When I was a little girl
\nMy grandma used to tell me
\nStories of times past
\nAnd people that lived long before me<\/p>\n
Stories of kings and queens
\nWarriors and sages
\nStories with lessons
\nAnd sometimes, a little reason<\/p>\n
Parables from Ramayana & Mahabharata
\nStories of Buddha and Guru Nanak
\nTales of morality from Panchatantra
\nAnd of course, tales from her village of old<\/p>\n
My favourite was Dukko
\n(That’s what you call a super old lady)
\nAnd her goats four with names all funny\u2013
\nHudere, Huneel, Hulay, Huran<\/p>\n
Once two thiefs, all cunning & mighty
\nDecided to steal Dukko’s goats
\nOh what a tragedy!
\nFor the old lady had no one but them<\/p>\n
But as they approached her house
\nLate one night
\nThe goats started bleating
\nAnd woke up their old lady.<\/p>\n
As the first goat spoke
\nDukko called\u2013 “Hudere”?
\nThe thieves were shocked!
\n“Did she just say- Who is there”?<\/p>\n
Not wanting to take a chance and being discovered The thieves more shocked than ever But as they did so, the third goat spoke And thus throwing away thoughts of stealing “She can see us still! And thus the thieves ran away Note: Here ‘Nazar’ means sight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a little girl My grandma used to tell me Stories of times past And people that lived long before me Stories of kings and queens Warriors and sages Stories with lessons And sometimes, a little reason Parables from Ramayana & Mahabharata Stories…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":843,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/843"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117312,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117295\/revisions\/117312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBoth crouched down, so as to avoid Dukko’s nazar<\/strong><\/em>
\nBut as the second goat spoke
\nDukko called\u2013 “Huneel”?<\/p>\n
\n“Did she just ask- who is kneeling”?
\nLet’s not take a chance and lie down
\nThen no way she can see us here<\/p>\n
\nAnd Dukko asked\u2013 “Hulay”?
\nThe thieves were both now frightened
\n“She can see us, she asked who lays there!”<\/p>\n
\nThey both started to make a run for it
\nWhen the fourth goat spoke
\nAnd Dukko called \u2013 “Huran”?<\/p>\n
\nAsking who is running!
\nShe must be a witch!
\nLet’s not come back here!”<\/p>\n
\nWithout looking back
\nWhile the goats bleated happily
\nAll was at last safe!<\/p>\n