Inside the Royal Kitchen

Who doesn't want to be a prince? Blessed indeed are the lives of the kid princes.

The type of food they crave for gets precedence over even the king's own preference, in the royal kitchen.

If they are tired of human playmates and fancy for simian company, there they are brought in ready, those trained monkeys.

And if they want to entertain those new playmates with choice food preparations, no force in the kitchen can ward off their fancy.

And for their tiny chariot — too small for a horse —, a ram can be provided for the same purpose.

And such indeed was the life style of the little princes in a certain kingdom of yore.

One day, the senior monkey called out all the other monkeys for an important meeting and addressed them thus:

"Friends, you are living in a fool's paradise. Bowled over by the choice preparations being handed over personally to you in the royal kitchen by the princes themselves, you have all turned literally blind to a great danger that is surreptitiously enveloping you all.

I am referring in particular to that ram, to whom an entry into the kitchen is barred. Yet, he dashes in, on and off, and has grown accustomed to the royal fare, snatched away by it from time to time.

And even though the ever alert cooks do try to drive it off by throwing at it plates, utensils, etc.,

— whatever that was available handy to them —, he has become a versatile dodger. He has indeed turned bold inside the royal kitchen.

And now I tell you of what is going to happen next, and you all better do listen very carefully.

There definitely looms ahead a certain day, when one of the patience — exhausted cooks, unable to find any handy metallic object, is going to fling a burning firewood, off the stove, straight at the ram.

And that would set fire to the ram's wool. The ram would then dash off to the adjacent big stable and would try to scotch off those flames by rolling himself on the hay.

And once the hay catches fire, the entire stable, including the royal horses, would turn a casualty.

Then, when the royal physicians are called in to cure the horses that had sustained burns, they will invariably recommend the brains of the monkeys, as being the immediate palliative and invariable alliative for the burns sustained.

The king will then have no alternative except to order to catch all of us monkeys, to get at our brains.

Hence my serious advice to you is that we should all leave immediately for our natural abode — by the trees in the forest".

The monkeys were aghast at the apparent machinations of the wandering mind of the senile simian. They laughed at their senior, stated their determination to continue to enjoy the luxurious of the royal kitchen and advised the old monkey to leave for the forest, if it so desired.

"If you all do not care enough for your own lives, that is your business. But I do care, for mine own's", declared the senior monkey, and left for the forest.

However, it took but a little while only, for the far-sighted prediction of the chain of events, as visualized by the senior simian, to materialize.

When a fire-brand flung by an exasperated cook struck with great impact, the coat of the ram caught fire. Roaring with pain, the ram rolled over the hay in the stable. While some horses bolted away and many neighing horses sustained grievous burns, most of the other high-breed horses perished in the carnage. And on the advice of the physicians, all the monkeys of the band were captured, and the extract from their brains was utilized to treat the burns.

The saddened senior monkey in the forest then planned for revenge. And one day, it went near a pond in search of water. However, it noted with great attention to detail, that all the footprints made were in the forward direction only and not in the return direction. Suspecting the presence of a crocodile, it thereupon approached that pond of no return with great care and drank its water — without entering itself into the pond — by the use of a long, porous stem of a lotus.

A gem-necklaced demon, however, materialized immediately above the pond.

"Congratulations, wise one. None, who ever came to this place, had shown brains of your calibre. I am a water-bound demon who subsists on all beings who enter this pond. However, I am helpless on land. Pleased by you, I am offering you any co-operation that you may desire from me. And in return, I want you to procure fresh victims, as food, for me" stated the Water-Demon.

The deal was agreed to and closed upon there, conditional to the presentation, as a first step, of the gem necklace to the old monkey. The water-demon acceded readily.

And when the gem-necklaced monkey returned to the capital city of the king, the entire town went agog with wonder.

"Where at, and how, did you get that gem-necklace?" asked with all eagerness the citizens, king included.

"There is a pond — called the Gem-Necklace Pond — inside the forest. Any one who wades into the pond at sunrise will find a gem-necklace for himself," replied the monkey.

"Please show it; Please lead us all to it," pleaded eagerly the riches-hungry citizens. The monkey obliged, and led them all to that Pond of No Return.

"Wait, friends. You all are to enter the pond at the exact moment when the sun has half-risen across the pond. Any deviation from that particular moment will deprive you of the treasure," cautioned the monkey.

And once they were all at the pond, the monkey however drew the king aside and whispered that he would be shown the exact spot where the earlier gem-necklace, — an extremely brilliant one — was obtained. Thereupon, the greedy king stood by the monkey and watched as all his subjects entered the pond at the exact, stipulated moment.

And they all became ready food for the waiting water-demon.

"Where are my men?" asked the shaken king at long last.

"They are all now at the very place where all my monkeys are!" replied the monkey, while explaining the entire episode.

"Tit for tat!"

"Never under-estimate the minds, feelings and capacities of the lesser beings".