One day, Akbar was sitting along in his royal chamber. He was
in a bad temper. That very moment Birbal arrived there. Being a humorous
person, he cracked some joke which Akbar did not like.
He bluntly said to his brightest gem, “Birbal! Don’t you have
any other work besides cracking these stupid jokes?”
Birbal was extremely surprised at such an odd behavior of the
king. He still tried to talk to him.
But, Akbar said, “You just go away from here, Birbal. I don’t
want to see your face ever in this court.”
Birbal was deeply hurt. He was too self-esteemed to remain in
that kingdom after such an insult. He left the kingdom and took refuge in a
remote village named
Gokulpura. Nobody knew him in that village.
After a few days, Akbar realized his mistake. He started
missing Birbal. He ordered his spies to search for him but all in vain.
Finally, he made an announcement that
he wanted the royal water pool to get married. For this
purpose, the chiefs of all the villages were required to assemble in the court
along with the “eligible
bachelor ponds” of their villages. But the condition was that
the chiefs should fetch a blend of light and shadow with themselves.
The chiefs were utterly astonished at such a condition. Bound
by the royal orders, they all assembled in the court but without fulfilling the
required conditions.
The king fined all of them. Suddenly, his eyes fell upon the
chief of Gokulpura. He was carrying a worn-out cot on his head. “Hey, what’s this?” asked Akbar with a
smile.
“Majesty, this is a blend of light and shadow,” the chief
chuckled, “See, this cot is torn from many places. The holes in it are filtering
the sunrays which is
giving a partially dark effect.”
The king laughed and said, “That’s a good one. Now, tell me
where your pond, the bridegroom-to be is.”
“Majesty, he has arrived in your kingdom. He is waiting for
his bride to come and welcome him,” said the chief of Gokulpura. Now, Akbar
understood the whole
matter.
He was wondering how could the innocent chief of a village
think so cleverly.
He asked him, “Just tell me one thing, who gave you these
ideas?”
The chief replied, “Majesty, There is a person called Ramdas,
He has just shifted in our village. He suggested me all this.”
Akbar understood that Ramdas was Birbal himself in disguise.
He requested the chief to take him to ‘Ramdas’. The chief did so. As soon as Akbar meet Birbal, he
embraced him and apologized for his mistake. Birbal too was
waiting to return back to the service of his dear king. Within no time, he cast
off his disguise.
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