Birbal Stories # 31 - Back to Square One

As usual a lot of people were present in Akbar's durbar. A famous astrologer had come from a far away country.

He was talking about the Solar System and the Earth's shape.
At one point Akbar said, "If the earth is round, and if one travel strait towards one direction, he will come back to the same spot from where he has started the journey."
"Theoretically it is correct", said the astrologer.
"Why not in real life?", asked the king.
"One has to cross oceans, mountains and forests to keep the path straight." the astrologer said.
"Sail through the oceans, make tunnels in the mountains and use elephants to cross the forests." Akbar found the solution.
"Still it is impossible" said the astrologer.
"Why?" Asked Akbar.
"It may take years to complete the whole journey" said the astrologer
"Years? How many?" asked Akbar.
"I don't know. May be a hundred years or more" said the astrologer
"Don't worry I will ask my ministers. They have an answer for everything" Akbar looked at the ministers.
"Impossible to calculate"
"Around 25 years"
"Fifty years or less"
"80 days"
"Why Birbal, you haven't uttered a word" the king showed his surprise at Birbal's silence.
"I was just calculating the time required to go round the earth" explained Birbal.
"And did you get the answer?" asked the king.
"Sure." Said Birbal "It will take just one day."
"Just one day! Birbal, it is Impossible! Even it will take more than one day to cross our country." Said Akbar.

"It is possible. Provided you travel at the speed of the Sun" said Birbal with a smile.

Birbal Stories # 30 - Cooking the Khichdi

It was winter. The ponds were all frozen.

At the court, Akbar asked Birbal, "Tell me Birbal! Will a man do anything for money?" Birbal replied, 'Yes'. The emperor ordered him to prove it.
The next day Birbal came to the court along with a poor brahmin who merely had a penny left with him. His family was starving.

Birbal told the king that the brahmin was ready to do anything for the sake of money. The king ordered the brahmin to be inside the frozen pond all through the night without any attire if he needed money.

The poor brahmin had no choice. The whole night he was inside the pond, shivering. He returned to the durbar the next day to receive his reward.
The king asked "Tell me Oh poor brahmin! How could you withstand the extreme temperature all through the night?" The innocent brahmin replied "I could see a faintly glowing light a kilometre away and I withstood with that ray of light."

Akbar refused to pay the brahmin his reward saying that he had got warmth from the light and withstood the cold and that was cheating. The poor brahmin could not argue with him and so returned disappointed and bare-handed.
Birbal tried to explain to the king but the king was in no mood to listen to him. Thereafter, Birbal stopped coming to the durbar and sent a messenger to the king saying that he would come to the court only after cooking his khichdi.
As Birbal did not turn up even after 5 days, the king himself went to Birbal's house to see what he was doing. Birbal had lit the fire and kept the pot of uncooked khichdi one metre away from it.

Akbar questioned him "How will the khichdi get cooked with the fire one metre away? What is wrong with you Birbal?"
Birbal replied "Oh my great King of Hindustan! When it was possible for a person to receive warmth from a light that was a kilometre away, then it is possible for this khichdi, which is just a metre away from the source of heat, to get cooked."

Akbar understood his mistake. He called the poor brahmin and rewarded him 2000 gold coins.

Birbal Stories # 29 - The Blind Saint

There lived a saint in an ashram in the kingdom of Emperor Akbar.

He was believed to prophecy the future correctly, despite being a blind man.

Once he had a visitor who had come to treat their niece. The child's parents were killed in front of the girl's eyes.

Once she saw the saint, she started to scream loudly saying that that saint was the culprit. Angered by the girl's words the saint demanded the couple to get away with their child.

The whole day the girl cried which made the couple to realize that the girl was not lying. Therefore, they decided to seek the help of Raja Birbal.

Birbal consoled them and asked them to wait at the Emperor's assembly. Birbal had invited the saint to Akbar's court too.

Then in front of all the ministers he drew a sword and neared the saint to kill him. The saint in bewilderment immediately drew another sword and began to fight.
Thus by this act of the saint it was proved that he was'nt blind.

Therefore Akbar demanded to hang the culprit and rewarded the girl for her bravery for telling the truth even at the critical situation.