Recently I went to one of the beautiful places in the eastern part of India, surrounded by hills and decorative rocks. Meghalaya, the abode of clouds.
As a geologist by profession, rocks attract me more than anything apart from this, I am always fascinated by mysteries and tales. So while talking to a local, I came to know about a beautiful story.
At an early age, there was a family of deity living in those highlands, one woman, and her four children. Three daughters whose names were Ka Ding (Fire), Ka Um (Water), Ka Sungei (Sun) and one son U Bnai (Moon), Ka Sngi and Ka Bnai were more beautiful than the other two elder siblings; it was universally accepted that no one is as beautiful as Ka Sungei and U Bnai.
In those days, the Moon was equal to the Sun in brightness and Splendor. Three of the children were very obedient to their mother. But, as U Bnai grew up, he thought that he must have more independence than the female folks at home, he stopped listening to his mother, began to roam in the remotest regions, in the land of goblins and vices.
Some times for many days, he used to wander without giving any information about his whereabouts to his family. Once he was out in the lands of darkness for a very long time, then one day, he realized he must return to his family.
When he returned to his home, his mother and sisters were happy looking at him, Ka Sungei, his sister saw him and embrace him with joy and affection; she was thrilled looking at her brother who had just returned after such a long time. Still, the darkness of the lands of goblins and evils shadowed the mind of U Bnai, he had lost the right perception of duty and honor, and instead of greeting her as his sister, he went to his mother and asked her for the hand of Ka Sngi in marriage.
That made his mother very angry and grieving. Ka Sngi, when she came to know about his desires, that made her angry, she was enraged because of his shameless proposal, she began to search for him, when she found him, in anger she lifted a handful of hot ashes and threw it on U. Bnai’s face. The ashes burnt the face of U.Bnai, left scars on his face to this day, ever since the light of the Moon has been pale, the Moon has the dark shadows, since that day the Moon never showed his face in the day time, because of the shame and guilt.
Like all other folktales, this story is also fascinating, but as a mature person, we know that tales are always something imaginary; if we use our logic, then there is nothing real in folktales or fairy tales.
But the story conveys a vital lesson which we all must follow, that is, whenever a person accompanies evils, bad peoples, his mind gets filled up with evil thoughts, and whenever a person crosses his/her limit, does wrong and injustice, keeps evil desires, one day that person loses his/her dignity and respect in the society, whoever the person is, the character is like a white piece of cloth, once a mark of ink appears on it, it stays forever.
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