided to find out the extent of his wife's hearing loss. He discussed this matter with a doctor, prior to taking Dolly to the doctor. The doctor told him an easy way to find the extent of her hearing loss.

Sammy reached home and called for his wife, Dolly as he entered. Dolly was in Kitchen, preparing dinner. He heard nothing from her. Then he asked her from the entrance door, 'Dolly what's for dinner?'

Surprise! No response! All was silent.

He went to his room and asked her, 'I am here, what's for dinner Dolly?'

He sat on the sofa and asked her again, 'Dolly what's for dinner?' Again, it was silent...

He asked, her, 'What's for dinner' as he washed his face.

He then moved a few steps ahead towards kitchen and asked the same.

He tried with the question, 'What's for dinner' standing at different places at home to identify the extent of hearing loss.

He heard nothing from her. He then moved to kitchen and asked her, 'Dolly, what's for dinner?'

Dolly became furious at him and said, "I am saying it for the eight time. It is chicken, can't you hear it?'

Sammy went speechless.

Sammy realized that one should not get into conclusions or blame others without knowing the truth.

Sharing The Reward

There was a beautiful town. The town was led by a friendly and generous man, who is the richest person in the town. He was so generous that he always helped people and fulfilled their needs.

The rich man was happy that he was gifted with a son. He was married before 10 years and did not have a child for so many years. In order to celebrate the birth of his child, he arranged for a massive feast to all the people in the town.

He appointed famous cooks from various parts of the country and ordered them to serve more than 100 varieties of foods to the villagers.

The cooks and their assistants started cooking the feast. While they managed to have majority of foods, they weren't able to get fish, a special delicacy.

The rich man, on knowing this, announced to the people that he would reward enormously to the person who brings him the fish to complete the feast.

The announcement was made all over the town and many villagers tried hard to get fish. While most of them failed, a middle aged man got a huge fish and rushed to the rich man.

While he was about to enter into his palace, he was stopped by the gate-keeper. The middle aged man promise to give half the reward he earn if the gatekeeper allow let him inside.

The greedy gatekeeper considering the announcement of lump sum reward from his employer, let the man go inside with the fish.

The rich man was happy getting the fish and ordered his cooks to complete the feast. And he said, 'I'm so happy that you got me the fish here. Tell me what you want? I can reward you anything. You need a bag of gold coins? Jewelries? A home or a land?'

The man who brought the fish said, 'I want 100 lashes on my back!'

Everyone was stunned to hear this! Still, as promised, the rich man decided to reward him as he wish.

Before the servants were prepared to lash him, he requested the rich man to call the gate-keeper inside.

All are surprised about the connection between the two.

The middle aged man pointing at the gate keeper told, 'he is my business partner. He did not allow me take the fish inside and I promised him to reward 50 percent of what I receive, then he permitted me. So please, he deserves half the reward you are giving me!'

The rich man understood the reason behind the demand of 100 lashes. He asked the gatekeeper, 'I want to reward you fully that is asked by the man who brought the fish!'

The greedy gate-keeper had a big smile and said yes. The servant lashed him 100 times on his back and he was terribly shocked! The middle aged man was rewarded with gold coins.

>> Greediness will put you in trouble

>> Taking the short route to earn more or shortcut to success will not help you

>> Laziness doesn't earn you anything.

The Day Walk Made a Friend

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful and extremely amiable girl named, Walk. She was a good girl, but she never liked her name as all the kids around her made fun of her name. She ran away from everybody who teased her name and hence, Walk never really had friends. She would play alone all the time.

On a regular day, when Walk returned home from school, she finished her homework as soon as possible and asked her mother, if she could go out and play. Her mother said yes, but warned her to not wander and go far away from home.

Walk was happy that day; she went to her favorite spot near the river running just behind her house. Walk had this theory that wherever the river was splashing and moving, it meant that the river water was taking to her. Walk spoke back to the river in her own little weird way.

Today, when talking to the river, she said, "You are so fortunate river, as you get to travel different places and always be with your friends- ducks, turtles, fishes, and plants. I wish I had more friends and wouldn't be alone anymore."

When she was bored talking to the river, she would pick up stones from nearby and try to skip them across the river like her dad. However, she would fail most of the times.

She would then say to the river, "I am getting better each day. I am more of a thrower than a skipper." After many attempts at skipping rock, she finally finds a perfect rock, almost round, flat, and protruding at one end where she could hold and skip it in water.

She held the stone tight in her fingers, and innocently said to the river, "Oh dear river, If only I could skip this rock and make a wish, I would wish for a dear friend just like you, and if the rock skips all the way across you while wishing, I wouldn't be as lonely as I am now." Saying this, Walk whipped her arm back just like her dad had taught her and skipped the rock across the river with full force and dedication.

She watched the rock skip once, twice, thrice, and she kept wishing for a friend while counting. To her amazement, the rock went on skipping for the fourth, fifth and sixth time, and eventually on the seventh skip, it finally made it across the river on to the shore of the opposite side. Walk was totally taken aback. She had been holding her breath so hard and wishing so desperately that when the stone skipped the river and landed across she could not just believe her eyes.

Her deep thoughts and sheer happiness were disturbed when she heard footsteps coming her way. Walk immediately came to senses and started looking around. A little girl was tumbling down towards her. Walk panicked and started to run but she lost her balance and she fell off too. Rolling down towards the river, the unknown little girl and Walk fell almost on the same spot beside each other.

The tumbling girl was crying profusely and endlessly holding on to her knee. Walk pulled herself together and went close to the girl to help her. Walk saw that the girl's knee was bleeding. She said the calmest words to her, "It will be alright, I will help you clean the wound." Walk took some water from the river, washed away the blood from the wound, tore a piece of cloth from her skirt, and tied it around the wound on the knee to cover the cut. She politely said to the girl, "My house is nearby, let me help you, my mother will take care of the wound."

Walk helped the girl walk until her house. Once they both had reached Walk's house, Walk called out to her mother, "Mother, there is a girl with me and she fell down by the river. Her knee is cut and there is blood all over her dress."

On hearing this, Walk's mother came running out of the kitchen with the first-aid box. She made the little girl sit on a couch and started cleaning the wound. She cleaned her knee with an antiseptic and applied colorful bandages to lighten up the girl's face. She then enquired the girl asking her where she lived. The girl promptly told Walk and her mother that she had just moved in a house probably next door. All the houses looked so similar that she mixed up the one she lived in. Walk gasped and felt a hint of joy think about her wish.

The little girl looked at Walk and asked, "What is your name?" Walk was stunned and scared to tell her name because she did not want the girl to make fun of her name like other kids. However, Walk's mother replied, "Her name is Walk and I am glad she could help you."

On hearing this, the little girl began to laugh and almost happen to fall on the ground. Walk felt the pinch and she was on the verge of breaking into tears. Walk closed her eyes, and said to herself, "Is this the friend I get in return for my wish?" Just then, the girl stopped laughing and voluntarily said, "I am sorry for my manners, but it is absolutely funny as my name happens to be Run."

Walk gave a surprised look to her new friend and almost broke into laughter herself. Just to make sure she asked Run whether her name was seriously "Run," and she was not trying to make fun of her. Run reassuringly said to Walk, "You helped me and wiped my wound, why would I ever lie to you or even make fun of you."

Listening to these words, Walk felt tremendous happiness and was filled with joy. Her wish to the river had come true, and now she had a very good friend named Run.

Walk would never forget that day. It was the day Walk and Run became the best of friends forever.