The Elephant's Nose

There was a time, when the elephant's nose was no bigger than a boot that he could wriggle from side to side. But an elephant's child changed all that.
He was a curious fellow who asked ever so many questions.
He asked the ostrich why her tail feathers grew just so.
He asked the giraffe what made his skin spotty.
He asked the hippo why his eyes were red, and the baboonwhy melons tasted as they did.
"What does a crocodile have for dinner?" he asked one day.
"Shushh" said all the animals in a scared voice.
But he would not shushh.
By and by he met the Kolokolo bird. She told him where he could find an answer.
"Go to the grey, green, greasy Limpopo river," said she.
So off he went, carrying a load of bananas and sugarcane and melons. He'd be hungry on the way, you see.
After a week of trudging and budging he reached where he had to reach.
At the edge of the river he stepped on what he thought was a log of wood. It winked one eye.
"Excuse me, but have you seen a crocodile in these parts?" asked the elephant's child politely.
The creature winked the other eye and half lifted his tail out of the mud.
"I am the crocodile," he said.
The elephant's child grew excited and kneeled down.
"I have been looking for you all these days," he said. "Will you please tell me what you have for dinner."
SPLATH! Went the crocodile's tail back into the oozy mud.
"Come nearer little one, come nearer and I'll whisper," said the crocodile.
 The elephant's child put his head down close to the crocodile's musky tusky mouth.
And the crocodile caught him by his little nose.
The elephant's child knew he was in BIG trouble. He sat back on his haunches. And he pulled and pulled.
The crocodile splashed in the water and pulled and pulled.
They both pulled and pulled. And the elephant's nose kept stretching and stretching. At last the crocodile let go.
Bfuddudd!! Fell the elephant, right on his big broad back.
He looked at his nose. He could not see where it ended! It was loooong! So long, he could swish it around. But it hurt him awfully.
So he wrapped the nose in cool banana leaves and waited for it to shrink.
He waited and waited. But nothing happened. He could still swish it all around.
And so it remains to this day.
LooooooonG!
The Leap
Retold from the Aesop's Fables by Brishti Bandyopadhyay; Illustration by Shinod AP
One day a newly married couple threw a party. Among those who attended, was a man who claimed to be a seasoned traveller. He was an interesting-looking man with a weatherbeaten face. So, by his appearance, he did look like a well-travelled person.

But once he started talking, there was no stopping him. He bragged to anyone who would listen, about his exploits in countries across the world.

He spoke of many wonderful and heroic feats he had accomplished. "I was an acrobat, a magician, a lion-trainer and even a hunter," he announced in a booming voice.

 "I've fought with a tiger, shot an elephant...it's amazing the things I've done," he boasted.

"But friends," and here he lowered his voice for effect, "...it's what I've done in Samarqand that beats everything else."

"What did you do in Samarqand?" asked someone.

The man, who was waiting for that question, immediately launched into a long drawn-out yarn.

"There were two buildings facing each other, each at least 50 feet high. That's five storeys high. They were 10 metres apart from each other," he said. "Guess what I had to do?"

There was pin drop silence in the audience. "You didn't!" exclaimed someone.

"I did indeed," boasted the traveller. "I jumped from the end of one building to the end of the other. It's the highest flying leap ever recorded. Such a large crowd had gathered to watch. Why, people talk about it even now in Samarqand."

"Give us something to talk about too," said the host suddenly. "Why don't you show us how you did it? Try leaping between our house and the one facing us. They're barely five metres apart. Come friends, let's go up to the terrace," he added.

The traveller agreed, "Yes, that would be a good idea. I haven't done a good leap in years" And he started to walk with the others. Then he stopped. "First I have to visit the bathroom, though. May I?" he asked the host. And he sprinted off to the toilet.

Needless to say, that was the last time anyone saw the traveller in those parts again.