The Curse of The Bullock
Long time ago, in a small village lived an old woman with her daughter. While the old woman was hard working, her daughter was lazy and selfish. They had a bullock. “We should take proper care of our bullock.” The old woman would say. “Hah! Animals should serve us, not we serve them,” the daughter would reply.
There was a pond, at some distance from the old woman’s house. Every afternoon, she used to take the bullock to the pond to have a bath and to drink water. Meanwhile the lazy daughter would eat and sleep.
One day, the old woman fell ill. She requested her daughter to take the bullock to the pond. “It is very hot today, dear! The bullock must be thirsty,” said the old woman. “Look! I have some sweets here. I know you love sweets, dear. Take the bullock for a drink. While he is drinking water, you can eat these sweets,” the old woman added, handing a box of sweets to her daughter. The greedy girl agreed.
But as soon as she was out of her mother’s sight, the lazy girl tied the bullock to a tree and sat down to eat the sweets. The thirsty bullocks waited for the daughter to finish eating the sweets. “I hope she eats fast. I am really thirsty,” thought the bullock. But after having eaten all the sweets, the daughter returned home and lied to her mother that she had taken the bullock to the pond and that the bullock drank water from the pond.
The bullock was extremely angry. He cursed the daughter, “In your next birth, you may be born as a Chatak, a bird that drinks water when only it rains. As you kept me thirsty today, so will you remain thirsty.”
The Curse of The Bullock came true. In her next birth, the daughter was born a Chatak. It is said that a Chatak is a bird that waits for rains, remaining thirsty throughout the year, despite having water all around.
