A Bottle of Dew (part 1)

Unit 1 of your book, Poorvi, is called Fables and Folk Tales. A fable is a short story that teaches a lesson, called a moral. A folk tale is an old story passed down for years, the kind a grandparent tells. 'A Bottle of Dew' is a folk tale, retold by Sudha Murty. Here is the first part, in short.

Rama Natha was the son of a rich landlord (a zamindar). When his father died, he left Rama Natha a lot of land. It is like a father leaving his shop to his son: the son should run it. But Rama Natha never spent a single day looking after the land.

He had a strange idea. He believed there was a magic potion, a magic drink like the ones in cartoons, that could turn anything into gold. He spent all his time and a lot of money trying to learn about it. People often cheated him by promising to tell him the secret, but still he did not give up.

His wife, Madhumati, was tired of all this. She was also worried, because she could see how much money he was spending. She felt sure that soon they would have no money left.

Then a famous sage called Mahipati came to their town. Rama Natha asked him about the potion. To his surprise, the sage said he knew how to make it, but it was difficult. Rama Natha had to plant banana plants and water them with his own hands.

Dew is the tiny drops of water you see on leaves very early on a winter morning. Rama Natha had to collect the dew from the banana leaves in a bottle. When he had five litres, the sage would chant magic words over it and turn it into the potion.

Rama Natha was worried. Dew forms only in the winter months, and each drop is tiny, so five litres would take years. The sage said he could plant as many banana plants as he liked, but he must look after them himself and collect the dew with his own hands.