The Tale of Sishir and Basanta - Part 1

Once upon a time, there was a kind and brave king who ruled over a vast kingdom. He had a beautiful queen and two sons named Shishir and Basanta. The family lived happily in their grand palace, surrounded by gardens and fields. The queen was kind and gentle, and she loved her sons more than anything in the world.

One day, while the king was away hunting, the queen sat by the window, knitting sweaters for her sons. As she worked, she looked out and noticed a sparrow’s nest on a tree in the garden. The mother sparrow was feeding her baby birds, and the queen smiled at the sight. But then, something tragic happened.  As the mother sparrow took off to get food again, a hunter shot her. The mother sparrow was fatally injured which eventually caused her death and she could no longer return to her babies.

After a while, the father sparrow got back with food for the family. He fed the baby sparrows, waiting for his wife to return back with food. When the mother sparrow did not return for a long time, the father started making sad sounds in the pain of his wife's death. The queen was seeing all this and was deeply saddened by the event.

A few days passed and the queen had almost forgotten about the incident with the sparrows. Some days later, the queen was again sitting in the window knitting, when her eyes fell on the nest. The father had brought a new wife in the sparrow to take care of the small ones. At first, the new mother seemed to care for the baby birds without any complaint. But as days passed by, she got tired of the babies and one day, she pushed the babies down the nest. The babies, unable to fly, fell down to the ground and were dead.

The queen was observing all this which made her feel a deep sorrow. Her heart ached as she thought about her own children. She wondered what would happen to her sons if something ever happened to her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she imagined her boys being abandoned and helpless, just like the baby sparrows.

When the king returned from his hunting trip, he found the queen crying by the window.

"Why are you so sad, my dear?" he asked, concerned.

The queen wiped her tears and told her everything that she had seen happen in the sparrow's family. She added, "I am worried what would happen to my sons if I were to pass.". Saying this she started crying.

The king tried to comfort her. "Do not worry," he said, taking her hand. "If anything happens to you, I will never marry again. I will care for our sons myself."

But the queen could not let go of her sadness. The thought of leaving her children behind troubled her deeply. Day by day, she grew weaker, and soon she became very ill. Despite the king's care and the best doctors in the kingdom, the queen passed away.

The entire kingdom mourned the loss of their beloved queen. The king, heartbroken, missed her terribly. For a long time, he did not even think about remarrying. But as time passed, his ministers advised him that the kingdom needed a queen, and after much thought, the king decided to marry again.

The new queen was beautiful, but she was not as kind as the first queen. At first, she pretended to care for Shishir and Basanta, but soon her true nature was revealed. One day, the two boys were playing in the palace, and their ball accidentally rolled into the queen’s room. When they went to retrieve it, the queen grew angry.

"How dare you disturb me?" she shouted. "You have no respect!"

Shishir, trying to be polite, said, "We’re sorry, mother. We only came to get our ball."

But the queen would not listen. She fumed and refused to give the ball back. After much discussion, Sishir took the ball from her hand and the boys ran to the garden to play. This caused the queen to be even more angry with the princes.  

Later that day, she went to the king and said, "Your sons have disrespected me. They need to be punished."

The king, who still loved his sons, was confused. "What happened?" he asked.

"They came into my chambers without permission and insulted me!" she lied. "If you love me, you must send them away."

The king was torn. He tried his best to convince his wife to let it go but the queen would not listen to a single word.  In the end, he had to agree to his new queen’s wishes. 

"If you truly love and care for me, bring me the hearts of the princes tomorrow.", the queen demanded. The king was devastated, but he could not find any other option.

The next day, he ordered his ministers to take Shishir and Basanta deep into the forest, kill them, and bring their hearts back.

The ministers were kind men and did not want to harm the boys, so instead of killing them, they left them at the edge of the forest. They told the boys, "Stay here, and we will find a way to help you." They hunted two deers and brought their hearts to the palace.

The boys, frightened and unsure of what to do, waited in the forest. It was winter and the young boys started to feel the cold. After a while, Shishir said, "I’ll go find some firewood to keep us warm. You stay here, Basanta."

Shishir wandered far from the camp and eventually found himself in a distant town. As soon as he stepped into the town,  an elephant led him to a grand palace, where the ministers and townspeople were waiting. They took him and crowned him as the new king of the kingdom. Sishir was very confused by all this and wanted to know what was happening, but he did not get a chance to talk to anyone right then.

Later that day, after a grand feast in honor of the new king was complete, Sishir asked one of the ministers about the situation. The minister said, "A curse has fallen into this kingdom. We need to appoint a new king every day because anyone who becomes one is found dead in the royal chamber the next morning. It has been years since a king has ruled this kingdom for more than a day. We just hope that someday a brave king will end all this and bring prosperity to this kingdom."

Hearing this, Sishir became a bit concerned, but he accepted the position of the king and thought about ending all this.

That night, while everyone slept, Shishir stayed awake in the royal chamber looking at his queen. The queen was gorgeous and he could not take his eyes off her. He could not sleep because of the fear of death and the excitement of what was going to happen. 

As the clock struck midnight, he noticed something threadlike slithering out from the queen's nostril. Sishir had not even got a chance to get surprised when the thread changed into a huge snake that started to move towards Sishir. Without giving a second thought, Sishir took his sword and cut the snake to pieces. He realized it was the snake that was causing the death of the previous kings. As the snake was dead now, Sishir felt relieved and went to sleep with his beautiful wife, who still did not have a hint of what had happened.

The next morning, all the ministers and townspeople had gathered in front of the palace to mourn the death of yet another king.  They tried to send the elephant to search for another king as they had no hope of the king being alive. However, the elephant would not move despite huge efforts from the people. Later, when Sishir came out of the palace, everyone was surprised. Sishir told everyone what had happened the last night. Hearing the story, everyone rejoiced and the kingdom grandly celebrated for a whole week like no one had seen before.

To be continued . . .